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Bill Proposes Restrictions on Raw Milk Sales (New York Times) By JAN ELLEN SPIEGEL Connecticut’s
Department of Agriculture had learned to live with raw milk — the
unpasteurized, unhomogenized milk that enthusiasts believe is good for you
but that health officials have long warned can put humans at risk of
disease-carrying bacteria. The state’s
raw milk regulations have been among the most liberal in the nation. But
officials proposed stricter regulations after an outbreak of E. coli last
summer, which the State Department of Public Health investigators traced to a
dairy in Simsbury that has since closed. The department confirmed seven
illnesses — including two toddlers who ended up on kidney dialysis — and said
there were another seven probable cases. “We felt we
had to do something,” said Wayne Kasacek, assistant director of the
Agriculture Department’s Bureau of Regulation and Inspection. A bill
under consideration in the Environment Committee of the General Assembly
would restrict raw milk sales to the farm where it is produced and farmers’
markets, which would put the state’s laws on par with most of the nearly 30
states that allow raw milk sales. The bill would eliminate raw milk sales in
stores. The bill
has sparked a spirited clash over food safety, freedom to choose what you
eat, and small business economics. “The
Department of Agriculture seems absolutely bent on putting the raw milk farmers
out of business,” said Representative Diana Urban, Democrat from Stonington,
environment committee member and a lifelong raw milk drinker. “I do
understand,” she said referring to the health concerns, “but I believe we
have adequate safeguards in place.” Erin
Barringer of West Hartford, whose daughter contracted E. coli from a child
who drank raw milk, according to health officials, is helping to campaign for
the stricter legislation. “It can be frustrating at times because I think
everybody’s lost sight of who the victims are,” said Ms. Barringer, whose
daughter, Emma, was 2 years and 10 months old when she got sick, even though
she herself never drank raw milk. Ms.
Barringer believes raw milk poses a public health threat and has solicited
support from national organizations like the Center for Science in the Public
Interest, which sent a letter backing the legislation. Raw milk is produced
in 14 Connecticut dairies and accounts for about one-third of 1 percent of
all milk produced here. Currently a dozen or so small stores in the state
sell it. Whole Foods in West Hartford stopped carrying it after some of the
tainted milk was bought there. The proposed bill would require stronger
warning labels advising of dangers to children and the elderly. A provision
that would have required farmers to pay for increased pathogen testing was
scrapped after a contentious public hearing last month. Health and
agriculture officials have tried to persuade lawmakers to ban the sale of raw
milk altogether, but those attempts have gone nowhere in the past. “This
legislation is going to kill me,” said Lisa Santee, owner of Foxfire Farm in
Mansfield Center, who said that she sells all her 100 gallons a week through
10 retail stores and that she had no place to put a store. “If you don’t want
to drink it, don’t drink it.” In trying
to galvanize supporters for the February public hearing, the dairies started
a blog and sought assistance from the Weston A. Price Foundation, a national
organization that supports the retail sale of raw milk. The dairies are also
in the early stages of forming a nonprofit organization to seek grant money
for independent monthly testing and writing a best-practices manual for raw
milk production. “This is
not a bribe, this is something we feel strongly about,” said Chris Newton,
owner of Baldwin Brook Farm in Canterbury, who said plans would proceed even
if the legislation is not approved. Mr. Newton and his wife, Mavis, bottle
about 125 gallons of raw milk a week, selling about half in stores. They said
they could not sell all of it out of their farm. Other dairy
owners said selling only on the farm might actually be good for their
business because they wouldn’t have to transport the product. “I spend
six days a week driving milk around to stores and a heck of a lot of stuff
doesn’t get done around here while I’m driving around,” said Chris Hopkins of
Stone Wall Dairy in Cornwall Bridge, which sells two-thirds to three-quarters
of its milk in stores. Kim
Piccioli, of West Hartford, who said her son drank raw milk from the Simsbury
dairy, said doctors told her that he may have permanent kidney damage. She
said that she had not been aware of the dangers of raw milk and that the milk
she bought did not have its required health warning label. “No one’s
taking it away,” she said. “We’re just putting some limitations on it.”
3-12-09 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/nyregion/connecticut/15milkct.html?hp |
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