Date: 11/21/11-6/29/12
Travel With Pam & Holiday Vacations
Date: 1/9/12-2/27/12
Stepping Through Family Farm Transfers
Date: 1/13/12-2/18/12
Returning To The Farm Forums
Date: 2/8/12
Ag Day At The Capitol
Farm Events: |
Farm News: Cooperatives Against Raw Milk SalescommentsPosted: 03.11.2010 Cooperatives spoke up on the issue of raw milk sales in Wisconsin at a special hearing in Eau Claire on Wednesday. They stand in opposition of those sales. Cooperative Network testified that cooperatives are a big part of Wisconsin’s $26 billion dairy industry, according to David Ward, Cooperative Network Dairy Director. “We don’t want to see that industry suffer in the event of an illness outbreak caused by raw milk.” The legislation also requires that the container be prepared and filled in a sanitary manner, and the dairy farmer must display a sign indicating that raw milk does not provide the protection of pasteurization. In addition, the bill provides that a dairy farmer is not liable for selling such products, except in cases of willful or wanton acts or omissions.
In his testimony Ward went on to explain the many reasons Cooperative Network is opposed to the legislation, including:
1) If raw milk sales are allowed, incidents of sickness will almost certainly increase. Wisconsin Division of Public Health records detail four outbreaks of illness linked to consuming unpasteurized milk or milk products since 2000, responsible for sickening at least 131 people. Young people are often the most affected as found in a recent Walworth County case, where 21 of the victims were under the age of 18, and one was hospitalized.
2) There is the real potential of damaging Wisconsin’s $26 billion dairy industry if more illness results from enactment of such legislation. That damage could be “immense and even irreversible.”
3)The grant of immunity from civil liability granted the seller is “totally inappropriate, and runs counter to all requirements placed on the existing dairy processing industry.”
Cooperative Network serves more than 600 Wisconsin and Minnesota member-cooperatives by providing government relations, education, marketing, and technical services for a wide variety of cooperatives including farm supply, health, dairy marketing, consumer, financial, livestock marketing, telecommunications, electric, housing, insurance, worker-owned cooperatives, and more. For more information about Cooperative Network, visit www.cooperativenetwork.coop.
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