In regard to JW's and blood, I was thinking about something that Jourles said in another thread:
If there is one single argument to present to jw's, it is regarding the initial mother-child breast feeding period.
Ask any jw if they would intentionally feed their child(via mouth) a WTS banned blood component. You should get a 100% emphatic, No. Then ask them why. Like the robots they are, they will quote Acts word for word. The more knowledgeable ones might even bring up the WTS reasoning of ingesting blood as a way to nourish the body(remember this particular point!). Now that you have rigged your trap, it is time to trigger it.
Using any medical resource available to you(or, let the jw pick their own), ask them to read/research what is contained in colostrum - the initial mother's milk after the child is first born. More than likely, they will come across the term, leukocyte.
Human colostrum contains more white blood cells (Leukocytes, specifically Neutrophils) by volume than does blood itself. This presents a glaring contradiction, because JW's have for years, appealed to "Natural processes" in the allowance of certain blood components. Plasma protiens, for example were allowed based upon transference across the syncytial membrane during gestation. Yet white blood cells, which are directly consumed by lactation, which is about as "Natural" a process as you are ever likely to run across, are forbidden.
Without a very good explanation from the JW organization, the natural corollaries here are twofold. First, JW appeals to the maternal/fetal relationship in the allowance of certain blood components are strictly an argument of convenience and the JW organization is hypocritical for failing to apply it evenly. Second and more importantly, the entire transfusion medicine taboo is flawed at a very basic level.
What does this have to do with Watchtower Farms?
Well as most of you know, the JW's (At the corporate level) placed a great deal of emphasis on self sufficiency at one time. Watchtower Farms produced food for the Bethel tables, with the apparent thought that this would enable operations to continue during "Difficult times." This included dairy products.
Testing the milk is basic to monitoring and maintaining the health of dairy cattle. One of these tests is called the, "California Mastitis Test" and this particular test counts the number of (You guessed it...) white blood cells in milk.
This reading is called the SCC. (Somatic Cell Count) An elevated SCC is indicative of infection of the udder, (Mastitis) and the animal giving the elevated count needs to be treated and the milk discarded. (Current USDA standards allow an SCC of 750K/cm3 for cow's milk and 1000K/cm3 for goat's milk.) This test is not optional if your herd produces milk for human consumption.
What is the point to all of this?
Well, we could forgive an organization of "City boys" who, having never been any closer to a Norwegian Red or a Guernsey than pictures, did not undertand the impact this simple fact of life would have on the religious notion that God has forbade the "Taking In" of certain blood components.
But how can we forgive an organization with firsthand experience in the farming business?