Raw milk vending machines in Europe

Every once in a while it’s good to remind ourselves that there’s another world out there across the ocean, a world where raw milk is not seen as a health hazard, and where it’s freely and legally available to people who want it. What a concept. We could do with some of that in North America.

From The Modern Farmer:

A raw milk vending machine in France. Image courtesy of blogger yeractual of polesapart.blogspot.com. via The Modern Farmer

“Europe’s embrace of raw milk vending machines isn’t new. Such daring dispensers of unpasteurized dairy can be found in France, Croatia, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands and, as one map shows, all over the place in Italy. In a recent post for TakePart, Rebecca McCray, a Fulbright fellow studying the criminal justice system in Slovenia, digs into the story behind one such machine outside Ljubljana.

Jury members write to judge about Vernon Herschberger’s sentencing

From David E. Gumpert on The Modern Farmer:

Jurors with Vernon Hershberger and his wife, Irma, outside of court. Photo via Modern Farmer

“The criminal misdemeanor trial of Wisconsin raw milk farmer Vernon Hershberger that drew national media attention ended more than two weeks ago, but Michele Bollfrass-Hopp, one of the jurors in the case, has been unable to get it out of her mind.

In the case, Vernon Hershberger, a 41-year-old Amish farmer, was put on trial for violating Wisconsin’s dairy and food licensing laws by selling unpasteurized milk. Cases in which farmers are prosecuted for selling unlicensed food for private use are rare. In one other case, last September, a jury of six people acquitted Minnesota farmer Alvin Schlangen on criminal misdemeanor charges similar to those facing Hershberger.