Raw milk bill high on agenda at Family Farms and Local Foods Education Day at State Capitol

by PegNews wire

• Tweet
• Email
• Print
• 3 Comments

Bills have been introduced to both the Texas House and Senate to allow raw milk dairies to deliver their milk directly to customer at home or mutually convenient locations, such as Farmers Markets.

When consumers and farmers from across Texas converge on Austin Monday to educate legislators on family farms and local foods, the pending legislation making raw milk more accessible to consumers will be high on their list of issues.

Bills to allow licensed raw milk dairies to deliver their milk directly to their customers at home or at a mutually convenient location like a farmers market have been introduced in both the Texas House and Senate and have already gained bi-partisan support.

In the House, Rep. Dan Flynn (R-2), who introduced House Bill 75, has been joined by Rep. Dennis Bonnen (R-25), Rep. Eddie Rodriguez (D-51) and Rep. David Simpson (R-7) as co-sponsors. Senator Bob Deuell (R-2) has filed the companion bill Senate Bill 237 in the Senate.

Currently Texas Department of Health regulations limit the sale of Grade A raw milk “only at the point of production,” namely on the farm.

“This means that customers must drive to the farm each and every time they want to buy milk,” explained Judith McGeary, the executive director of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Foundation and a supporter of the legislation.

“Actually, this makes the milk less safe,” she added. “Most of the people who buy raw milk travel well over an hour to get to the farm. In the middle of summer, the drive back can expose the milk to extreme temperatures.”

Much of the opposition to raw milk stems from a mistaken belief that only pasteurized milk is safe to consume.

“Processes like pasteurizing helped prevent some problems when they became standard almost sixty years ago, but a lot has changed and we now have the ability with refrigeration, stainless steel, and other advances, for farmers to bring raw milk safely from the farm to the consumers,” McGeary noted.

Pasteurization also robs milk of some of its naturally occurring vitamins, according to Christina Peteet, RD, LD, a registered and licensed dietician.

“Pasteurization happens at such a high temperature that it diminishes the vitamins and minerals that are naturally occurring in the milk. With raw milk, you don’t have that problem,” she explained.

McGeary noted that raw milk has an excellent safety record in Texas with only two reported cases of illness from raw milk reported by the Centers for Disease Control from 1998 to 2008.

“During that same time period in Texas, there were over 12,000 foodborne illnesses reported traced to such foods as strawberries, mangos, cake, beans, lettuce salads, salsa, cheeses and many other foods,” she said.

“Any food carries some risk of foodborne illness, but licensed raw milk farmers take extensive precautions to ensure the safety and quality of their product.”

The bills in the House and Senate preserve the direct farmer-to-consumer relationship by maintaining the prohibition on wholesale sales. They also keep the existing sanitary requirements for licensed raw dairy producers.

About the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance (FARFA): FARFA advocates for farmers, ranchers, and homesteaders through public education and lobbying to assure their independence in the production and marketing of their food, and to prevent the imposition of unnecessary regulatory burdens that are not in the public interest. FARFA also advocates for consumers’ access to information and resources to obtain healthy foods of their choice. FARFA promotes connections between rural and urban communities to support diversified, local agricultural systems. More information is at www.farmandranchfreedom.org.

Source: Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance

Tweet