A Dose of Raw-Milk Reality from a Politician in the Middle

As passionate as consumers of raw milk may be about its safety and benefits, they remain a tiny minority, and politicians are well aware of this fact. This point was driven home to me during a lengthy conversation I had yesterday with Chris Kolb, the Michigan representative from the district that includes Ann Arbor.

Keep in mind as I quote some of his statements that he is favorably inclined toward the rights of raw milk consumers, as his letter to constituents that I quoted in my previous post attests. He is the only politiican I am aware of who has publicly chastised the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) for its sting tactics.

For one thing, Kolb says he’s received a lot of emails about this issue since the MDA’s sting, and a significant number back the MDA. For another, he indicates that many of these pro-MDA emails are from individuals with a connection to the dairy industry. "It could be there’s an industry that does not want this to get a foothold," he says in an obvious allusion to the dairy industry.

Kolb recalls that two years ago he sponsored legislation that would explicitly permit cow-sharing programs, of the type used by Family Farms Cooperative and others in Michigan. Right now, such programs aren’t either permitted or prohibited. That legislation never went anywhere. "The chair of the agriculture committee would not move it," he says. "He said the department (MDA) is not too crazy about your bill anyway."

As a consequence of that failure, the state and co-op members still face the uncertainty about cow-share programs, he says. "Is it legal or not to get milk from a leased cow?"

Bottom line, the issue has not stirred enough concern to grab the politicians’ attention. Kolb didn’t re-introduce the legislation because he learned that the number of citizens backing cow sharing "may not be geographically large enough to get it moving again." It’s not as if Kolb has anything to lose politically from being involved with this issue, since he isn’t running for re-election.

Kolb allows that the raw milk situation "is a fascinating issue…People have been drinking raw milk forever." While he understands the political realities, he is frustrated as to "why some kind of solution like cow sharing can’t be worked out. "There is a demand, there is a supply. Why are we getting in the way of this?"