Are New York regulators trying to put local raw milk farmers out of business

That’s how it looks, based on the information in this latest post from David E. Gumpert’s “The Complete Patient” blog. Here’s an excerpt:

Chuck Phippen of Breese Hollow Dairy with Sondra Sprinkling and Diane Phippen. Photo: Regional Farm & Food project

“….In my previous post, I described the latest example of a questionable finding of listeria monocytogenes in the milk of Chuck Phippen, owner of Breese Hollow Dairy in Hoosick Falls, NY.

It turns out that the finding isn’t just questionable, but very questionable. Here’s the story: When inspectors came calling at Breese Hollow Dairy on Tuesday, May 26 for a sample of the dairy’s milk to test for pathogens, Chuck Phippens wasn’t around. For good reason. He was at a meeting with top NY Ag and Markets officials to discuss, of all things, raw milk safety.

The meeting had been organized over many months by another raw dairy farmer, Jerry Snyder, owner of Sunny Cove Farm in Alfred, NY. Jerry hoped to gain some insight as to why there have been as many as a dozen listeria contamination findings at New York’s raw dairies, without any illnesses. “I’m trying to figure out how to address this whole issue,” he told me. “What are the safety issues?”