Now here’s a good news story for a change. New Jersey legislators are seeing the light and talking about doing what their people want by legalizing raw milk sales in the state. Here’s a link to a video from NJ.com followed by an excerpt from a news story by Gene Robbins from the Hunterdon County Democrat:
New Jersey considers the option of legal raw milk.
”Some people might like the taste, or think they are drinking a more nutritious product. People who fear chemicals in the environment and cattle feed see it as ‘getting back to nature.’
Farmers think about the possibility of another product to sell to increase their incomes. Another group of people see it as a free-market, freedom-of-choice issue.
The issue is raw milk — that is, untreated straight from the cow. For years, it has been illegal to sell it in New Jersey, although there’s a movement now to release it from law’s ban once again.
Raw milk, which means it hasn’t been pasteurized and homogenized, could be a niche product health food to some people, said the N.J. Farm Bureau. It says a “small legion” of raw-milk consumers in northern New Jersey travel to Pennsylvania and New York to buy it.
Dairy farmers are split in their opinion: a few see a retail marketing opportunity, others feel there’s a risk that any health problem outbreak would damage consumer demand for all dairy products, says the N.J. Farm Bureau.
Dairy farmers spoke pro and con on the issue at a recent Assembly Agriculture committee hearing. Assemblyman Nelson Albano said his committee would deliberate, but with proper safeguards “in theory” he favors moving ahead with the proposal, according to the Farm Bureau.
State Sen. Marcia Karrow of Flemington supports the issue as matter of consumer choice. She does not like to see farmers here losing market share to colleagues in adjoining states.
Raw milk could sell for $7 to $12 a gallon, she said, in contract to the $3 or $4 a gallon for pasteurized milk in supermarkets now. Farmers could keep the money they make from the larger margin, and not be limited to selling all of their product under federal guidelines that bring them only pennies of profit per gallon, said Ms. Karrow.
She said the Food and Drug Administration is “stuck in the past,” before modern regulations and cleanliness standards. It was decades ago that some people got sick drinking raw milk, prompting the federal government to impose standards on milk sold between states. Individual states have the power to regulate milk sales within their boundaries, so the state Department of Health would have to write regulations on the way milk to be sold is handled on farms, she said.
Some experts warn of potential health problems for some people, said Nicole Schaldone, a registered dietitian with advanced study in gastroenterology and nutrition. Milk we buy today has been pasteurized, which means heated briefly to a high temperature to kill bacteria while retaining nutritional value, said Ms. Schaldone. In the process, it could lose a small percentage of nutritional value, especially B vitamins, she said.
But raw milk advocates say raw milk tastes better, and brings nature-pure protein and enzymes. Ms. Schaldone said raw milk could yield gastric upsets, headaches and fevers, especially for people with weak immune systems.
Pasteurization also extends the shelf life of milk as a product. “If you lived on a farm and drank milk directly from a cow, you probably wouldn’t have a problem,” she said. When you start putting it on shelves and opening up the possibility of growing bacteria, with a certain segment of the population, “you’re taking more of a gamble,” she said.
West Amwell dairy farmer Rob Fulper said the raw-milk option ’should be available to consumers or farmers. Whether I’d sell it or not, I’m not sure. I’d surely look into it.’….”
And further to this theme, there’s a new commentary on The Complete Patient blog that suggests the current economic situation and the contrasting option for farmers to earn a reasonable living from selling raw milk may be a prime driver for wider acceptance of raw milk in the legislatures and marketplaces of America. And why not? Here’s an excerpt from that post:
“…The disastrous market for conventional milk—driven by a combination of lower milk prices and reduced demand for organic pasteurized milk—seems to be stimulating new-found flexibility on raw milk in a number of states that had been ardent foes. The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund put out a newsletter Wednesday about recent pro-raw-milk initiatives in New Jersey, Tennessee, Vermont, and Connecticut, and stated: ‘The decline in pay prices for conventional dairies and the forced cutback in organic milk production by cooperatives like Organic Valley and Hood have made State legislatures more receptive to the sale and distribution of raw milk.’…”
Read that Complete Patient post here.
2 Comments
June 7, 2009 at 10:08 am
Re. ‘New Jersey may legalize raw milk’,
According to a registered dietician,
‘ “If you lived on a farm and drank milk directly from a cow, you probably wouldn’t have a problem,” she said. When you start putting it on shelves and opening up the possibility of growing bacteria, with a certain segment of the population, “you’re taking more of a gamble,” she said.”‘
I hope many farmers would get into direct retailing and not have to use distribution through dairies to stores. Then milk consumers can have some better idea for themselves of the cleanliness and farming practices of the milk producer. If healthy raw milk goes sour, it is not such a big deal — you can still use it in cooking. But pasteurized milk doesn’t go sour naturally — it just goes rotten and foul, and is dangerous.
Also, I know from personal experience that raw milk, if pure, kept in a sealed glass container, and kept constantly refrigerated, can last quite awhile. A joke in our family is how around 1970 we took raw Jersey milk from our farm in Perth County, Ontario where we had a state-of-the-art milking parlour, and brought this milk in gallon jugs to my grandfather a hundred miles away. We were delayed in visiting him as soon as usual and it was about a month later, we saw he was using the last jug — and it was still not sour.
My family’s ancestors came from New Jersey and my great grandmother started a purebred Jersey herd here in Norfolk County, Ontario since the 1890’s or earlier. I hope the people of New Jersey can have the choice of this valuable food option.
September 21, 2009 at 4:18 pm
”Some people might like the taste, or think they are drinking a more nutritious product. ”
What do you mean by “OR THINK”????
They ARE drinking a more nutritious product!
It’s interesting the past few years – public servants seem to believe they rule over the people of this country. Is this the actual USA any more, or has it been stolen by this group of self appointed royalty paid with our earnings?