The real action on expanding access to raw milk, and nutrient-dense foods in general, is increasingly occurring at the local level. I just reported on latest developments in the Maine “food sovereignty” laws in an article for Grist.
In this article, Pete Kennedy, head of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund surveys initiatives at the state level, and it turns out there are quite a lot of them, including raw milk as well as food regulation from small producers and even GMO foods. A number haven’t advanced as far as proponents would have preferred, but there’s always next year, and eventually, next year turns into success.
By Pete Kennedy
Pete KennedyA number of raw milk bills have been introduced in the state legislatures this session. The bills furthest along are those in Iowa and New Jersey. In Iowa, House File 394 (HF 394) would legalize the on-farm sale of raw milk and raw milk products from unlicensed dairies was voted out of the House Economic Growth Committee and was scheduled to go to the full House for a vote. Supporters of the bill subsequently determined they did not have the votes for passage and withdrew the bill from the House debate calendar. With the Iowa legislative session being two years, the bill can be put back on the debate calendar next January without having to be either reintroduced or passed through committee again.
In New Jersey, Assembly Bill 743 (A-743) would allow the on-farm sale of raw milk and raw milk products (e.g., yogurt, kefir, butter and cheese) by a licensed dairy. A Senate companion bill (S-2702) has been introduced. A-743 has been voted out of the Agricultural and Natural Resources Committee and is going to the full Assembly for a vote.
No other raw milk bills have been voted out of committee yet. Bills introduced in Minnesota, Texas, and Massachusetts allow for delivery of raw milk, with the Minnesota and Texas bills allowing sale of raw milk at farmers’ markets as well.
Cowshare bills have been introduced in Tennessee and Massachusetts. The Tennessee bill clarifies the existing cowshare statute, stating that independent or partial owner of dairy animals can not only consume milk from that animal but dairy products made from that milk as well. A cowshare bill introduced earlier this year in Wyoming didn’t make it out of committee.
Other states where raw milk bills have been introduced include Oregon which has a bill that would allow the sale of raw milk and raw milk products direct to consumers and retail sale; and Washington, which has a bill legalizing the on-farm sale of raw milk by unlicensed, uninspected micro-dairies. Raw milk legislation will also shortly be introduced in Wisconsin.
In response to growing government power to regulate food, bills exempting non-commercial activities from any regulation have been introduced. In Wyoming, the Traditional Foods Act has been passed into law.
The Traditional Foods Act exempts from regulation not only events such as weddings, funerals, potlucks and charitable dinners but also any food “stored and prepared in a private home or a place other than an establishment…for family and non-paying guests.” The Act defines establishment as “any place…in which foods…are displayed for sale, manufactured, processed, packed, held or stored.” Establishment “does not include a home kitchen where food is prepared and stored for family consumption, or any other place equipped for the preparation, consumption, and storage of food on the premises by employees or non-paying guests.”
In Utah the Growing of Food Act (House Bill 249) passed the House of Representatives but was defeated in the Senate. The proposed bill affirmed that “the state recognizes the right of an individual, without federal intervention, to grow food for personal use by the individual or a member of the individual’s family, on the individual’s property, without being subject to local, state or federal laws, ordinances or rules if the food:
(a) is legal for human consumption;
(b) is lawfully possessed;
(c) does not pose a health risk;
(d) does not negatively impact the rights of adjoining property owners; and
(e) complies with the food safety requirements of this Title.
The Growing of Food Act also would have prohibited the confiscation of lawfully possessed food “unless the food poses a risk to health; of spreading insect infestation or of spreading agricultural disease.”
In Georgia, Maine and Wyoming, bills legalizing the unregulated sale of food directly from producers to consumers have been introduced. The Georgia Food Freedom Act would bar the prohibition or regulation at the state and local level of “the retail sale or distribution of unprocessed agricultural or farm products grown or raised in this state directly from the producer to the consumer as food for human consumption.” Producers would still be subject to zoning regulations. The term unprocessed is defined in the bill as “agricultural or farm products that have not been shelled, canned, cooked, fermented, distilled, preserved, ground, crushed or slaughtered.”
The Maine bill exempts products of the farm and food prepared in private home kitchens from licensing or inspection if the sale is made directly to an “informed end-consumer” at a farmer’s market, on the farm where produced or at the consumer’s home. The Wyoming bill, which was similar to the Maine legislation, died in committee earlier this year.
With FDA failing to require labeling for genetically engineered foods, legislation has been introduced in Tennessee to fill the void. The Genetically Engineered Food Labeling Act would mandate that food fitting into one of seven categories that is “sold or distributed in or from this state” shall have a label with the words “genetically engineered.” One of the seven categories is “dairy and meat products derived from livestock that have been fed genetically engineered feed or ingredients or derived from livestock that have been treated with genetically engineered hormones or drugs.” Violations would be punishable under the state Consumer Protection Act with fines of up to $1,000 per violation.
Lastly, Representative Glen Bradley has introduced a nullification bill (House Bill 65), entitled the North Carolina Farmers Freedom Protection Act. The bill provides that “All food stuffs or products produced for the purpose of consumption as nutrition, food (fruit, vegetables, meat, and spices), vitamins, or supplements, that are produced in and remain within the borders of the State of North Carolina, to include the producers, the means of production, and the produce, shall fall solely under regulatory authority of the State of North Carolina, and are not subject to federal regulation.
Section 5 of the bill declares that public employees employed at the federal, state, or local levels, “may not within North Carolina enforce the provisions of the federal statutes upon foodstuffs and produce in intrastate commerce.” Violation of this section would be a Class 1A misdemeanor. Under North Carolina law, there is no limit on the fine for a Class 1A misdemeanor; it is up to the judge’s discretion. Section 5 expressly refers to agents of FBI, DHS and FDA as well as Highway Patrol, sheriff’s departments, and municipal and county police departments.
HB 65 has been referred to the House Agriculture Committee. It represents the strongest response to the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act in the state houses this legislative session.
Updates on raw milk and other food legislation will be posted at www.farmtoconsumer.org.
Especially interesting is the effort in Tennessee to require the labelling of GMO-containing foods. This is something that should have been done years ago, but was hindered by Monsanto. GMOs are the real food safety threat! People have been drinking raw milk for thousands of years, but GMOs are untested and unsafe. They should be banned altogether, IMO, but barring that, there should at least be mandatory labelling so they can be easily identified and boycotted!
Tomorrow, the Blue Lake Rancheria Indian reservation store in Humboldt County CA get their first delivery of OPDC raw diary products, the citizens celebrate, and the FDA puppet staff at the Humboldt County Health Department all have heart attacks.
What a great day for 135,000 very remotely located, raw milk alienated, California citizens.
Mark
I concur with your thoughts on GMO labeling.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Cloned_Meat_and_Milk_Coming.php
Such technology as that in the above article will limit diversity, breed weakness and ultimately lead to catastrophe.
You as well as Lola may find the following speech interesting.
http://thefloatinglibrary.com/2008/10/14/men-have-forgotten-god-alexander-solzhenitsyn/
In the above Templeton address Solzhenitsyn states,
With such global events looming over us like mountains, nay, like entire mountain ranges, it may seem incongruous and inappropriate to recall that the primary key to our being or non-being resides in each individual human heart, in the hearts preference for specific good or evil. Yet this remains true even today, and it is, in fact, the most reliable key we have. The social theories that promised so much have demonstrated their bankruptcy, leaving us at a dead end. The free people of the West could reasonably have been expected to realize that they are beset by numerous freely nurtured falsehoods, and not to allow lies to be foisted upon them so easily. All attempts to find a way out of the plight of todays world are fruitless unless we redirect our consciousness, in repentance, to the Creator of all: without this, no exit will be illumined, and we shall seek it in vain. The resources we have set aside for ourselves are too impoverished for the task. We must first recognize the horror perpetrated not by some outside force, not by class or national enemies, but within each of us individually, and within every society. This is especially true of a free and highly developed society, for here in particular we have surely brought everything upon ourselves, of our own free will. We ourselves, in our daily unthinking selfishness, are pulling tight that noose
Indeed, the noose is tightening. Thats what happens when you try to pull a camel through the eye of a needle.
In biblical times the "eye of the needle" was a kind of narrow gate, into certain walled cities. To get the camel through the eye, one had to first unload it, walk the camel through, then bring the goods through the gate, to get into the city. In other words we have to get our priorities in order.
Ken Conrad
"Why Are California Regulators Turning a Blind Eye to Massive Groundwater Pollution from Dairies?"
The consumer would be able to make an inform choice if GMO labeling were mandatory.
I know exactly why….when senate hearings ( if any hearings get held ) are held to investigate these violations of water and air quality, the FDA sends out their CAFO PMO experts to protect CAFO owners.
I saw this first hand. The regulators are directed by appointees that are put into place by the dairy industry. Our last Secretary of Ag was just that kind of tool for big agriculture and their lobby interests.
This has gone far beyond corruption… this is status quo and it is their way of life.
Mark
Humboldt has their legal raw milk now…see this article.
It is interesting to see the reference to the outbreaks from raw milk quoted by the Staff at Humboldt County Health Department for 2010….when CA had no outbreaks and the staff was quoting from blackmarket underground raw milk sales far away from CA.
Again…the FDA drives the opinions and politics of Staff at the Humboldt County Health Department. One of the major games they play is using the fact that their are no national standards. Using the fact that farmers in the black market non tested confused markets do have challenges with quality. They exploit the confusion and encourage it…..
This is going to come to an end very quickly in the next 24 months with the establishment of Project RAWUSA. Project RAWUSA is being created right now as a non profit to teach raw milk production, establish volentary standards, establish certification, create and mentor farmers with Food Safety Progams and plans….Project RAWUSA will have a full blown teaching facility co-located at OPDC so farmers and consumers and all people can come and learn in a non profit environment all about how to milk 1 cow into a pucket or 500 cows into a milk line with chillers and bottlers. Farmers will learn how to teach and market raw milk. These are all huge weaknesses in the Raw Milk evolution that is taking place.
Stay tuned….no more confusion. No more FDA exploitation of confusion as a weakness in the raw milk production or consumption markets.
The story above says that OPDC is from Chico….this is an error…OPDC is from Fresno.
Mark
To all of you that are doing good work for nutrient-dense food, may God bless you and keep you, and make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
And to those that set traps for those that are doing good, may you fall into your own traps. And be soon forgotten.
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
Yeah, right. In British Columbia, the identities of people who have HIV are hidden by law. Supposedly, AIDS is so virulent that untold amounts of $$ are appropriated from our taxes to combat it, yet its carriers walk among us. Meanwhile, anyone who even associates with a raw milk drinker is to be avoided? !!
This is ominous … the vaccine merchandisers use the same argument ; no freedom of choice is allowed when the public health of the herd, MIGHT BE jeopardized
This is 100% about inhibition of desimination of good information and the protection of faultering market share. The Milk Mafia has been so strong for so long, they do not know what to do about truths that conflict with sterile food dogma. They are freaking out about Pasteurized Milk being listed as the top most allergenic food in America for children….yet Raw Milk is not allergenic and conversely stablizes MAST cells and combats allergies and Asthma.
So all the FDA BS about communication of pathogens from diaper to diaper changer is literally a load of crap. The Humboldt County Health Department tried to sell the Humboldt Board of Supervisors with some junk science and irrevelant stats on some one person that got sick after changing diapers of a baby that drank raw milk, sadly this argument worked along with lots of others. But,….the Blue Lake Indians did not buy it.
This would be an outrageous near hilarious spoof….if it were not a true statement of an actual health offier at a Board of Supervisors hearing.
Wash your hands with normal fat based soap and warm water and do not use Triclosan.
Remember….you can not make up this stuff….these are the desparate actions of a dying product….white liquid dead CAFO cereal lubricant is dying.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_jSTeDrbLy7I/SF2MOW6MiBI/AAAAAAAAAC4/mrkOOa5Dsk8/s320/annual_values_graph.jpg
Graphs like these make for desparate actions and lots of lies. The FDA being the greatest FOOD Inc liars on earth.
Mark