Free Republic

The California raw milk situation is on the verge of becoming as dire as the state’s two producers predicted it would since they learned about AB1735 at the end of last year. Now the stage is set—Monday afternoon in California’s San Benito County Superior Court in Hollister—for a judge to hear a request from Organic Pastures Dairy Co. and Claravale Farms to issue a temporary restraining order barring enforcement of AB1735 and its coliform standard.

It’s not been an easy year for Ronald Garthwaite, the owner of Claravale Farm, California’s “other” producer of raw milk, with about 50 cows and five per cent of the market after Organic Pastures. Last June, he had to sell his Santa Cruz County farm because he was unable to get local officials to approve the permits he needed to continue in operation. He moved to San Benito County and quickly obtained all the permits and seemed to finally have found a new and welcoming home, with his partner, Collette Cassidy. As part of the move, he built a new...