Organic Pastures, the nation’s largest raw milk dairy, has launched a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for allegedly turning its back on the dairy’s request for the agency to change its current law banning sales of raw milk across state lines. Raw milk is milk that hasn’t been pasteurized to kill…
Ohio First State to Gain Interstate Approval for Small, Local Meat Plants
Ohio this week became the first state to gain approval to sell meat from small, state-inspected slaughterhouses across state lines — a critical step toward rebuilding processing infrastructure for small-scale, regional meat and poultry producers. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan announced the news Thursday at a local foods conference hosted by Senator Sherrod Brown…
Injunction Against Raw Milk Dairy Imposes Many Conditions
The permanent injunction against a Pennsylvania farmer who was selling raw milk across state lines also imposes a number of conditions on him and his dairy that may have implications for other cases of interstate sales of unpasteurized milk, as well as for the legality of so-called “cow share” and “private buying club” schemes.
But …
Letter From The Editor: Commerce Clause
There are no words that cause raw milk advocates more heartburn than these: “The Congress shall have Power …To regulate Commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with Indian Tribes.”
It was this section of the United States Constitution – the Interstate Commerce Clause – that as recently as this week tripped up an …
White House Turns Down Raw Milk Petition
The Obama administration delivered its official response last week to the 6,078 signors of a petition on WhiteHouse.gov who requested federal-level legalization of all raw milk sales. The response indicated that the White House continues to support the current regulation of raw milk sales, which allow states to determine legality but prohibits its sale across …
Raw Milk Advocates Stage 'Milk and Cookies' Protest at FDA
About 100 raw milk advocates rallied outside of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland Tuesday, serving raw milk and cookies, to protest federal interstate regulation of unpasteurized milk. The rally was the culmination of a “Raw Milk Freedom Riders” caravan of moms transporting raw milk across state lines — from …
Raw Milk Advocates Plan Rally on Capitol Hill
Members of a Washington, D.C.-area raw milk buying group, known as Grassfed On the Hill, are planning a demonstration next week on Capitol Hill for what they are calling the “aggressive treatment of peaceful Amish dairyman” in the context of limited budget resources.
Dan Allgyer, a Pennsylvania farmer who supplies the group with fresh unpasteurized …
State-inspected Meat Can Now Cross State Lines
Foreign counties under trade policies can ship and sell meat and poultry anywhere in the United States. But if those same products are offered from domestic sources with anything less than federal inspection they are limited to their state of origin.
That may finally be changing.
It was almost four years ago that state agricultural …
Portland Shellfish Agrees to Interstate Sales Ban
Maine’s Portland Shellfish Co. Inc., and its officers have agreed to a consent degree that prohibits any of them from distributing seafood through interstate commence until they get federal approval for a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan, sanitation program and Listeria monocytogenes (L. mono) testing program.
“The continued violation of seafood HACCP …
Raw Milk Consumers: ‘Don’t Turn Us Into Criminals’
‘Don’t turn us into criminals’ raw milk consumers plead in suit against interstate ban
Raw milk consumers have joined forces in a legal battle against the federal Food and Drug Administration’s ban against the sale and distribution of raw milk and raw milk products (pdf) for human consumption across state lines.
The focus…