Cal. raw milk legislation re-thunk

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Saying California's two raw milk dairies "got rolled by a state agency," a state assemblywoman is taking steps to repeal a strict new standard that the dairies say will put them out of business and deprive 40,000 consumers of unpasteurized milk.Owners of both raw milk dairies, Organic Pastures of Fresno and Claravale Farm of San Benito County, protested that they were never told of the proposed limit or given a chance to oppose it before the Legislature passed it without debate in October. It took effect Jan. 1.On Wednesday afternoon, Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures and Ron and Collette Garthwaite of Claravale plan to bring a cadre of scientists, doctors and raw milk consumers to present their case for raw milk to a hearing of the Assembly Agriculture Committee, where the limit originated.The committee's chairwoman, Assemblywoman Parra, D-Hanford, said she is introducing an urgency bill to repeal of the limit - 10 coliform bacteria per milliliter of milk. It was one line in a long bill tweaking dairy standards, AB1735.The bill was proposed by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, according to department spokesman Steve Lyle. It was put on the consent agenda, meant for bills with no opposition, and passed without hearing or debate.Parra said yesterday that she learned only after the law passed that the standard was controversial, that there were only two raw milk dairies in California, and that they had never been told of the proposed limit although department inspectors work with them regularly."How difficult would it have been to call them?" she asked. "At the end of the day, CDFA knew this was controversial."Parra said she expects criticism for pushing for repeal of a food safety law, but she's doing so "on behalf of these two dairies that I believe were rolled by a state agency. In the end, that's not something I could live with."Raw milk proponents say the coliform limit is impossible to meet, and that it's unnecessary because most coliform are benign, or even good for human health, and that raw milk already is tested for the kinds that cause illness, including E. coli and listeria. The department, which has a long history of trying to outlaw raw milk in California, said in a statement that "coliform do not belong in raw milk" and that AB1735 "went through the normal legislative process." If the agriculture committee votes to repeal the coliform limit, it would have to pass both the Assembly and Senate by a two-thirds majority as an urgency bill.Parra said the department is free to introduce a coliform limit as a new bill subject to legislative debate.E-mail Carol Ness at cness@.... This article appeared on page B - 7 of the San Francisco Chronicle