Raw Milk Sale Brewing into a Political Battle

Should Americans have the right to buy and sell raw milk directly with no or minimal government regulation? This question has been around for years and it appears that a political battle is slowly whipping up over the right to buy and sell raw milk.

Early this month, Republican Representative Mike Kohler of Utah presented new legislation in his State House that would put significant restrictions on the production and sale of raw milk in the state. Kohler’s bill HB283 seeks to amend the existing state regulations of raw milk and add several operational requirements for producers of raw milk, raise testing standards, and increase penalties for those failing to comply with the new requirements.

As reported in Getrawmilk.com (February 1), Kohler’s bill follows some health inspections at a dairy producer’s in the Kamas Valley (southwest UT) last year that found elevated coliform bacteria levels in raw milk at the operation. This raised public health concerns and the dairy operation suspended its raw milk sales, switching instead to pasteurized milk until they set up a new raw sale facility.

If passed, Kohler’s proposed legislation would fine non-compliance with the new stricter regulations for raw milk producers with a penalty of $2000 to $10,000 and suspension of operations for up to a year on repeated violations.

On the surface, this concern with public health appears reasonable and regulating any item of food consumption for safety standards sounds like a responsible approach. But Kohler’s bill in UT is not an isolated case of bringing government into people’s kitchen. The raw milk regulation debate goes at least two decades back in a political context; the issue being people versus government and/or corporations that sell pasteurized/processed milk nationwide via retailers. Pro-freedom people want the government out of their daily – or in this case, dairy – lives, particularly those who have lost trust in regulatory agencies for their corruption and corporate ties.

Back in 2024, Politico published a story about how Republican lawmaker Jason Schultz of the Iowa House of Representatives fought hard for some 15 years for the right of farmers in his state to sell raw milk straight out of the farm. Eventually when Iowa legislature flipped decisively red, his bill was passed and people got the right to buy and sell raw milk. Of course the left-wing Politico didn’t sound happy with this development and reminded its readers that the FDA and CDC consider raw milk as dangerous for health. The story added:

And it’s not just in Iowa. Montana, North Dakota, Alaska, Georgia and Wyoming all have passed laws (or changed regulations) since 2020 legalizing the sale of raw milk on farms or in stores.

The raw milk fight is also on in Michigan, a state that only allows the sale of pasteurized milk. Last month, Republican state representative Matt Maddock introduced three bills before the state legislature to allow farmers to sell raw milk directly to consumers and the Michigan House Government Operations Committee held a public hearing on the issue on January 15. Democrats and representatives of regulatory bodies opposed Maddock’s proposed legislation. But more than two hundred citizens showed up to the hearing and supported the farmers’ right to sell raw milk directly to buyers. The committee ended up not voting on the issue.

A week later, the committee met again and voted to pass Maddock’s bills in a victory for those advocating for the right to sell and buy raw milk. They now look forward to the State House to vote on the proposed legislation.

The mainstream media continues to try to steer public opinion against the direct sale of raw milk by inviting health experts of their choice to warn against raw milk consumption. But independent researchers and health experts keep sharing their findings that dismiss the expertise of the establishment. There have been so many of these independent researchers who vouch for the benefits of raw milk and recommend it over processed dairy.