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On a lovely, sunny spring day Suzanne the cow happily grazed on the Boston Common.A scene from the 1700s? No, it's 2010!
On Monday, May 10, the Organic Consumer Alliance organized dairy farmers and raw milk supporters on the Boston Common with Suzanne the cow. They rallied for a continuation of raw milk buying clubs that deliver fresh unpasteurized milk from dairy farms to members. The Boston Common event preceded a hearing at the Massachusetts State house regarding a proposed ban on raw milk buying clubs. Dairy farmers and raw milk customers asserted their rights to sell directly from the farm and to buy the food that they want to consume. Since raw milk cannot be sold in stores in Massachusetts, unlike some other states, buying clubs help customers get direct access to raw milk from the farms.
I grew up on a family farm with one Jersey cow. Our family drank raw milk and enjoyed the cream and butter. It's worth exploring the issues on unpasteurized milk as well as the opportunities that raw milk sales can offer to sustainable dairy farms. Find out what the laws are in your state, and make up your own mind. Click here to read an Ask Farm Aid column from 2008 on raw milk.
Greed of large dairy companies hoping to corner the market and a love of control by bureaucrats is why such things are banned in the first place. Rarely does "safety" provide the main impetus for safety regulations being enacted.
ReplyDeleteThe more raw milk the more foodborne illness I have to investigate. Go for it. Job security for me. Plus it is a great way to "thin the heard" if you will. Just don't kill your kids as they have now choice.
ReplyDeleteBeing farmers here ourselves,the government has their hands way too much on the farmers,telling them what they "should do and not do."We are regulated to death.Use to be fun to run your farm but now it is a pain in the a--.And mam try to pass on the family farm today,HUH!! forget that one.
ReplyDeleteDeborah Stewart,Canada