Free Republic

A proposed Maryland bill would restore the right of the states’ citizens to participate in cow shares, or cow boarding, to obtain raw milk. Maryland citizens lost the right to raw milk via cow shares in 2006, when the appointed director of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene redefined the word “sale” to include agistments. A hearing on the bill is scheduled for January 28 at 1:00pm at the Lowe House Office Building in Annapolis. Cow shares or cow boarding refers to a practice in which people buy shares in individual animals for a portion of the milk...

Yesterday (Monday) Andrea received a call from an inspector with the New York Department of Food and Markets in Albany that he planned to come by the farm for a special inspection, based on “a complaint” made to the department’s Division of Milk Control and Dairy Services. Andrea couldn’t imagine who might have complained, and what the complaint might have been about.

The latest battle in the raw milk wars broke out today in south-central Pennsylvania. A group of ten state police and agents from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) descended on the 100-acre Nature’s Sunlight Farm in Newville, and confiscated about $25,000 worth of raw milk products, along with packaging and equipment. Though Pennsylvania is supposedly one of the more liberal states with regard to raw milk distribution, allowing farmers with permits to sell it not only from their farms and in farmers markets, but also in retail establishments, farmers say the...

Not registering By Jim Massey Editor MADISON — The May 1 deadline for Wisconsin dairy farmers to register their premises under threat of not having their milk-shipping licenses renewed is on hold. A standing-room-only crowd of about 75 people on April 25 voiced their discontent and heard an update about the premises registration issue. A group of Wisconsin farmers — mostly dairy producers — have expressed concerns about the mandatory premises program and the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection's plan to not renew dairy farm licenses for unregistered farms. Concerns expressed at the March DATCP board meeting prompted...

The parents of a young boy hospitalized by illness they think was caused by raw milk experience provide a diary-like account of their experience with the healthcare system. This is Part 1 of a two-part item.

David Hochstetler is the Indiana Amish farmer at the center of a government campaign against cow share owners in Michigan. The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just sent him a warning letter against sending his milk into Michigan or Illinois in violation of "interstate commerce." He expresses his sense of anguish about the government's move, including his worries about not being able to pass the farm on to his son and not being able to provide a powerful natural food to consumers desperate for it.

The Raw Milk Wars Heat Up in Ohio The state is aggressively pursuing farmers who make unpasteurized milk available to consumers. Will a Democratic governor declare a cease-fire? Going Underground So intense is ODA's campaign against raw milk, the agency earlier this year even sent a written warning to Organic Pastures Dairy, the Fresno, Calif., dairy that tangled with California agriculture officials?against selling raw milk via mail order to Ohio residents. ODA's spokesperson readily acknowledges that it has no jurisdiction in California. Mark McAfee, president of Organic Pastures, replied to the agency that the FDA doesn't prohibit interstate sales of...

Every Friday morning, about 100 people show up at the Morgan & York wine and specialty shop on Packard Street to pick up their weekly orders of raw, unpasteurized milk as well as eggs, chickens, honey and other naturally grown food delivered straight from three Michigan farms. But last week, the members of a local food co-op waited in vain - the delivery truck never arrived. En route to Ann Arbor, poultry and beef farmer Richard Hebron of Vandalia was stopped by state police troopers, who seized his load of goods under a search warrant obtained by the Michigan Department...