[Avodah] The Last Nochri Who Owned The Milk

[Akiva Miller]

.
In the thread "Government Shutdown and Chalav Yisrael", R' Zev Sero wrote:

> But by the end of the long teshuvah that ends the series dealing
> with this, RMF had moved away from even that requirement.  In
> explaining why it doesn't matter that there is no "yedi'a berura
> which is like seeing" about what the farmers are doing, he sets
> out the real core of his chiddush, which is that the whole gezera
> only applies to the last nochri who owned the milk before it
> passed into the hands of a Yisroel. Assuming there is no real
> worry about treife milk (in which case no gezera would be needed
> because it would be a safek de'oraisa), so long as we have "yisrael
> ro'eihu" (which he defines as yedi'a berura) that this last nochri
> didn't tamper with the milk, it is cholov yisroel and we don't care
> about the previous owners. Thus, he says, since we have this
> "re'iyah" at the plant we don't need it at the farm.

Several others have written similarly, and I haven't noticed anyone
dispute it. But the logic surprises me, and I'd like to understand it
better. If "we don't care about the previous owners," then what is the
whole point?

I do see that RZS pointed to "the end of the long teshuvah", but there
are *several* long teshuvos in the Igros Moshe about chalav yisrael.
Can someone please show me more precisely where RMF writes these
things?

advTHANKSance

Akiva Miller