Texas forces raw milk dairy to pour 700 gallons of perfectly good milk down the drain

Thursday, February 14, 2013 by: PF Louis
Tags: Texas, raw milk, dairy farms

(NaturalNews) Raiding small dairy farms for selling raw milk has become an active form of state terrorism throughout North America. The farms are usually small and the farmers are not well off.

Yet they're often shut down with short or no notice and forced to destroy or give up their raw dairy products for the enforcing agency to destroy. These are huge losses for small farmers and a terrible waste of healthy raw milk produced by healthy cows for humans' healthy consumption.

Deep in the heart of Texas

The state of Texas does allow raw milk sales, but only directly from the farm where it's produced. Over the past few years, public awareness of raw milk's health benefits has grown, increasing consumer demand for raw milk.

Ever since 2011, State Representative Dan Flynn has been proposing efforts to amend current raw milk legislation to allow raw milk deliveries by the farmers. He and a few other state representatives offered the latest proposal to widen raw milk sales in early February of 2013 as HB 46.

HB 46 does not include allowing retail outlets to sell raw milk. It proposes allowing farmers to deliver it or take it to legitimate farmers' markets. In Texas, raw milk farmers are issued permits, and health inspectors routinely check their milk for pathogens.

The Texas Association of Dairymen (TAD) has opposed Representative Dan Flynn's attempts to amend the law that prohibits delivery and/or sales beyond the farm's premises since 2011. The supposed purpose that restricts raw milk sales to farm premises was to ensure consumers checked out their source. That, of course, should be a voluntary one-time visit.

The TAD's bogus cover stories for their opposition are really nothing more than flimsy excuses for suppressing opposition to a burgeoning raw milk market demand that they're unable to meet.

Only large factory farm dairies can survive with the low return per volume of milk sold for pasteurization. And they're too large and sloppy to ensure pathogen-free raw milk since they're used to having it cooked. Their cows are often diseased from poor feed, crowded conditions, and injections of antibiotics and hormones.

But the TAD has the talking points about raw milk dangers that are acceptable to most uninformed consumers and media outlets. If you're among them, this site's excellent FAQ section is recommended. (http://www.realmilk.com)

Miller Farms Raw Milk dairy permit suspended for delivery infraction

Most urban dwelling raw milk consumers are too far from the vast rural areas of Texas to go to farms and purchase raw milk.

Eddie was caught delivering milk to a customer recently. His delivery was a regularly scheduled Wednesday visit. But a snoopy neighbor reported him, and Eddie's raw milk permit was suspended by the Texas Department of Health.

Upon asking why he was singled out when raw milk delivery to urban customers was commonly practiced underground by farmers and third party deliverers, Eddie was advised to tell them who they were. He refused.

After Eddie made several phone calls for a hearing to reinstate his raw milk permit which were not returned, he decided to simply dump the 700 gallons of unsellable milk. He posted a video of that action on his Facebook page. (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=498103576907552)

The response was overwhelming. Many of his customers called the State Health Commission to complain. Eddie's raw milk permit was reinstated.

His farm is only 15 miles outside of San Antonio's two million-plus population. He has a website where people can order online and pick-up products 24/7 using a secure honor system.

Nevertheless, Eddie is encouraging Texans to call their state representatives and demand passage of HB 46 to allow delivery and farmer's market sales of raw milk, a product that's increased in demand three-fold in Texas over the last few years.

Maybe if there are enough calls, those Texas politicians bought by Big Dairy will be outnumbered enough this time around to put some sanity into Texas milk laws.

Sources for this article include:

The Miller farm website http://www.millerfarmsrawmilk.com/welcome/

Weston A. Price raw milk information http://www.realmilk.com