Penna. getting serious about raw milk!

[RandB]

This was in the Lancaster Farming paper for this week...might be of interest to any Penna. farmers on here-

www.lancasterfarming.com/node/773

[Shinsan]

Quoted from the article: "Chirdon said he has worked closely with Nolt over the past months, urging him to acquire a raw milk permit, which is free of charge, and even encouraging him to talk to legislators to change the milk law.

However, “I have a hard time changing laws when the current laws aren’t being obeyed,” Chirdon said."

I can understand Nolt's feelings, and to a large extent agree with him, however I think Chirdon's approach is the more reasonble: Why not get the free permit and work towards changing the current system? A straight-up confontration is counter-productive in this case.

[Julia]

Nolt's a fool. I had a raw milk license for years, and the PDA was very supportive and encouraging the whole time. The milk testing was itself a superb education in milk handling and producing a clean product. The red tape was minimal and the whole process was cheap. People in other states would give their eye teeth to have such a law in place giving them a chance to sell raw milk, and this idiot is playing at scofflaw. Geez.

[MELOC]

“We have farmers calling us and telling us it’s about time we crack down on raw milk,” Chirdon said.

i think the above quote has a lot to do with it. i am sure many non-raw milk farmers may be feeling or fearing the raw milk business impact.why compete when you can legislate and enforce the problem away?

i was disappointed that the article made no mention of the actual law and nolt's questioning of the legality of raw milk regulation in general. the article appears to be somewhat balanced, but i feel it is slanted against raw milks sales. another issue brought to light in this forum a few weeks ago was the fact that getting the permit again would place much greater regulation on nolt's cheese sales. i believe it requires the cheese to be pasteurized.

to me, this issue boils down to unneeded regulation. the article mentions some illnesses that may have been linked to another dairy...or not. the fact is that i could eat raw chicken and get sick. there is no law requiring chicken producers to cook the chicken before i buy it. i choose to cook it.

[BlueHeronFarm]

Wow. I know we discussed this all before, but I never knew the permit was free. It's $800 in Texas. I would be all over a free permit. Work on legalizing the other raw dairy products from the stronger position of already being a clean, legal producer.

BUT - if he's willing to fight the fight, that 's why we contribute to the legal defense fund. More power to him.