Raw Milk Monday. Some good News!

Please note: If you are new to my blog you can catch up on the reasons for my raw milk passion and the struggles our own farm have experienced, by reading any of the previous posts on the topic I have written over the last 3 years . To do so, simply enter "Raw Milk" in the search bar under the picture of our house, on the right.

Yesterday we sold out. Of milk that is. Folks came and the tank was empty. Good news for us not so good for those who traveled. And two couples traveled over 130 miles (one way) to get our raw milk.

So we will have to start scheduling our regular raw milk customers, new procedure for us. And who should we see about all this? Well the Illinois Department of Public Health! So much free advertising as they tried first to limit our sales and production, that we are just one if several raw milk farmers who have seen an increase in sales. IMAGINE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THEY MADE RAW MILK ILLEGAL IN ILLINOIS?!?

Well, as we have tried to warn them, farmers would not stop selling raw milk nor would consumers stop buying it. Instead we'd all go as far underground as we needed to. But this IS NOT what we want. Because with illegal sales comes immoral producers, who when they see the profit that can be made would begin producing raw milk in all kinds of unhealthy conditions.

Yes, believe or not there are dishonest farmers. Not many but a few.

So back to the IDPH Dairy Work Group. We had another conference call on June 11 and it basically went like this

No, we said. We are not moving forward with these proposed rules that were not written by raw milk farmers and/or consumers.

Instead we asked that all the proposed rules written before my involvement began in Feb and the other farmers and pro-raw milk advocates came aboard May 1, be eliminated. Yes, totally eliminated. Instead we want a clean slate with the agenda for the July 16th mtg to be written by the Dairy Work Group, not by IDPH.

They agreed.

Yes they did.

So we submitted our agenda items , 5 of them , and on July 16th we'll see if they listened to us THIS TIME, or did they not. If you'd like details of this recent conference call please see Tom Kocal's article and part 6 of his series on this issue in Illinois. Maybe since they knew they were being taped they will follow through with their promises this time.

Time will tell. In the meantime our sales and sales of many of the other farmers on the Dairy Work Group continue to increase. So, IDPH, thanks for the free advertising. Much appreciated.