Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: scientific method

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Rick Williams" <mrfarm AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: scientific method
  • Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2002 19:04:11 -0500


Rick Hopkins wrote:
> For those who want to see an indepth investigation into the
> Wisconsin direct
> marketing milk issue, see: http://realmilk.com/pr_071402.html

It does not look good for the dairy farm and their scheme to bypass the
previous rules. The WI DATCP (Wisc. Dept. of Ag, Trade and Consumer
Protection) has an active marketing branch and one of their directives is to
promote value added agriculture. It appears that someone in the department
thought that this kind of marketing would be a great new way to legally sell
milk and helped the farm with the initial program. On the other hand, The
DATCP secretary has to protect public health above all else as that has to
take precedence over a marketing plan. So they are caught in an awkward
situation.

Because Wisconsin does not want any diseases transferred through milk to the
consumer, the state has long had a prohibition against raw milk being sold
to the public. The reality is that raw milk has a myriad of health concerns.
There may be health benefits as well although most of the studies go back
many decades. Many dairy farmers have been and continue to drink their milk
without apparent ill effect. Actually, they do have some problems from time
to time, as there are going to be salmonella and various strains of e.coli
but most build up some immunity to the bugs on their farm as long as they
stay healthy and are not the very young or very old or have a compromised
immune system.

My personal view is that the state should have a certification program
similar to other states and have a caveat for the public that they may be
putting themselves at risk drinking raw milk but they (the public) should
make that decision and not the government.

There are two other points that should be made:

1) The reason that DATCP did not do further testing after the initial tests
was due to the fact that the DNA signature of the organism causing the
illness was clearly proven to be the same organism that was tested in the
milk.

2) It would seem that it will be impossible to get any kind of liability
insurance coverage. And even if the DATCP did allow for the sale of raw
milk, would anyone want to put their farm and all their assets at risk? Even
with the government allowing the sale of raw milk, if something happens to
a customer, they can easily sue the farmer.

Sincerely,

Rick Williams
Misty Ridge Farm
Dairy heifers and dairy beef graziers
Viroqua, WI

www.mistyridgefarm.com








Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page