LaCrosse Tribune
By Chris Hubbuch, Tribune writer and SCOTT BAUER Associated Press Writer
Citing concern for public health and the state’s dairy industry, Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have regulated the sale of unpasteurized milk.
State Rep. Chris Danou, one of the bill’s cosponsors, said he was disappointed and blamed a “well coordinated insider campaign against the bill.”
Danou, a first-term Democrat from Trempealeau, said despite bi-partisan support for the bill, which would have allowed on-farm sales of raw dairy products until 2012, corporate interests won out. He vowed to introduce the bill again next year.
“What’s frustrating to me is the will of the people is so clearly ignored,” Danou said, noting that of nearly 700 people who turned out for a March hearing in Eau Claire, only a few dozen opposed the bill. “The real issue was the economics for a lot of the corporate ag groups… The middle men didn’t like it.”
Doyle said in April he was leaning toward signing the bill, saying he thought it balanced the concerns of those worried about unpasteurized milk and advocates who argued it tastes better and has health benefits, but he was heavily lobbied in recent weeks by Wisconsin’s dairy and cheese industries, the Wisconsin Medical Society, farm and health groups and a host of other business.
In his veto statement, Doyle said the bill did not contain adequate testing measures and that an outbreak of disease from unpasteurized milk could damage the state’s reputation for quality dairy.
“I recognize that there are strong feelings on both sides of this matter,” he wrote, “but I must side with public health and the safety of the dairy industry.”
Supporters of the bill said the veto was a loss for family farmers and consumers.
“The dairy industry, from lobbyists representing Kraft and Dean Foods on down, circled the wagons and killed this bill,” said Mark Kastel, senior farm policy analyst for the Cornucopia Institute. “Their smokescreen, about health concerns and harming the industry, represented a diversion from an obvious agenda to crush a rapidly growing competitive threat.”
Danou pointed out that state law does not prohibit consumption of raw milk – and allows “incidental” sales and said his bill would have created a regulatory structure and provided economic security for small farmers looking to make direct sales.
Nineteen states allow direct sales of raw milk from dairy farmers to individuals, while nine additional states go a step further by permitting retail sales. The federal government doesn’t allow sales of raw milk because of concerns about food-borne illness, but states can allow them as long as the milk doesn’t cross state lines.
There were 1,614 reported illnesses, 187 hospitalizations and two deaths from consumption of raw milk between 1998 and 2008, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
