Proposed Raw Milk Rules Will Hurt Illinois Family Farmers
By Wes King

[October 08, 2014]  SPRINGFIELD - On September 5, 2014 The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) released new proposed rules to regulate small family farms that produce and sell unpasteurized milk direct to Illinois consumers from the farm. Unpasteurized milk, also known as raw milk has become increasingly popular as more and more Illinois consumers are seeking to build more meaningful connections with their food, farmers, and the land as part of the burgeoning local food movement.

The proposed regulations would impose the same kind of rules and regulations meant for large scale multi-farm dairy operations on small family farms that sell direct to consumers from their farms, while also prohibiting those farms from selling raw milk anywhere but the farm.

According to the Center for Disease Control since 1998 in Illinois there have been only 2 small food-borne illnesses outbreaks for a total of 20 illnesses from raw milk with zero hospitalizations and zero deaths; one in 2006 that is suspected as being illegally imported out of state milk and one in 2010. An estimated 400,000 people drink raw milk in Illinois.

Meanwhile thousands of people have been sickened or hospitalized and have even died from consuming pasteurized dairy products, peanut butter, fish and ground meat. Many family farmers that produce and sell raw milk have quietly asserted they will not and cannot financially comply with the proposed rules and will either shut down their small businesses or go underground and continue to operate outside the food safety regulatory system. Furthermore, producers and consumers fear that this will create an underground “black market” of not only Illinois produced raw milk but out-of state raw milk with absolutely no oversight or traceability.

“These rules are a solution in search of a non-existent problem that will hurt Illinois family farmers and take away the consumer rights,” said Wes King Executive Director of Illinois Stewardship Alliance, an organization that advocates for local food and sustainable agriculture. “Not only will the rules hurt farmers economically, in the end they provide no additional protections for the public and might make things worse.”

The truth is, raw milk itself is not harmful. It is the mishandling of raw milk that may lead to contamination with food-borne illness causing microbes. When milk is being mass produced, and raw milk is being trucked in for processing from numerous farms, there are many different steps in which the milk has an opportunity to become contaminated. In this case, pasteurization is a convenient method of ensuring that all the microorganisms that could have entered the milk are destroyed. However, when raw milk is coming from a single source and proper precautions are taken, there is very little opportunity for contamination or cause for concern.

For years Illinois has operated under the framework and legal interpretation where if the consumer brought their own container to a farm that had dairy cows or goats, the farmer could sell raw milk directly to the customer without a license so long as they were not engaged in directly advertising and marketing themselves as a raw milk dairy farm. Over the last year or so IDPH has, for unknown reasons, reinterpreted the law to say that all raw milk sales, both on farm and off farm, are illegal, unless farmers comply with new proposed rules.

The 25 pages of proposed rules contain a number of provisions and onerous requirements, including:

• A producer with even just one cow or goat would be required to have a permit and would be subject to regular inspections and testing.
   
• Prohibiting unlicensed producers from giving milk away to friends, family and guests at their farms.
   
• Prohibiting herd-shares and the distribution of raw milk through community supported agriculture (CSAs) unless the producer is in compliance with all requirements for Grade A dairies which produce raw milk for pasteurization—a financially impossible standard to meet for just about all shareholder and CSA dairies.

Illinois Stewardship Alliance is calling on Illinois citizens to stand with family farmers and food freedom by calling on IDPH and Governor Pat Quinn to scrap these rules and protect consumer rights.

Illinois Stewardship Alliance is a nonprofit that promotes environmentally sustainable, economically viable, socially just, local food systems through policy development, advocacy, and education.

[By Wes King, Illinois Stewardship Alliance]

References

Department of Public Health Notice of Proposed Amendments

News release from Illinois Regulation

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Food borne Outbreak Online Database