A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
Rep. Nancy Ballance’s (R-Hamilton) raw milk bill, LC-1110, is in the “draft in input/proofing” stage, but the current text is available on the legislature’s website. Similar to former Rep. Champ Edmunds’ original raw milk bill that was whooped through the Montana House of Representatives two years ago, but, as I noted in my 9 December 2014 post, fortunately stalled out in the Montana State Senate, it carves out a small herd exemption that exempts holders of small herd permits from the “…licensing, sanitation, quality, and labeling requirements…” to which owners of larger herds are held.
If the bill becomes law, dairies with small herd permits will be able to sell raw milk directly to consumers — and they’ll be able to sell it without fear of being sued if drinking that raw milks sickens or kills someone:
Section 5. Consumer liability. The consumer of raw milk obtained from a permittee assumes all liability for health issues that may result from the consumption of raw milk or raw milk products.
Insofar as I can determine, the bacteria that make raw milk dangerous in large herds are identical to the bacteria that make raw milk dangerous in small herds. There is no scientific basis for differentiating raw milk from small herds from raw milk from large herds. There is no public health rationale for allowing the sale of raw — unpasteurized — milk, whether the raw milk is sold directly to consumers at the dairy or through resellers.
So why the small herd exemption approach? It’s to frame the question as a David versus Goliath issue instead of as a public health issue. “Take pity on these struggling tillers of soil and herders of cattle,” goes the argument. “Help them provide for their families by reserving for them a small market that industrial farms can’t disrupt. Let them sell raw milk to health food zealots, and relieve them of liability if their product sickens or kills the buyers or their defenseless children.”
Raw milk advocates also will attempt to frame the issue as one of personal liberty, as whether consumers should have the right to buy and consume anything and everything they want. If firearms were the subject, they would be arguing that they should be able to buy not only hunting rifles, but 155mm howitzers, .50 caliber machine guns, and Davy Crockett recoilless rifles with MK-54 atomic rounds.
In the last legislature, this argument — which is a crock — bamboozled Democrats and Republicans alike. Let’s hope that this session our legislators are smarter and more responsible.
This will be an interesting bill for HD-11 (map) Rep. Albert Olszewski, (R-Kalispell), a physician who sits on the House’s agriculture, human services, and taxation committees. He’s a surgeon, and no friend of bad bacteria. If faced with a bill to legalize the sale of raw milk in Montana, how will he vote?
