Bid in Assembly to repeal tough new raw milk standard

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Bid in Assembly to repeal tough new raw milk

standard

Carol Ness, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

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@....

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