On April 30, Governor Greg Gianforte signed Senate Bill 199 (SB 199), also known as the Montana Local Food Choice Act, into law. Senator Greg Hertz (R-Polson) sponsored the bill. The new law goes into effect immediately.

SB 199 allows the unregulated intrastate sale of most homemade foods from producers to informed end consumers including all raw dairy products if the producer keeps no more than “five lactating cows, 10 lactating goats or 10 lactating sheep” on the farm for the production of milk. There are limited testing requirements for raw milk producers. Producers can sell poultry under the Act if they slaughter and process no more than 1,000 birds during a calendar year and comply with federal recordkeeping requirements.

Livestock producers and homemade food producers may sell “meat and meat products processed at a state-licensed establishment or a federally approved meat establishment” but only if they have obtained a temporary food establishment permit.

Producers must inform the end consumer that the homemade food they are selling has not been licensed, permitted, certified, packaged, labeled nor inspected. Sales and delivery under SB 199 can take place at a farm, ranch, home office, “traditional community social event” (the term includes farmers markets) as defined by the bill, or another location agreed to between the producer and/or the producer’s agent and the informed end consumer.

The bill states that a state or local government agency cannot require “licensure, permitting, certification, packaging, labeling, or inspection that pertains to the preparation, serving, use, consumption, delivery, or storage of homemade food or a homemade food product….” SB 199 does not prevent a state or local health officer from inspecting a producer selling homemade food if the “officer is investigating a complaint based on an illness or an outbreak suspected to be directly related to that homemade food or homemade food product.”

Given his business background, Hertz is one of the last people you would expect to sponsor a bill like SB 199, having owned and operated grocery stores the past 30 years. He sponsored a similar bill as a state representative in 2017, but the legislation died in the Senate after passing in the House. A difference this time around was that Montanans have a legislature and governor that are more in line with the “live and let live” liberty-minded views of its people; a supporter of the bill spoke at the House committee hearing on SB 199 about rugged individualism and a culture of self-sufficiency being part of the Montana way of life. In the past, Montana has had a government that favored a regulatory scheme closer to California’s than neighboring Wyoming’s. Hertz commented that a cottage food bill which passed into law in 2015 was fifty pages long.

Hertz did a masterful job moving the bill through the legislature. There was strong opposition to the bill from organizations such as the Montana Milk Producers Association, the Montana Department of Livestock (DOL), the Montana Medical Association, the Montana Veterinary Medical Association, public health officials and several sustainable agriculture nonprofits. If someone had only seen the committee hearings and known nothing else about SB 199, it would have been easy for them to believe the bill wasn’t going to pass. Hertz was able to overcome the opposition by successfully lobbying committee members one on one until he had the votes he needed. He characterized SB 199 as a jobs bill, and that message helped carry the day. The support for the bill eventually overwhelmed opponents. The state legislative website tallies up for each Bill the proponents and opponents who contact it; over 1,500 people contacted the site In support of SB 199 making it the fourth most popular bill this session—only 53 opposed.

The most contentious part of the bill was the legalization of raw dairy sales. Something proponents had in their favor was that SB 199 marked the fifth consecutive session a raw milk bill was before the legislature and at least some legislators were getting tired of having to consider the issue over and over again. Hertz said during the House committee hearing on the bill, “We need to put the raw milk discussion behind us.” He pointed out that in states like Wyoming and Maine that have also adopted food freedom bills (in Maine at the local level with 80 towns passing food sovereignty ordinances), there hasn’t been a single foodborne illness outbreak even though there is no limit on the herd size in either state. One other factor in favor of legal raw milk sales was testimony at the committee hearings that only 45 Grade A dairies remain in Montana.

In addition to Hertz, much credit for the passage of SB 199 is due Chris Rosenau, an activist from the Bitterroot who has spent thousands of uncompensated hours working for legalization of raw milk sales in Montana. In 2017 Rosenau was instrumental in the state government’s adoption of a policy allowing the distribution of raw milk through Montana securities law. She has worked for legalization of raw milk sales since that time and was able to gather substantial support for SB 199 through her work for the advocacy group Raw Milk Montana.

DOL tried to kill the bill by posting a fiscal note claiming the meat and poultry provisions as originally written in SB 199 would cost Montana its state meat inspection program and over $1 million a year in funding from USDA. Hertz amended the meat and poultry language, successfully addressing that concern. DOL had some of the more onerous requirements in the country for producers processing poultry on the farm under the federal 1,000-bird exemption. The number of farmers processing under that exemption should increase significantly.

With the accelerating deterioration of quality in the conventional food supply, passage of bills like SB 199 is becoming more important. In his testimony on the bill before the House Human Affairs Committee, Hertz said, “We have traded our health, our food security, our local economy for highly processed foods, all in the name of food safety,”

When it comes to health, food safety, food security, and local economies, locally produced food is superior to industrial food in every respect. Congratulations to the people of Montana for the passage of SB 199.

Originally published on 10 May 2021 under title, “Montana Food Freedom Bill Now Law.”

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Seventeen states had bills legalizing or expanding the sale/distribution of raw milk and raw milk products before the legislatures during the 2019 session. Three states have passed legislation so far this year but, with many states in the first year of a two-year session, there are a number of bills that still have a chance of passing in 2020.

An untapped source of revenue for producers is the sale/distribution of raw dairy products other than milk and aged cheese. The sale of butter, cream, yogurt, and kefir is illegal in a majority of states but, given the excellent track record for food safety of all these products, there is a good chance that more states will be passing bills in the near future to legalize the sale of these products.

States having raw dairy bills in 2019 include:

ALASKA
The distribution of raw milk through herdshare agreements is currently legal by regulation; House Bill 16 (HB 16) would make it legal by statute and would also allow herdshare dairies to distribute all other raw dairy products to their shareowners in Alaska. HB 16 has passed out of the House and was assigned to a Senate committee before the 2019 session adjourned; so, it will start the 2020 session in the Senate Resources Committee.

ARKANSAS
Current law allows raw milk producers to sell up to a total of 500 gallons of raw goat milk and/or raw cow milk on an average monthly basis. House Bill 1699 (HB 1699) amends the law to also legalize the sale of raw sheep milk as part of the 500-gallon limit. HB 1699 passed the legislature and became law on April 10.

MISSOURI
House Bill 1090 (HB 1090) will allow licensed dairies meeting sanitary standards to sell raw milk and raw cream to grocery stores, restaurants, and similar establishments. Under current law, licensed raw milk dairies can sell raw milk and cream on the farm and through delivery. HB 1090 has been referred to the House Agriculture Policy Committee. The Missouri legislature just finished the first year of a two-year session.

MONTANA
House Bill 490 (HB 490) would have legalized raw milk sales and created a two-tier system in which those producing ten gallons of raw milk per day would operate under a small-scale raw milk license while dairies producing more than ten gallons per day would need to obtain a commercial raw milk license. In effect, HB 490 would have acted as a de facto ban on raw milk.

Those producing more than 10 gallons per day would have had to have the dairy’s physical facility be up to Grade A standards, a cost of tens of thousands of dollars. Even small-scale raw milk dairies could have been subject to onerous physical facility requirements. The bill also could have subjected dairies to expensive testing requirements and have made them pay for costs of a foodborne illness outbreak investigation even if they weren’t held responsible for the outbreak. HB 490 died on the House floor vote.

Two other bills died without a hearing that, respectively, would have legalized herdshare agreements (House Bill 521 – HB 521) and would have legalized sales of raw milk and raw milk products by producers with herds of less than 10 cows, 20 goats, or 20 sheep (House Bill 516 – HB 516).

NEVADA
Under current law, producers can only sell raw milk and raw milk products where a county milk commission has specifically certified those foods; Nye County has the only county milk commission in the state. Senate Bill 418 (SB 418) would have allowed producers to sell statewide the raw milk and raw milk certified by a county milk commission. SB 418 also would have exempted micro-dairies [with up to 5 cows, 10 goats, 10 sheep] from certification standards and allowed them to sell raw dairy without regulation directly to the consumer at the farm where the milk is produced. SB 418 passed the Senate but died without a hearing in the Assembly Committee on Health and Human Services.

NORTH CAROLINA
Sponsors introduced three raw milk bills in the 2019 session. House Bill 103 (HB 103) would allow the licensed sale of raw milk in retail stores by dairies with no more than 10 lactating cows, 10 lactating goats, or 10 lactating sheep. Companion bills, Senate Bill 509 (SB 509) and House Bill 385 (HB 385), would ban herdshare agreements; the state legalized the distribution of raw milk and raw milk products through herdshare agreements as part of the 2018 North Carolina Farm Bill. None of the three bills have received a hearing but the legislature’s rule allows bills to be tacked on to unrelated legislation; this is what happened in 2004 when the legislature passed a herdshare ban at the end of the session. As long as the legislature is still in session, SB 509 and HB 385 remain dangerous.

NEW YORK
Assembly Bill 5867 (AB 5867) would legalize herdshare agreements, referred to in the bill as “shared animal ownership agreements”, without regulation. Currently, in New York, the licensed on-farm sale of raw milk is legal. AB 5867 has been referred to the Assembly Agriculture Committee.

TENNESSEE
There were several raw dairy bills before the legislature. Senate Bill 358 (SB 358) which allows the sale of raw butter by producers with a dairy plant license became law on April 30; the bill requires dairy plant operators to keep the butter-making separate from the production of other dairy products. Producers must also put a warning label on the packages containing the raw butter.

Senate Bill 15 (SB 15) would have banned herdshare agreements; the bill died because no companion House bill was introduced. The sponsor of SB 15 later tacked on an amendment to an unrelated bill, Senate Bill 1123 (SB 1123), but that bill died in committee. Current law allows the unregulated distribution of raw milk and raw milk products through herdshare agreements.

UTAH
The final version of House Bill 182 (HB 182) would have allowed licensed dairies to sell raw butter and raw cream; currently, the only raw dairy products licensed producers can sell are milk and aged cheese. HB 182 passed out of the House and the Senate committee, but time ran out on the 2019 session before a vote of the full Senate could take place.

VERMONT
House Bill 525 (H.525) became law on June 17. Among other things, the bill legalizes the sale of raw milk at consumers’ homes and at farmers markets if the producer is in compliance with statutory requirements for animal health, sanitation, labeling, recordkeeping (as well as signage and registration requirements for those selling at farmers markets). Prior to the passage of H. 525, those producers meeting the same requirements could sell milk only on the farm and then deliver it to their customers (either at their homes or at farmers markets).

The post 2019 Raw Milk Legislation Summary appeared first on Real Milk.

FALLS CHURCH, VA—August 1, 2017—Montana has become the 43rd state to legalize raw milk distribution, doing so through a method that no other state has adopted. Montana residents can now get legal access to raw milk through purchasing securities, giving them ownership interest in a dairy animal or dairy animals. Dairy farmers wanting to sell stock in their animals need to obtain an exemption from the state securities registration requirement; the farmers fill out an application for the exemption with the Office of the Commissioner of Securities and Insurance (OCSI). Please do not contact OCSI.

OCSI has granted exemptions for stock offerings of dairy animals in the past including one in 2016 for an FTCLDF member selling ownership interests in dairy goats, but the Montana Department of Livestock (DOL), which has jurisdiction over dairy production and sales, had left open the possibility of taking enforcement action against producers under the exemption. During recent communications with OCSI officials, DOL leadership indicated it would honor the exemptions, changing its prior policy. DOL would still have oversight over raw milk producers operating under the exemption. FTCLDF member Chris Rosenau was instrumental in forging the breakthrough on the DOL policy. Rosenau has led the effort to pass a raw milk bill the last three legislative sessions in Montana. OCSI limits stock offerings to ownership in four cows with 25 solicitations (meaning a maximum of 25 stockholders) per offering. It is not clear at this point how many goats could be included in an offering, but the number is probably around the same as for cows.

DOL will likely continue to regard the typical herd share arrangements existing in Montana (and many other states) as illegal even though Montana law provides a strong argument for their legality.

Rosenau, who has spent thousands of uncompensated hours working for a change in the state raw milk laws, regards the new DOL policy as a foot in the door and a step towards expanding raw milk access in the state. She plans on working with legislators to introduce another raw milk bill in the next legislative session.

FTCLDF drafted documents for the farmer member mentioned earlier who successfully obtained the exemption in 2016. Montana dairy farmers interested in applying for the exemption can contact FTCLDF. Again, please do not contact OCSI.

Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, Rhode Island—seven states to go.

Attorneys for FTCLDF have spent a substantial amount of time working to legalize raw milk distribution in Montana. The goal of legal raw milk in all 50 states is in sight. Please help us continue our push towards making this happen by attending our fundraiser or by making a donation.

Media Contact:
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund
703-208-3276, info@farmtoconsumer.org

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The Senate had a lengthy and heated debate about whether the heart of this issue came down to personal freedom or protecting public health. Eventually, the Senate deadlocked in a tie vote 25-25 and then voted to indefinitely postpone the bill. A later vote to revive the measure failed 23-25. Read more about the Montana raw milk debate here.

Realmilk.com is a consumer education project of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a nutrition education nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. Visit their website, westonaprice.org.

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