A House-passed bill to permit the sale or distribution of raw milk by the farmer directly to a consumer is dead in the Louisiana Senate.
The lower chamber of the Louisiana Legislature easily approved House Bill 1279 on May 7 in a 78-19 vote. The favorable House floor vote came after the raw milk bill was recommended on a narrow vote by the Committee on Agriculture, Forestry, Aquaculture and Rural Development. But the bill died last week in the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare, which had safety concerns about unpasteurized milk. The move ends Louisiana’s “I Love Raw Milk” campaign for at least another year. It was the first time in a decade that the Louisiana Legislature had seriously considered changing its restrictive raw milk policy, and public hearings on the issue sparked the usual grassroots lobbying by raw milk advocates. But, in the end, it died on a 4-1 Senate committee vote. State Sen. Fred Mills (R-St. Martinville) was the only committee member to vote in favor of the measure. He tried to comfort disappointed supporters by explaining that “good legislation sometimes takes time.”
Veteran journalist with 15+ years covering food safety. Dan has reported for newspapers across the West and earned Associated Press recognition for deadline reporting. At FSN, he serves as Senior Editor and covers foodborne illness policy.
The management of a company which recently filed for bankruptcy has said the move was a “direct consequence of drastic measures” taken by the Dutch food agency.
Officials from Esro
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is forcing 200 Food Safety and Inspection Service employees to move from Washington D.C. to locations in Iowa, Georgia and Colorado.
The reorganization
That horse meat is banned in the United States is a fact that most of the world neither knows nor cares about. The equine food source remains as popular as ever outside the United States.
“I definitely feel that the way the previous administration approached Salmonella was important for us because it opened the door to awareness and made the industry more ready to accept some of the things that we will roll out.”
After one of the most significant public health events in U.S. history, pasteurized milk became almost universally adopted. But there are hold-outs, and raw milk and raw milk products are responsible for human illnesses and deaths 161 years after pasteurization became available.
