This article investigates the growing market for cow’s milk sold directly from the farm, often known as ‘raw milk’. Drawing on qualitative research with UK raw milk producers we add new insights to the sociology of food by demonstrating how knowledge about the ‘goodness’ and ‘purity’ of cow’s milk arises and becomes powerful in producer and consumer groups. Our empirical findings highlight that for a small proportion of producers and consumers, raw milk helps to provide visual, gustatory and sensory points of contact. These contact points, we argue, address some of the contemporary concerns that have arisen over the source, content and ethics of milk by bringing together the means and ends of the food chain. Importantly within this process, cattle and farmyards help forge a powerful entanglement that sustains the commercial exchange. Our findings show that messages about ‘goodness’ and ‘purity’ in raw milk provide a timely counterpoint to the distancing and separation that characterises many modern food chains.

本文调查了直接从农场出售的牛奶（通常被称为“原料奶”）的不断增长的市场。通过与英国原奶生产商进行定性研究，我们通过展示关于牛奶的“优”和“纯度”的知识如何在生产者和消费者群体中产生并变得强大，为食品社会学增添了新见解。我们的经验发现突出表明，对于一小部分生产者和消费者，原料奶有助于提供视觉，味觉和感觉上的接触点。我们认为，这些接触点通过将食物链的手段和目的结合在一起，解决了一些有关牛奶的来源，含量和伦理的当代关注。在此过程中，重要的是，牲畜和农舍有助于形成强大的纠缠关系，从而维持商业交易。