Raw milk legislation vetoed in WI

[Archae]

Our governor Doyle vetoed a bill that would have allowed selling raw milk.

The risk is just too great.

[shraby]

1. Glad to hear it. There are all kinds of things we can't see

in raw milk. Cows are not clean animals. Especially when they lay down in a field where they have first fertilized it over the years.

[TexasProgresive]

2. Milk in the udder is sterile unless the udder is diseased

If the animals are checked for brucellosis and TB with attendant inspections of the milking parlor and milk room there is nothing to fear from raw milk. But the giant dairy co-ops fear the small dairy farmer and use their clout to squash them.

[trotsky]

3. Uh, why is this anti-"small dairy farmer"?

I dated a dairy farmer's daughter in college, spent lots of time out on their farm. They had their own pasteurizer (as most dairy farmers do) for the milk they used themselves.

Remember - yes, that milk IN the udder is sterile. But you're not getting it directly from the udder to your mouth, now, are you? Well, unless you're Tom Green I suppose.

[Archae]

4. A group was lobbying for this bill...

So that some dairy farmers could sell unprocessed, unpasteurized milk at inflated prices.

Complete with bogus health claims.
"Raw milk is better for us..."

[TexasProgresive]

5. The mega dairies lobby for regulations that only

those huge agribusiness can keep. In Texas nearly all small dairies are gone with just a few with 1000+ units (that's what the call cows). I have nothing against regulations to keep milk clean but everything against regulations that are in place to make it impossible for small family farms to exist.

The only livestock raiser in Texas who has a modicum of independence is the cattle rancher and they have to sell to an increasingly smaller group of buyers. Those who raise chickens and hogs usually have one market- and if that buyer stiffs them they have no where else to turn. All this has occurred in the last 30-40 years. Hormel, Smithfield, Tyson, Pilgrim and Sandersons have it all oh and I guess Armour.