Wisconsin touts itself as America’s Dairyland, and our production of milk is impressive. The Green Bay Press Gazette reports that Wisconsin’s milk production has been rising, with over two billion pounds of milk produced in March, from over 1.25 million cows.
That’s a lot of milk, and one might imagine that it would bring the flexibility to sell milk as farmers might wish. It doesn’t. The FDA bans sales of raw (unpasteurized) milk across state lines, among other restrictions.
Over at Reason magazine, and available online, there’s an article entitled, “Raw Milk Rebellion: How much business does the government have in the barnyard?”
Author Jacob Grier observes that
Though [raw milk producers], and their loyal customers’ devotion to raw milk may seem eccentric to some, the consumption of raw fish in sushi or uncooked meat in beef carpaccio is equally strange to others. And with consumer freedom increasingly under attack from busybodies on the left and right, it’s hard not to admire their rebelliousness and their resolution to drink milk in its freshest form. Though there is certainly a place for reasonable food safety laws, any regulation that leads to otherwise law-abiding farmers being shutdown or arrested has gone too far. With a growing movement of consumers demanding raw milk, the time has come for the government to get out of their way.
For those who want raw milk, there’s a clever, if cumbersome, workaround — purchase shares in a cow, and the milk’s yours, and you can drink it as you wish.
It’s unfortunate that even here, in a milk-producing powerhouse, the federal government restricts and limits what’s available for consumers.