A Pyrrhic Victory?

Dear Reader,

Last month,the Wisconsin state legislature approved a bill that would allow the sale of raw (unpasteurized) milk until the end of next year under certain conditions. As this issue of the Sustainable Times goes to press, Governor Jim Doyle is expected to sign it into law.

I have long argued in favor of legalizing the sale of raw milk on health grounds and - more important - for reasons of freedom of choice.

Opponents of the sale of raw milk claim it to pose a public health risk.

With all due respect, that is nonsense. It is true that raw milk can be contaminated with harmful bacteria, but so can any other food. Properly handled, however, raw milk is no more dangerous than eggs (also properly handled).

And even so, it is not a public health risk, but at most a private health risk. Air pollution from coal-fired powerplants is a public health risk because the public has no practical way of avoiding it. Drinking raw milk or not is a private decision.

But as I have pointed out earlier (in the November 2009 issue of the Sustainable Times for instance), the opposition to the sale of raw milk is really economic and comes largely from the industrial dairy industry that simply doesn’t want the competition from direct farm-to-consumer sales.

It has found a willing ally in the food safety division at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP).

Its bureaucrats have cracked down on farms that sold raw milk with a fervour that makes the Spanish Inquisition look like a bunch of slackers.

True, those farmers were violating the law. The fact that the sale of raw milk has been legal, with more or less severe restrictions, in more than half the states of the Union, is no excuse.

Still, DATCP’s crackdown was suspicious, to say the least, because it could not only stop the sale of raw milk, but it could put small organic family dairy farms out of business by withdrawing the grade-A milk license.

That license is necessary for the sale of any milk for direct human consumption, and thus vital for the survival of dairy farms.

But DATCP giveth and DATCP taketh away. Blessed be the name of DATCP.

It’s pretty much up to the discretion of the DATCP food safety bureaucrats.

And once it’s been taken away, especially as punishment for having sold raw milk, farmers have a hell of a time trying to get it back.

It seems that some DATCP functionaries can be a bit vindictive.

Which makes me doubt the effectiveness of Wisconsin’s new raw milk bill.
DATCP is in charge of regulations and the practical execution of the bill, and any extension will largely depend on that.

But considering that the sale of raw milk has been legalized despite DATCP’s strong opposition, one has to wonder how cooperative the department will be in making it work.

It’s not unlike giving Wisconsin Right to Life the power to regulate abortions in the state.