Update: Raw milk program Raid

[Guest guest]

" Anna Webb " <electricwind

Wed, 8 Mar 2006 15:21:01 -1000

Update: Raw milk program Raid

 

 

 

 

This may help to clarify what's going on in Ohio. Anna

 

Ohio Ag Dept. investigating raw milk agreement

 

By The Associated Press

 

http://www.chillicothegazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?

AID=/20060306/NEWS01/603060312/1002

 

Proponents of drinking raw milk say it's full of vitamins and soothes

asthma and other ailments, but only farmers who own their own cows

can drink the unpasteurized white beverage in Ohio.

 

So raw milk fans have turned to " herd share " agreements that allow

them to buy portions of a farmer's herd and get dairy products.

Now the Ohio Department of Agriculture is investigating these

arrangements, which an agriculture official says appear to take

advantage of a legal loophole.

 

Health officials say proponents' claims about raw milk are unfounded,

and selling it is illegal because illness-causing bacteria such as E.

coli can get into unpasteurized milk.

The agriculture department began investigating a herd share

arrangement in Darke County in western Ohio after a 63-year-old

Springfield man and a 4-year-old Kettering boy became ill with

campylobacter infections in January. The two had consumed raw milk

from a farm run by Paul and Carol Schmitmeyer.

 

Milk from the dairy tested negative for the bacteria, which can cause

diarrhea, cramping and abdominal pain.

 

About 160 people own shares of the Schmitmeyer farm near Versailles.

Shareholders say their ownership gives them legal access to the milk,

but they fear the investigation will lead the agriculture department

to take away the farm's license.

 

" I want to be able to have the choice to eat the most nourishing food

I can find for me and my family, " said Susan Warner, a shareholder

who lives in Montgomery County. " I'll do anything that I have to get

that food. "

 

Herd share agreements exist throughout the state. Christina Trecaso,

who lives in Summit County in northeast Ohio, said she oversees a

network that supplies raw milk to more than 120 families in the area.

 

" We know what we want, " said Trecaso, 36. " And there are ways to get

it. "

 

Trecaso is involved in the Raw Milk Producers Association, which was

formed by 10 Ohio dairy farmers. An estimated 1,000 families have

purchased herd shares to receive raw milk and other dairy products.

 

LeeAnne Mizer, the agriculture department's spokeswoman, says Ohio's

law does not govern herd shares specifically.

 

" There is no defined part of the law that talks about herd sharing.

It's a gray area, " she said. " But it seems like a way to get around

the raw milk law. "

 

Mizer declined to discuss the details of the investigation of the

Schmitmeyer farm, but she said under the herd share agreement, a

farmer would have to prove that the milk the shareholder is drinking

came from the cow the person invested in.

 

But Paul Schmitmeyer says shareholders are buying part of the entire

herd, not one cow. He said the state should develop a system to allow

farmers to be licensed to sell raw milk that would be tested by the

state.

 

Clean, modern farms produce milk that's safe to drink, Schmitmeyer

said. Pasteurization was needed a century ago when farms were dirty,

he said.

 

" That was a different time and a different place, " he said. " If you

would read half of the e-mails I have received, half of the

testimonials, you would know something has to change. "

 

Mizer said the state does not have the resources to test every dairy

farm.

 

Ohio is one of 23 states that ban the sale of raw milk. Ohio's law,

which went into effect in 1997, allowed only farms that had been

selling raw milk before 1965 to continue. In 2003, the last farm

grandfathered in under the law gave up its license after a salmonella

outbreak that was linked to the dairy.

 

State Rep. Arlene Setzer, a Vandalia Republican, is preparing

legislation that would allow consumers to buy raw milk.

 

Originally published March 6, 2006