The sale of raw milk for human consumption is legal in Nevada; however, a Nevada dairy cannot produce raw milk to be sold unless there is a county milk commission to regulate production and distribution; even if there is a county commission, the sale of raw milk and raw milk products the farm produces is legal only in that county, nowhere else in the state.[1] Currently, only one of the 16 counties in the state, Nye County, has a milk commission. A bill allowing statewide sales of raw milk, certified by a county milk commission, was vetoed by Governor Brian Sandoval in 2013.

The Nye County Raw Dairy Commission (NCRDC) formed in 2012.[2] Under state law, the commission must “adopt written regulations, which must be approved by the Director [of the Nevada Department of Agriculture] governing the production, distribution and sale in the county of certified raw milk and products made from it,…”[3] It is the commission that certifies the raw milk and raw milk products so they can be sold. The Director, as far as is known, never approved the regulations the Raw Milk Commission drafted and adopted in November 2015 [4] (per agenda and minutes for 11/18/2016) [5,6]. If the director had approved, a Nye County dairy would have had to comply with not only the commission’s regulations but also dozens of regulatory requirements issued by the Nevada Department of Agriculture that are found in the state administrative code, including extensive physical facility requirements—all this to sell milk in a county of around 56,000 people [7]; Nevada’s population is 3.2 million [8].

Herdshare agreements aren’t an option for raw milk producers in Nevada. Anyone selling or dispensing raw milk must have a permit issued by the state and be in compliance with all county and state regulations. Nevada law defines “sold or dispense” to mean “any transaction involving the transfer or dispensing of raw milk by barter or contractual agreement or in exchange for any form of compensation, including, but not limited to, the sale of shares or interest in a cow, goat or other lactating mammal or herd.”[9]

Sales of raw milk for animal consumption are legal but only if there is an “approved denaturant”[10] added to the milk; all the approved denaturants are toxic. There isn’t much opportunity for dairy farmers in Nevada these days, especially small-scale operators. There are around 20 Grade A dairies left in the state, ranging in size from 500 cows to over 25,000 [11]. Nevada dairy farmers have lost millions of dollars in raw milk sales to neighboring California; 2025 should be the year when the booming demand for raw milk moves the legislature to pass a law that actually gives raw milk producers a chance to make a living.

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1. Nev. Rev. Stat. Ann. 584.207 (NRS 584.207), https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-584.html#NRS584Sec207
2. Commission created in 2012 by “Nye Ordinances Chapter 8.40 Raw Milk Commission”. See archived Notice of Public Hearing on Nye County Bill 2012-15, originally posted July 17, 2012. https://www.nyecountynv.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=212&ARC=485
3. Nevada statute NRS 584.207, clause 3(b) https://www.leg.state.nv.us/division/legal/lawlibrary/NRS/NRS-584.html#NRS584Sec207
4. Regulations of the Nye County Raw Milk Commission. Adopted November 11, 2015 per agenda and minutes for Nov. 18, 2015. https://nv-nyecounty.civicplus.com/DocumentCenter/View/29055/Item8?bidId=
5. Raw Milk Commission Agenda November 18, 2016. (2016, Nov 14) https://www.nyecountynv.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_11182016-2101
6. Draft Meeting Minutes for Nye County Raw Dairy Commission. (2016, Nov 18). https://www.nyecountynv.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_11182016-2101
7. worldpopulationreview.com/states/nevada/counties
8. worldpopulationreview.com/states/nevada-population
9. Nev. Rev. Stat. Ann. 584.207 (NRS 584.209), https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-584.html#NRS584Sec209]
10. Ibid.
11. nevadamilk.com/on-the-farm/nevada-farms

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Blog post first published July 19, 2023. Updated for journal publication and republished September 30, 2023.

Graphic: Real Milk Legal Map [1]

View the updated Raw Milk Legal Map, color index, and state-by-state status

Over the past decade or so, a growing number of states have passed laws to either legalize the sale of raw milk and raw milk products or increase access to raw dairy; no year has been as productive as 2023. Resistance from the dairy industry and public health agencies is not as great as it once was, and demand for raw dairy products is increasing rapidly. Through either statute, regulation or policy, 46 states now allow the sale of raw milk for human consumption, the sale of raw milk for pet consumption, or the distribution of raw milk through herdshare agreements.¹ The four outliers prohibiting any sale or distribution of raw milk are Hawaii, Louisiana, Nevada, and Rhode Island.

LEGISLATION

The states passing raw dairy legislation this year include:

• IDAHO – Senate Bill 1036 (SB 1036) removes the limit on dairy animals that herdshare operations can have; under prior law, herds were limited to seven cows, fifteen goats, or fifteen sheep.
• IOWA – Iowa became the 46th state to legalize raw milk sales or distribution when Senate File 315 (SF 315) passed into law. The bill allows the sale from producer direct to consumer on the farm or through delivery of any dairy product. There are testing, labeling and recordkeeping requirements.
• NORTH DAKOTA – House Bill 1515 (HB 1515) legalized the unregulated sale of raw milk and any other raw dairy products from producer direct to consumer. Under prior law only distribution of raw milk and raw milk products through herdshare agreements was legal. HB 1515 originally allowed only Grade A dairies (who produce milk for pasteurization) to sell raw milk to the consumer, but those supporting raw milk sales by all dairies hijacked the bill, turning it into the version that passed. The North Dakota Department of Agriculture (NDDA) has issued a press release² claiming that sales are limited to raw milk only (and not other raw dairy products) under HB 1515 even though the bill states that farms selling raw milk direct to consumers aren’t subject to any provision of the chapter in the North Dakota statutory code, titled “Dairy Product Regulation.”³
• UTAH – House Bill 320 (HB 320) legalizes retail sales of raw milk and any product produced from raw milk if a licensed producer has a majority ownership in the retail store. Licensees may also sell these products on-farm as well deliver and/or sell via refrigerated mobile unit. Prior law limited the raw dairy products licensees could sell to milk, butter, and cream. sell via refrigerated mobile unit. HB 320 marks the fourth raw milk bill since 2015 that the mother-daughter team of Symbria and Sara Patterson, founders of the nonprofit Red Acre Center, have been responsible for passing.
• WYOMING – Senate Bill 102 (SB 102) allows the sale of any raw dairy products produced by unregulated producers in retail stores. Prior law limited transactions to direct-to-consumer. When it comes to food freedom of choice, Wyoming remains way ahead of the curve; allowing any raw dairy products produced by an unregulated farmer to be sold in a retail store would be unfathomable in any other state. How much raw dairy is sold in Wyoming retail stores will likely be determined by what stores’ requirements for a producer to obtain product liability insurance are; it is difficult enough for regulated raw milk producers to get a product liability policy.

The biggest development in 2023 was in Iowa, a state that had once jailed someone for selling raw milk. Senator Jason Schultz (R) and farmer Tom German had been trying for 17 years to legalize raw milk sales in the state. A difference maker this time around was dairy farmer Esther Arkfeld, a mother with young children, who was the face of the effort to legalize raw milk sales in Iowa. Lobbyist Tyler Raygor of Americans for Prosperity (AFP) also helped; Raygor and another member of AFP were the only ones who registered with the state to lobby for the bill; 24 people—representing government agencies, the dairy industry, and Farm Bureau among other organizations—registered to lobby against SF 315.

The national opposition to further legalization of raw milk sales in any state made Iowa a litmus test. Mary McGonigle-Martin, a board member of the national food safety group Stop Foodborne Illness said, “Public health has lost the war on raw milk”⁴. McGonigle-Martin had testified four different times in opposition to Iowa raw milk bills. Passage of SF 315 into law struck a nerve with the mainstream media, which published more stories about raw milk after the Iowa law went into effect than it had in years. USA Today, the New York Times and Forbes, among other major media, ran stories warning about the “health risks” of drinking raw milk in an attempt to dissuade their readers from joining the millions of people who are already consuming the product.

A trend in recent years that accelerated in 2023 was the legalization of the sale of raw dairy products other than milk. In addition to Iowa, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming, laws have also gone into effect since 2021 in Alaska, Montana, New Hampshire, and Texas, allowing the sale of numerous products made from raw milk. Value-added is where the money is at; the trend bodes well for the ability of small-scale dairy farmers to make a living. It appears that the dairy processing lobby is no longer fighting the legalization of value-added raw dairy sales like they once did.

The food safety argument–the only argument the opposition has staked its stance on–is increasingly in favor of raw milk proponents. The latest foodborne illness outbreak figures from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are that in 2020 there were five foodborne illness outbreaks resulting in 28 illnesses that were attributed to raw milk consumption.⁵ The number of raw milk consumers continues to increase considerably; hundreds of thousands of consumers go to realmilk.com each year for the first time to find a source of raw milk in their state. The number of illnesses attributed to raw milk consumption is significantly less than it was a decade ago.

Increased demand, fewer illnesses, and deteriorating quality in the conventional food supply are a formula for raw milk legalization. The next state to lift the prohibition on any raw milk sales or distribution could be Hawaii. That state has had bills for legalizing raw milk sales by micro dairies passed out of the House the last two years only to die in Senate committee.  There is only one dairy producing raw milk for pasteurization in Hawaii. For reasons of food security alone, a raw milk bill there should pass into law.

Whichever of the four remaining states is next to get rid of the ban, the goal of Weston A. Price Foundation President Sally Fallon Morell to have legal raw milk distribution in every state is getting closer to realization.

REGULATION CHANGE

MISSISSIPPI: Until recently, Mississippi allowed the sale of only raw goat milk, and then only if the farm had nine goats or fewer. Thanks to state Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson, that has now changed per the policy of the Mississippi Department of Agriculture. Under the policy, distribution of raw milk (including cow’s milk) through herdshare agreements is legal; there has been some pushback from the state department of health, but the policy remains in place. Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) has written herdshare contracts for its Mississippi members. Gipson has been one of the more progressive agriculture commissioners in the country. In 2020 he adopted a policy on distribution of meat from custom slaughtered and processed animals—better enabling small farmers and ranchers to make a living—by removing the limit on the number of owners there could be for a custom animal. Prior to becoming commissioner, Gibson served in the Mississippi legislature where he supported several food freedom bills, including legislation to legalize the sale of raw cow’s milk.

COURT CASE: TEST CASE FOR MAINE FOOD SOVEREIGNTY ACT

An important case from Maine Food Sovereignty Act (FSA) and possibly the state’s Right to Food Constitutional Amendment (RTFA) is ongoing in Kennebec Superior Court. Nathan and Rhiannon Deschaine, owners of Kenduskeag Kitchen, their customer Frank Roma, and the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) have sued Jeanne Landrew, Commissioner of the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), for violations of the FSA and the RTFA. The Deschaines prepare and sell home-cooked meals in Kenduskeag, a town which per the FSA, has passed an ordinance allowing the unregulated sale of most foods direct from the producer to consumer. The FSA gives towns and cities in Maine, the power to adopt ordinances legalizing unregulated local producer-to-consumer commerce within their boundaries.

DHHS sent an enforcement letter to the Deschaines in October 2022, claiming that the couple needed a license to operate their business because, among other reasons, “Kenduskeag Kitchen does not meet [the] definition of direct producer to consumer transactions because it is preparing and selling meals that contain food products and/or ingredients that are purchased from other sites.” The FSA contains no restriction that producers engaging in unregulated commerce under a town ordinance are limited to preparing food with only ingredients that they grow.

Roma is suing DHHS for a violation of the RTFA, which gives individuals the right “… to consume the food of their own choosing …as long as an individual does not commit trespassing, theft, poaching, or other abuses of private property rights, public lands, or natural resources in the harvesting, production or acquisition of food.” Plaintiffs are seeking to have DHHS enjoined from regulating the operation of Kenduskeag Kitchen and requiring it to be licensed; the department has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. A favorable resolution to the case for
the Deschaines, Roma and FTCLDF should lead to a more expansive interpretation of the FSA and RTFA statewide, improving food security and food quality in Maine.

This article was originally a blog post on realmilk.com, and then updated and published in the Fall  2023 issue of Wise Traditions in Food, Farming, and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

References

1. WAPF, Raw Milk Legal Map and State-by-State Notes, latest update July 11, 2023. https://www.realmilk.com/realmilk-legal-map/
2. NDDA, “Raw milk sales now legal, limited to fluid milk,” [Press release], August 4, 2023. https://www.ndda.nd.gov/news/raw-milk-sales-now-legal-limited-fluid-milk
3. North Dakota Century Code, Chapter 4.1-25, “Dairy Product Regulation,” p. 10 (point 3 of clause 4.1-25-40.1). https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t04-1c25.pdf#nameddest=4p1-25-40p1
4. Tony Leys “Public Health Has Lost the War – States legalize raw milk, despite public health warnings,” USA Today, July 3, 2023. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/07/03/raw-milk-legalized-states-unpasteruizeddisease-risks-public-health/70369454007/
5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Access® database for outbreaks reported from 2005 to 2020 from all transmission sources (food, water, animal contact, environmental, and person-to-person) provided by Hannah Lawinger, CDC NORS Data Request Manager on May 26, 2021.

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Earlier this year the state’s Grade A dairies were receiving around $14 per hundredweight (one hundred pounds of milk), that figure shrunk to $12 after deducting transportation costs (moving the milk from the farm to the processing plant of the farmer’s dairy cooperative). According to one of the speakers at the summit, the average cost of production for the dairies is $18.50, a path to bankruptcy.

Dairy farmers know the FMMO pricing system robs them of revenues they should be earning but the pricing is complicated enough so that it is difficult to figure out exactly how the FMMO denies them income that should rightly be theirs. Most dairy farmers are captive to the FMMO and the commodity pricing system; they belong to a cooperative which bottles and markets their milk. In that situation, individual farmers do not set their own price.

Four ways a dairy farmer can escape or survive the commodity system are:

• Own bottling and pasteurization equipment; this is a major expense most dairy farmers cannot afford.
• Find a creamery willing to bottle and pasteurize an individual farmer’s milk, something that’s not easy to do. Jared Weeks, a dairy farmer from Ringoes, who spoke at the summit, has been able to find a creamery in Pennsylvania to take some of his milk for bottling and pasteurization, but few, if any, other dairy farmers in the state have been able to make the same arrangement.
• Make value-added dairy products, such as butter, cream, and yogurt; again, this is typically a substantial expense most dairy farmers cannot afford.
• Sell or distribute raw milk for direct consumption – this is a less expensive way to escape or survive the commodity system whether the farmer is selling direct to the consumer, distributing direct to the consumer through a herd share agreement or selling to retail stores.

New Jersey is one of seven remaining states that do not allow any raw milk sales or distribution. Legislators began introducing raw milk bills in the New Jersey General Assembly back in 2006; since that time New Jersey has lost more than half of its remaining dairies.

The New Jersey Department of Agriculture is not opposed to legislation legalizing raw milk sales and/or distribution; it is the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) that opposes raw milk legalization. The health department sees raw milk as a health threat but a recent Canadian study found, “The rate of unpasteurized milk-associated outbreaks [in the U.S.] has been declining since 2010. Controlling for growth in population and consumption, the outbreak rate has effectively decreased by 74% since 2005.” According to the Centers for Disease Control from 1998-2016, there were only seven (7) foodborne illness outbreaks attributed to the consumption of raw goat milk, an average of about one outbreak every three years.

Raw milk sales or distribution was not on the agenda for the Dairy Summit. The focus was on individual dairy farmers having access to or building a processing plant that would bottle and pasteurize milk as well as manufacture value-added dairy products. Jon McConaughy, the owner of Double Brook Farm in Hopewell, estimated that it would cost $450,000 to build a processing plant. Daniel Wunderlich, Dairy Program Coordinator for NJDA spoke about having a group processing plant that would bottle both conventional and organic milk. McConaughy said, at this time the New Jersey General Assembly had not allocated any money towards such a project. There were speakers for various agencies of USDA and other organizations who spoke about loans to farmers for marketing and dairy processing plants and equipment but how can farmers qualify for a loan when they are already deeply in debt and are losing money with every shipment of milk they make to their cooperative. Dairy farmers need a decent price for their milk more than they need a loan.

Even though the FMMO wasn’t a topic at the Dairy Summit, the information speakers presented was still an indictment of the commodity milk pricing system.

Tom Beaver, Director of Marketing and Development for NJDA said that New Jersey dairies produce one percent (1%) of the milk New Jersey residents consume. NJDA has established a Jersey Fresh logo that in-state producers of milk and other foods can put on their labels to promote their products. If it looks like the state is down to 48 Grade A dairies because New Jersey consumers don’t want to purchase milk produced in-state, that is not so.

Beaver said that NJDA recently conducted a Jersey Fresh Milk Consumer Survey throughout New Jersey and all five boroughs of New York City; 85% of those responding to the survey “indicated an interest in buying Jersey Fresh milk; 23% of those surveyed would be willing to pay a premium, with the average premium being $1.74 above what respondents are currently paying for a half gallon.” What is wrong with this picture?

Dairy farmer Pete Southway, owner of Springhouse Creamery in Sussex County, said that the fifty cows he milks only provide 7% of the milk residents of his county need. McConaughy estimated that producers free from the commodity system and the milk cooperatives could take in as much as $104 per hundredweight (about $9 per gallon). The demand for local milk is there, it’s not the lack of consumer demand as much as the commodity pricing system that are driving dairies out of business.

Retired dairy farmer John Pugh attended the summit. Pugh, who is 97 years young, recalled how once the FMMO went into effect that he switched his herd from Guernseys to Holsteins, placing greater emphasis on the quantity of milk production and less on quality. Legalizing raw milk sales and distribution in New Jersey is a way to put more quality milk on the market and to revive the dairy business in the state that the FMMO helped destroy.

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About the top photo:
“Let the Good Times Flow for National Dairy Month!”
Posted 6/4/2015 by Dana Coale, Deputy Administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service’s Dairy Program
Source: https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2015/06/04/let-good-times-flow-national-dairy-month

The post Raw Milk – Rx for Dairy Crisis appeared first on Real Milk.

Unsurprisingly, the FDA, Wisconsin Public Health Association, and the Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments oppose the bill. The Dairy Business Association and the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association also oppose the bill. Most recently, the Wisconsin Safe Milk Coalition, a group made up of public health officials, dairy processor groups, and dairy farmers also opposed the bill. All groups cited raw milk being “unsafe for human consumption” as their primary reason for banning the sale of raw milk in the state.

However, there are numerous testimonies across the United States and Canada that argue the health benefits of raw milk, and assert that the risk of falling ill from raw milk can be drastically reduced by ensuring safe handling practices, and only drinking milk from grass-fed animals on small farms. While some of the organizations that oppose the bill are quick to point out that farmers are included among their members, there are also many farmers who vocally and passionately support the bill. The issue of raw milk is controversial, with dairy professionals on both sides of the issue. Read more here: http://www.wisfarmer.com/news/wisconsin-safe-milk-coalition-strongly-opposes-raw-milk-bill—–jcpg-335460-224420471.html

The Campaign for Real Milk is a project of the nutrition education non-profit, The Weston A. Price Foundation. Donate to help fund research into the benefits of nutrient dense foods.  http://www.westonaprice.org/lab

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