The raw milk fight has been heating up over the last year, with various states moving to legalize sales of raw milk. Raw milk dairy farmer Michael Schmidt’s fight and win in Canada has certainly been encouraging to raw milk enthusiasts, and the publication of David Gumpert’s Raw Milk Revolution, seems to have turned up the heat under the raw milk story, too.
But if I were looking for bigger watershed moments that mightactually change national opinion (or spark a deeper conversation), I’d watch the raw milk legalization debate in Wisconsin right now.
Why? On the level of newsroom fodder alone, the Dairy State legalizing raw milk would be great headline material. Other states have made it legal to sell raw milk recently, but Wisconsin has nurtured its brand as Ye Olde Milk Maid of the United States (for better or worse), so this state legalizing raw milk would be news.
Wisconsin is also a dairy industry stronghold, of course. Creating a raw milk “safety zone” here would be a big win with huge bragging rights for proponents.
Even if I’m wrong about all this, the raw milk bill is certainly sparking debate within Wisconsin itself. A hearing will be held on the state legislation this Wednesday, March 10, in Eau Claire, and the sponsor of the House bill, Rep. Chris Danou, D-Trempeleau, says the meeting had to be sited in a college auditorium, since a crowd of 300-500 are expected to attend.
If any FFF readers might be attending, please let us know how the meeting went. I’m particularly interested in knowing which dairy industry leaders show up to testify. We know that the Wisconsin Cheesemakers Association has come out against this bill. So has the Wisconsin Veterinary Medical Association. But knowing who actually shows up in Eau Claire will tell us how nervous the Wisconsin ag industry is about this bill, and how sharp the fighting will be leading up to the final vote.
Wisconsin Farm Bureau has officially come out against the sales of raw milk as well.
No surprise there. Why would they want family-scale dairies making any money when they called them outdated and instead are pushing the “modern” and “efficient” factory farm milk production technique?
So they did…
http://www.agriview.com/articles/2009/12/11/capitol_news/news05.txt
Here’s my 2 cents worth….
I grew up on raw milk right from our own tank. In general most fresh raw milk may not have deadly bacteria counts high enough to cause health issues, but the further down the line it gets, the more chances of contamination to happen. As a dairy farmer, I would not want to take the risk of providing raw milk to anybody. Even if the purchaser signed a waiver, (which probably would be worthless in case of a health related raw milk issue), the risk is much greater than the reward. There was a reason why pasturization was developed. Do you really want to risk the health of your family if you just happed to get a bad bottle of raw milk?
I actually don’t drink raw milk, but probably would if I had my own dairy cow. I’ve even thought about trying to train one of my calmest beef cows to be milked, but it would probably be more hassle than it is worth. My mother was cautious and always pasteurized the milk off our farm when I was growing up.
I do support direct sales from inspected dairies to consumers. If people are educated about the risk, they should be allowed to by it. I don’t sell any of my meat (except the smoked pork cuts) any way but raw. Who am I to decide what folks want to do with it?
I just think it is ironic that the rationale behind the Farm Bureau’s opposition of raw milk sales is that they fear an illness outbreak caused by raw milk consumption could harm sales of all dairy products.
This from an organization that strongly supports factory farms. In my mind, factory farms are the real pathogen that threatens family-scale dairying in Wisconsin. As more people learn about them, they are going to be a growing and indelible stain on the reputation of dairy products.