When a dairy cow the size of a concert piano fell on Layne Klein’s leg about 20 years ago, he had plenty of time to reflect on the future of his family farm.
“I had two kids in college, two in high school and one kid headed to college. We had feed shortages and the price of milk sucked as always,” Klein said recently on his farm in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. “So we sold our dairy cows and decided to try to make them smaller.”
Klein, who broke his fibula and dislocated his ankle in the accident, decided to obtain a Pennsylvania raw milk license for Klein Farms in Easton. He has been selling gourmet raw milk and raw milk cheese there since 2004.
Raw milk enthusiasts describe its flavor as “beautiful” and “creamier.” It is typically sold at a higher cost and Klein said the transition saved the farm.
“If you do it right, it’s a fantastic product,” he said.
Raw or unpasteurized milk remains controversial in Pennsylvania and beyond. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says raw milk “can harbor dangerous germs that can pose serious health risks.” The Centers for Disease Control, citing the emergence of bird flu in the United States, also recommends against drinking unpasteurized milk.
“Anyone, even healthy adults, can get sick from drinking raw milk,” the CDC warns on a newly updated raw milk webpage.
Raw milk devotees and detractors go back and forth on TikTok, commenting on each other’s videos about the merits of pasteurization, which is the process of heating milk to destroy potentially harmful microbes.
“There is no evidence to suggest that raw milk is more beneficial for you than pasteurized milk. One of them is pasteurized and the other can kill you,” a TikTok user named @microbiologywes said in a video.
115 raw milk farms
However, across the United States, more states are discussing loosening restrictions on the production or sale of raw milk. Only three states have outright bans on all raw dairy products. In Pennsylvania, where raw milk sales require licensing and testing, state Rep. Dave Zimmerman, R-Lancaster/Berks, recently introduced a bill aimed at allowing farmers to sell additional raw milk products in addition to milk and cheese , including yogurt and ice cream.
“There is a big movement across our nation, especially among younger generations, who want more natural and organic products with less processing and fewer chemicals,” Zimmerman said. “What I want is to keep farmers in business, especially small dairies, by allowing them to sell more raw products.”
Even in New Jersey, where it is only legal to use raw milk in pet food (a lucrative market), agricultural leaders have recently expressed a willingness to discuss raw milk for human consumption.
“I think they can be tested and monitored enough to bring a safe product to market,” Ed Wengryn, the state’s agriculture secretary, said during a May 7 budget hearing.
Consumers, he said, are free to buy and eat other raw foods, including seafood and vegetables.
Pennsylvania has about 5,000 dairy farms and, according to the state Department of Agriculture, has 115 raw milk permit holders. Applicants for that permit must pass rigorous health and safety inspections of their herds and water supplies. Your product must also be tested every two years for foodborne pathogens.
A spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Dairy Association said the organization had no position on raw milk.
Many raw milk license holders in Pennsylvania say the state’s strict restrictions and enforcement of pasteurization stem from a much different, more dangerous time in the dairy world.
“Raw milk laws are outdated. “Raw milk was labeled ‘hazardous’ before refrigeration, automobiles and modern testing.” Marie Reedell, manager of Miller’s Bio Farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in an email. “We have to change with the times.”
In January, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture filed a lawsuit against Amos Miller Organic Farm, in Bird-in-Hand, Lancaster County, alleging the farm sold raw dairy products linked to illnesses in several states. (Miller, who has not obtained a permit, has argued that because he sells his milk through a private membership group, state regulations should not apply to him. The case is ongoing.)
Unfair treatment
At Klein Farms, where Layne Klein was busy spreading hay in a barn on a recent weekday afternoon, she estimates they sell about 600 to 650 gallons of raw milk per week, wholesale. She also makes a lot of different cheeses, which must be aged for 60 days in a freezer on her farm. Klein said she’s not worried about making more raw dairy products because she’s busy enough, but she believes there’s too much scaremongering on the issue.
“There was a time when people milked cows by hand in open buckets and there was no refrigeration and the cows had poor nutrition,” he said. “It’s a different time. “I pride myself on having clean cows.”
Klein’s farm is just a few miles west of the Delaware River and many customers cross state lines to purchase his product. He’s not worried about New Jersey reconsidering raw products.
“I mean, raw milk makes up about 2% of dairy in Pennsylvania, so the number of farms in New Jersey that would do this would be minimal,” he said.
New Jersey has 34 dairy farms, according to the state Department of Agriculture. A New Jersey Farm Bureau spokesperson said raw products are “not a priority” for the organization.
When Wengryn spoke about raw milk during the budget hearing last month, he was answering a question from Sen. Mike Testa, R, of rural Cumberland County. Testa told The Inquirer that constituents have asked him to push raw milk, one of them being Misty Meadows Sheep Dairy in Woodbine. Bill Simmerman, the farm’s owner, sells pasteurized sheep’s milk, cheeses and yogurts, but would love to switch to raw products.
“We’ve lost a lot of small dairies in this state because of the rules and regulations that pasteurization requires,” Simmerman said. “My facilities are perfectly clean.”
Simmerman’s 16-acre farm is for sale for $2.4 million.
In Delaware, the situation is worse. According to BaytoBayNews.com, there are about 13 dairy farms left in the state. The state, according to the news organization, recently passed a bill asking the Department of Agriculture to create a raw milk permit for Delaware dairy farmers.
In New Jersey, when Testa asked Wengryn if he would be willing to work with him on raw milk legislation, the Agriculture Secretary smiled.
“I think my health commissioner and I are going to have a long, deep conversation about that,” Wengryn said. “But yes, I’m willing to have a conversation.”
2024 The Philadelphia Inquirer, . Visit him at investigager.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, .
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