The controversy over what is commonly called raw milk moved in the Indiana legislature this session with a bill (S.B. 398) to allow the sale of unpasteurized milk. Some people believe this product is healthier than pasteurized milk and want to be able to create a legal market for it. The dairy industry has opposed this idea. Doug Leman, with the Indiana Professional Dairy Producers Association, says it is a question of safety. He told HAT milk is one of the safest food products on the market because of the science-based system of inspection, testing, and pasteurization that is in place, “The farms are all regulated and licensed and inspected; the plants that process the milk are all regulated and licensed and inspected; and then the milk is pasteurized. Milk is safe and that is the way we want to keep it.”
Dairy farmers worry that allowing milk onto the market that is outside of this system would put consumers at risk of a possible contamination issue. Leman points to a current case in Pennsylvania where 45 people have become ill from unpasteurized milk. He said raw milk is not bad, but allowing the sale of a product that has not been inspected and regulated is a dangerous precedent to set.
The legislation is dead for this session, but Leman said efforts will begin to try and find a compromise between dairy producers and those who want to buy raw milk. He admitted that there are people who are very passionate about raw milk, “I am not going to say we cannot sit down and discuss the issue; but just to allow someone to hang a sign out and sell raw milk and be completely outside of the regulatory agencies of the state, I would hate to say just do it.” He restated that the current system of milk regulations is safe and effective. Milk is one of a very few food products that reaches the consumer having never been touched by human hands.
Efforts to gain approval for raw milk are taking place in several other states. Raw milk proponents in New Jersey are working to get a change in the law. The Garden State has one of the oldest bans on the sale and distribution of raw milk, dating back to early in the 20th century when it was linked to outbreaks of food-borne illnesses. Last year, the New Jersey Assembly voted 7-6 to allow some commercial sales of raw milk. But the bill died in the Senate Economic Growth Committee. Similar legislation is being pushed in Wisconsin, Maine, and Kentucky.
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