raw milk sales in Mich BUSTED

Any new info. on this bust? Where do things stand today, does anyone know?

Where would I find the regulations/laws about selling raw milk and cheese in Michigan? I'm guessing Dept. of Ag. Lisa

MICHIGAN
Summary:

Raw milk sales are illegal for human and animal consumption. The state is aware of at least four cow share programs that currently exist. While the state department of agriculture has not approved of any of the cow share programs, they have not tried to shut any of them down.

Michigan Compiled Laws
CHAPTER 288 DAIRY INDUSTRY
ARTICLE VI

288.538 Pasteurized milk and milk products required for sale or offering to consumer; exceptions.

Sec. 68.

(1) Only pasteurized milk and milk products shall be offered for sale or sold, directly or indirectly, to the final consumer or to restaurants, grocery stores, or similar establishments.

(2) All milk and milk products shall be pasteurized according to the requirements of the pasteurized milk ordinance and the time-temperature relationships described in the pasteurized milk ordinance.

(3) All dairy plant by-products used for feeding purposes for farm animals shall be pasteurized or be derived from pasteurized products.

http://www.realmilk.com/milk-laws-3.html

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In foreign countries, like Italy, they never even refrigerate their eggs. They are sold in the drygoods Isle. When I lived there I asked an Italian why they don't refrigerate them, and weren't they worried about getting sick. First he looked at me like I had just lost my mind, and then he told me that they never worry about that. In fact, In Italy, as with alot of other european countries, it is illegal to use hormones or anything else on their meat. Everything is organic, and they are all healthy, and there was never any scares with Ecoli or anything else.

In Croatia in 2001 I didn't see any eggs refrigerated either. They were sold at room/air temperature at a city market (some vendors made pyramids of them) and the village grocery market. My cousins just put their eggs in a basket on the counter. I asked my cousin if she every let one age too long. She chuckled and said yes, and the cat ate very good that day. There I only saw brown eggs. A light cream colored one was something special to them.

Hmmm. I work on commercial dairies, have for years, and wouldn't drink the milk out of a bulk tank. SORRY!

I pasteurize my own cows' milk, too.
Better safe than sorry, IMO.
Just my 2 cents ...

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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.

I wouldn't drink the milk out of a bulk tank at a commercial dairy either! We don't pasteurize Dolly's milk though. We know what we feed her and how diligent we are with making sure her udder and the milking equipment are clean.

To get an update, contact the Weston A Price Chicago Chapter Leader.

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Please note comments on Michigan regulations above. They were aware of milk share arrangements and not taking any actions - so far. What these folks were doing, IMHO, was wholesaling unpasturized milk and byproducts in commerce, and even inter-state commerce to Chicago. If you are going to share milk be VERY careful how it is structured.

Fresh eggs don't have to be kept cold. They have a protective coating on them until they get washed. After washing the protection off of them they then have to be refrigerated. USDA requires that eggs be washed so any eggs that meet USDA requirements MUST be refrigerated.

Eggs will absorb a small amount of any liquid that is applied to them. I would never wash an egg with anything that is not safe to drink. I have always kept my eggs at room temp and have never gotten sick from eating them. I give them a quick wash under running water immediately before cracking the shell. This is mostly done to clean any dust off the shells.

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We just got back from almost a month in Russia and the eggs in the grocery stores aren't refrigerated there. They just sit out on the shelf. They sell both chicken eggs and quail eggs that way.

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Though it be little, better to live in a house you hold as your own;
with just two goats, thin thatch for your roof,
you're better off than begging. ~ Hávamál

My grandma didn't refridgerate her eggs until she brought them up from the basement. They sat on a table in the basement for a few days to a month depending on how fast we used them. We always ate raw eggs in cookie dough and ice cream and no one ever got sick. We also ate rare steaks and hamburgers.

I know my backyard birds are healthy, and I also know how many sick and dying birds Buckeye Egg had in their Ohio based operation. They would send the sick birds to the processor right along with the healthy (????) ones. If big commercial operations produce such healthy animals, why do they need to be given antibiotics all the time??? And if their operations were so perfectly contained and properly biosecure, their swarms of flies would not be invading neighboring homes and farms.

One question... Why are small homesteaders above the law??? Are you special??? If you grow your own product and consume it yourself, its your business. When you sell it, your in business, the laws that govern the largest factory farm should and do apply to all... This country was based on the idea its not money or your last name, its a fair chance..... not fair success. I don't wont to live in a country where the laws or rules don't apply if you feel your above or too good for the regulations. big or small, commercial is commercial!!

We drank raw milk from the bulk tank on my parents's commercial (family farm) dairy all the years I was growin up and never got sick. I always drink it from the bulk tank when we go to visit.

It is a personal choice issue though, and having the choice is important.

I disagree with your statement that the "laws that govern the largest factory farm should apply to the small homesteader." Here's why...

1. Large factory farms medicate their animals to the point that it's dangerous to eat the food they produce unless it is treated to counteract all the chemicals they have introduced into the product. They medicate the animals because they raise them in an un-natural environment where disease runs rampant. If they didn’t use the chemicals they use, the animals would die living the way they do.

2. Very few if any homesteaders medicate their animals like factory farms do, therefore homestead raised animals produce products that are free of chemicals & contaminates. Homestead animals are usually raised in a natural environment where disease is not a problem. The animals are healthy and don’t need chemicals to keep them alive.

It does not make since to add chemicals to a pure product to try to fix a problem that doesn't exist. That creates a problem, it doesn't solve one. Homestead raised animals and products are pure clean food. It just don’t make good sense to introduce dangerous chemicals into a pure & natural product.

People in this country have been brainwashed to think it would be dangerous to eat or drink anything that hasn’t been produced in a factory. Pardon my language, but that is a big crock of bull sh*t that has been sold to the public to benefit big business. The truth is that the danger is in the processing of sick animals that have been pumped full of chemicals to keep them alive long enough to get them up to market weight for meat animals, or to keep them alive and producing more milk for dairy animals.

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I believe the difference is in the matter of degree to which homestead dairies should be regulated as less intense then a commerical dairy. For example an annual blood test drawn and tested by a veternarian and laboratory for at least cattle TB. I believe the state's USDA should set standards for how the milk is drawn and stored. For example requiing a separate, readily sterilized milking room vs stall milking and well as a requirement on how the milk is filtered and refrigerated from collection to customer distribution. The same milking (e.g., tit cleaning and sterilization) hygiene criteria should apply to both. I believe the state ought to be able to set and monitor reasonable bacteria levels. I believe the state ought to have the right to regulatate how the milk is presented at least as far as the source and perhaps even description, such as a homesteader labeling it as organic when they do not meet state organic labeling standards.

I suspect much of this would come down to the difference between A & B dairy regulations, with A applying to commercial dairies and B applying to homestead scale ones. Likely problem would be in at what number of cows does a homestead dairy become a commercial one. Also leaves open the question if a dairy can be both, selling to both the public and a milk plant.

WAIT A MINUTE>>>>>>>>>What a bunch of bull.......dems are the ones taking away your rights!
If you don't know this, you are truly connived by big media. Conservatives don't care what you do, as long as you are not porking someone of the same sex.
"total loss of freedom" is what we are getting now, hello, even my 8 year old knows that.

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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

<<Why are small homesteaders above the law??? Are you special??? If you grow your own product and consume it yourself, its your business. When you sell it, your in business>>

My grandmother lived on the family farm for more than 70 years, drinking raw milk from the tank.

Now that she has a senior apartment, she can't legally obtain raw milk from a small farm or the largest factory farm. And she lives in America's freakin' Dairyland!

That's the biggest problem most people have with raw milk laws.

I'm very careful about buying items with a state organic label. They may not be natural, that lable means the producer has used only "state approved chemicals". The state requires that "organic" eggs be washed with a chemical wash, and the chemicals leach into the eggs. No thanks, I don't do USDA organic eggs. If you want "real" organic, look for terms such as "pasture raised" "free range" "hormone-free" "natural". Talk to the producer of the product you are buying. Food buying is getting to be a bit like going to a yard sale. You have to search thru a lot of garbage to find the good stuff.

One thing that really stands out in your post is that I get the impression that you believe the state should be able to regulate us to death. Don't you think the PEOPLE have a right to buy what they want without having to say "mother may I?" I for one want to keep the freedom to raise and eat my own food without BB watching over my shoulder "for my own protection". If my friends and neighbors trust me enough to buy what I raise, they should have that right without prices being inflated by regulations. If I want to buy a feeder pig from a friend I should be able to without having to register my farm and put chips in my animals at who knows what expense to me!

I better shut up now before I get carried away and say something I'll be sorry for...

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"One thing that really stands out in your post is that I get the impression that you believe the state should be able to regulate us to death."

No, not what I said at all. What I am saying is there should be a balance between protecting the general public health and one size fits all regulations.

We've gone over the point about how small time homesteaders differ from large scale megafarms until I am SICK of it! Homesteaders do NOT allow the ALMIGHTY $$$$$$$$$$ to dictate how they run their operations! Plain and simple. I am more careful about how my animals are raised and slaughtered than someone who does it just for the paycheck. I and my family are the ones consuming the products I produce instead of the people WHO HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE. And I and other homesteaders do NOT receive federal funding or tax breaks just for producing or not producing our product. It really ticks me off when people say we homesteaders are on the same corporate levels as fatcat CEO's that care little about their employees and less about the consumers because, 'people still have to eat so they will still spend their money to buy our product no matter how crappy it is'. If my ducks and eggs don't sell we eat them. If the garden produce doesn't sell, we eat it or it goes to waste.

BTW, in Ohio unless you make a certain amount of profit (meaning above and beyond your costs) from your products you are considered a HOBBYIST, no vendors license, no sales taxes to collect, no govt intrusion. Are there any homesteaders here who regularly break even with "product" sales compared to the cost of producing their "product"????? Or are you content with producing safe healthy food for your families with a little left over to sell and offset some of the expense???

That's interesting - you mean after all the blind, brainwashed, big brother posts I see posted by homesteaders on anything to do with livestock and food you can actually operate a homestead as a hobby farm and enjoy a lower level of legal obligation?