Broadly speaking, society is too money-hungry and scared to muster a healthy response.
It’s not really a coincidence that the major social upheavals came out from the 60s after the massive economic growth that followed WWII.
The more the 1% beats John and Jane Doe into financial submission, the more pliable they are.
To close the circle, back to the rise of Fascism that led to WWII, the basic underlying cause was masses that were poor, beaten up, hurt, humiliated, dejected and so on.
Things aren’t that bad, today, hopefully, but the parallels are there. Income stagnation for 50 years, social mobility nearby lows, and a host of other problems that essentially boil down to the tide changing in the 70s.
People sometimes go pick up water from certain public sources because the water is good quality – usually in the mountains – but I’m not sure this is what you’re referring to?
Of course you can find always find a kook or two that suffers from this or that delusion, but we should refrain from throwing everything in the same bucket.
Raw milk, like I said, even though it’s definitely a lot less safe than pasteurized is not a lunacy. It can certainly turn into one, if someone argues it has magical properties, because that’s a thing that happens with magical thought, independently of milk, raw or not.
Raw foodism in general has some problems IMO, though there may be more and less acceptable positions, so I’d be wary of throwing away the baby with the water, even though nobody’s ever going to convert me.
Oh yes, I know about food purists of course.
IMO though it is largely an off-shoot of the successful, commercial attempts to turn regular food into Value Added Food, it then percolates on the people who are sensitive to those narratives, usually part of a brand or “cool” image they want to project on themselves.
And if you want to tie this to the discussion about Fascism, call to (imagined, made up) traditions is something that happens with food etc.
I enjoyed reading your post, and this topic has been all over the place for a while, so why not.
PS: Just a post written in haste, please do not nit-pick too much.