Raw milk vending machines in Europe

From Lune at the “Constant State of Flux” blog:

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We found the material for this post on the Salt Spring News along with the following bit of commentary:

“Having grown up on a dairy farm and having operated one myself, I’ve been drinking raw milk most of my life. It’s not automatic that raw milk is a safe product.

It’s the way the animals are husbanded and how the milk is handled that make it safe or not. That’s why public authorities should stop forcing the production and trade underground. Raw milk production and trade should be open and above board, subject to common sense regulations and testing. In more sensible nations, you can buy living milk with no impediment, and you can buy it direct from the farmer—good for him, good for you. Photos: A milk vending machine in France. Organic raw milk offered by the farmer to customers any time of day, any day of the week.”

And now from the Constant State of Flux blog:

“I HAVE CREATED A MILK MAP AND WILL BE ADDING MORE RAW MILK VENDING MACHINES I HEAR ABOUT OVER THE COMING MONTHS, PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT WITH THE LOCATION OF ANY RAW MILK VENDING MACHINES YOU MAY HAVE SEEN IN EUROPE, THANKS!

Italian Farmers have set up a country-wide system of raw milk vending machines you can see here on: milkmaps.com and one of my favorite countries, Slovenia, on the other side of the Alps is also starting to set up raw milk vendors. Austria, Switzerland and The Netherlands have started to install machines too.

Here’s one in Ljubliana, Slovenia. Thanks to: Lifeinluxembourg looks like these vending machines may be quietly taking over several European countries slowly but surely without us even realizing it. What a great enterprise for farmers, as they can obviously obtain more money selling milk this way than to the supermarkets.

Update, Summer 2006: A dairy farmer near Rome, Italy reports that as many as 200 farmers now offer raw milk—latte crudo—on the farm, using an automatic raw milk dispenser. Farmers must obtain permission from the local authorities and keep daily records on the amount of milk sold. Says our source: “Roughly 15-20 percent of consumers have serious problems with industrial milk, such as colitis and stomach pains. When they start to drink raw milk their problems disappear.” See his website. Italian farmers get three times as much for their milk when they sell it direct compared to selling it to the dairy company. “Producers are going out of business in Italy, but nobody seems to care. This could be a way to keep them in business although it is not the final solution for every farmer….”

“….This one is in St. Genis-Pouilly (74) near to Divonne-les-Bains in France. This looks like it could be a French vending machine, as opposed to an Italian one transported to France, so this gives me hope that more machines will be springing up around France soon! Thanks to Tethys and cernlove.org here is the picture (love the night shot):

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“This vending machine is in the Rhone area, not far from Lyon and from the look of the machine and from reading the farmer, Gerard Gayet’s site, it is originally from Italy. One liter costs €1.10, which is more expensive than the raw milk from the dairy near to us but still great value. The machine contains 300 litres at a time and is cleaned every morning and filled with raw milk from the farm’s herd of organic Brown Alpine Swiss cows. Gerard has three machines in the area. www.lelaitdelaferme.com…”

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Read it all on the Constant State of Flux blog.

Also via Salt Spring News:

“The dairy business in Canada is a dirty and corrupt business; the statements regarding the slanted activities of the milk marketing boards and the Canadian Dairy Commission are accurate; the marketing board system in Canada for cash crops of all kinds is open to corruption by payola. I know this because my family had several wars with both of them. We owned a national dairy company for more than 50 years in Canada, Silverwood Dairies. The raids with members in HAZMAT suits and other big displays of over-reactionary nonsense are typical of organizations that have become somewhat impotent in their own mandate. This is another example of the now-evolving and up-coming (world-wide) struggle over food and water for human consumption; who controls it and who dispenses it. – A comment appended to Evan Duggan’s article….”