Bills to expand the sale of raw milk made it out of committee and to the full Michigan House of Representatives Thursday.
Right now, with limited exceptions, dairy products sold in Michigan undergo pasteurization, a process that involves heating the milk to kill off sickness-causing pathogens. Scientists and medical professionals have largely credited pasteurization for preventing outbreaks of food-borne illness.
The CDC and U.S. Department of Agriculture both warn there are several health and safety risks involved with unpasteurized dairy, and those risks can be especially dangerous to people with weakened immune systems, children, older adults, and pregnant women. The state agriculture department says pasteurization has "virtually eliminated" the spread of harmful diseases like diphtheria, streptococcal infections, typhoid fever, and tuberculosis through the milk supply.
But lately raw milk has been gaining popularity as part of a natural foods movement.
In January, when the Michigan bills went before the House Government Operations Committee, Chair Brian BeGole (R-Antrim Twp) explained an observation someone brought to him on the topic.
“Legally, a parent could take their kids and have fast food three times a day and we know that these foods are often times highly processed,” BeGole said. “But yet a farmer who wants to sell natural product, milk from a cow, directly to a willing consumer can’t do that, it’s illegal.”
The bills would let dairy producers sell unpasteurized products at farmers markets, farm stands, and other similar places with a warning label. Raw dairy would still be mostly banned from grocery stores.
State Representative Matt Maddock (R-Milford) sponsors the package. He said it would be a way for famers to profit off their work.
“We can allow people to have more choices and enjoy themselves and make farmers happy,” Maddock told the committee at the January meeting.
While dozens of people submitted comment cards in favor of the package during committee, nearly every agricultural interest that weighed in was opposed.
That includes the Dairy Farmers of America. Senior Vice President Jackie Klippenstein said allowing the sale of raw milk could hurt the entire industry.
“Whenever there is a news story about someone who's gotten ill from raw milk, it impacts milk consumption throughout the United States. Consumers don't delineate raw milk consumption from the milk they buy in the grocery store when there's an illness. And that's a concern for us,” Klippenstein said in an interview Thursday.
Several states, including California, Washington, and Pennsylvania, already allow for the retail sale of raw dairy products.
Klippenstein said she understood the desire for people to want healthier, farm-to-table options, but emphasized people can get pasteurized dairy directly from farmers.
“There's a raw food movement and they want to include dairy in that story. It's not the same. The CDC does not have an entire page on their website dedicated to eating raw carrots and the dangers that comes with that,” Klippenstein said.
The bills are now awaiting a floor vote in the Republican-led House of Representatives.
