Promoting Vermont Raw Milk
Andy Potter - WCAX NewsOctober 5, 2008
Original Article Here Hinesburg, Vermont - October 5, 2008
More Vermonters are drinking raw milk -- that is, milk that's not pasteurized. And a growing number of farms are offering it to consumers in spite of a safety warning from the Vermont Health Department. The advocacy group Rural Vermont put together an open house this weekend for the farmers themselves to promote their product.
You may not think of goats as a source of milk, but goat's milk is common in parts of the world -- and increasing in popularity here -- especially raw milk.
Kristin Gallagher of the Windy Corner Farm in Charlotte told Channel 3, "We believe that not pasteurizing the milk maintains more of the richness and the flavor, as well as the nutrition of the milk."
One reason that Rural Vermont held what it called the Farm Fresh Milk Campaign is to allay concerns about ecoli contamination in raw milk. Three cases of ecoli were tracked to one farm in Orleans County last week. The farmers themselves say it's not much of a danger. Drink it at your own risk, but don't be afraid of it.
Tim Hoopes fed his young son a glass of fresh raw milk. "The concern is balanced with the health aspects," he said. "So I feel pretty strongly that people got along just fine on raw milk for a long time before they got into pasteurization and homogenization. So I think it's probably better for me."
The State of Vermont limits sales of raw milk to farms themselves, not permitting it in stores. This year, the legislature did allow a doubling of the amount of raw milk that an individual farmer can sell. Whether it's goat's milk or cow's milk, each farm is limited to selling fifty quarts per day to consumers. That's not much, but it could help open the door for more farmers to get into roadside sales of raw milk.
Lindsay Harris of the Family Cow Farmstead on the Taproot Farm in Hinesburg, said, "So now we can just barely make enough with the increased limit to have a business based on raw milk. So we don't ship any milk, we don't sell any wholesale."
All they can do legally is sell it on the farm. And the farmers who sell raw milk, more than thirty now across Vermont, say the business is growing, as is the popularity.
Andy Potter - WCAX News