When it comes to milk, some dairy farmers seek a raw deal

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When it comes to milk, some dairy farmers seek a raw

deal

January 18, 2008

By Hirschfeld Vermont Press Bureau

Amy Shollenberger, right, director of Rural Vermont, speaks about the

Farm Fresh Milk Restoration Act at the statehouse in Montpelier on

Thursday.

Photo: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur/Times Argus

MONTPELIER – At Applecheek Farm in Hyde Park, local customers fill up

mason jars with raw milk from a spout affixed to the family's bulk

tank.

It's a lucrative market, by farming standards. Farmers get $5 to $7 a

gallon for their unpasteurized, un-homogenized milk in Vermont,

significantly better than the $1.72 or so they're presently fetching in

the commodity market.

" If I could sell 50 gallons a day, that'd make just such a huge

difference for me, " said Thursday.

But can't sell 50 gallons a day. A Vermont law passed in the 1980s

sets a 25-quart daily sales limit on raw milk. On Thursday, in the

Statehouse, lawmakers and farm advocates unveiled legislation that would

abolish the cap on raw milk sales and allow farmers to advertise their

wares, a practice also prohibited under Vermont law.

Amy Shollenberger, director of Rural Vermont, said during a press

conference that the proposal will infuse the rural economy with a new

revenue stream and preserve the state's dairy farms.

Some health professionals and agriculture officials, though, urge caution

in widening the consumption of a product that has been linked to

bacterial outbreaks that can cause serious illness and, in some cases,

death.

" It's generally accepted in my profession that raw milk is a source

of bacterial pathogens that can cause illness, " Dr.

Donnelly, a University of Vermont professor and food microbiologist, said

in a telephone interview Thursday.

Proponents of the new legislation, which already carries 66 co-sponsors

in the Vermont House and Senate, may face some resistance from an Agency

of Agriculture that will have to weigh the economic benefits of raw milk

sales against public health concerns.

Farmers themselves say the new law would provide a much-needed boon for

struggling dairy farmers. Rural Vermont, a nonprofit organization that

lobbies on behalf of farmers, has identified at least 60 Vermont farms

already selling raw milk.

" The limits that seem to be put on farmers are really

incapacitating, " says Willy Gibson, with the Northeast Organic

Farmers Association of Vermont.

Bruce Hennessy is the vice president of the Vermont Grass Farmers

Association. He says his organization wants to take advantage of what it

believes is an untapped market for raw milk.

" We have identified that our membership is really interested in

having farm-fresh milk available to them, " Hennessy said in a press

conference Thursday. " There should be a choice out there for

consumers who want raw milk. "

Allbee, secretary of the Agency of Agriculture, said safety

measures will be a key part of any raw milk legislation.

" There needs to be safety protocols in place to protect consumers

and those who need to understand the risk, " Allbee said Thursday.

" We have an open mind, but we're particularly interested in the

safety aspect. "

Donnelly said people with deficient or compromised immune systems – up to

20 percent of the population, by some estimates – are more susceptible to

illnesses caused by E. coli, salmonella and listeria that potentially

exist in unpasteurized milk. She worries that increased raw milk

consumption may have a particularly acute impact on children and the

elderly.

" What are we going to do to protect at-risk consumers from the

potential dangers associated with this product? " Donnelly

said.

Shollenberger said the new law still keeps raw milk sales on the farm,

making it unlikely someone with a compromised immune system would

unknowingly consume raw milk. She also said a labeling provision in the

law would require farmers to clearly mark the milk as unpasteurized,

though she opposes a warning label per se. Raw milk purveyors would have

to be certified.

" It's about choice, " Shollenberger said. " If people want

to drink raw milk … they shouldn't be warned away from it. We're not

trying to force it on anybody. "

For farmers like , unlimited raw milk sales could change the

face of dairy farming for the better.

" A lot of farms feel like they have to get bigger and bigger to make

ends meet, and that makes it a real hard living, " says.

" It's my dream to reduce my herd and make it an easier workload to

bear, and this would certainly help with that. "

Don Neeper

Senior Software Engineer

SofTechnics, a METTLER TOLEDO Company

dneeper@...

don.neeper@...

http://www.OhioRawMilk.info/dneeper