Since the federal government launched its anti-rawmilk campaign in 2006, I’ve had a tendency to focus much of my attention on the large states where the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has concentrated its fire: New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and California.

I realized yesterday, while attending a half-day “Raw Milk Roundtable” sponsored by the Northeast Organic Foods Association at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, that there’s been important ongoing activity in smaller states as well. Dairy farmers, activists, even a legislator (from Connecticut) from seven Northeast states gathered to provide updates other about raw-milk activities in their states. (States represented included Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.).

One of the most interesting of the smaller states has been Vermont. I had viewed Vermont as something of an anomaly—almost schizophrenic—because its official sort-of-permissiveness in allowing raw milk sales from the farm was counterbalanced by a ceiling limiting dairies to selling a maximum of 25 quarts a day. It’s tough to make much of a living selling six gallons of raw milk each day, even if you’re getting $10 or $15 a gallon.

What I didn’t fully appreciate is that over the last five years, a coalition of between 60 and 100 Vermont dairy farmers has been working intensively to change the law, and on July 1, their efforts came to fruition when a completely revamped raw dairy law went into effect. Amy Shollenberger, who headed up the effort for Rural Vermont explained at the roundtable that the new law creates a two-tiered system for raw milk sellers whereby the members of Tier 2 can sell up to 40 gallons of milk each day, and deliver directly to customers’ homes. Shades of the old-style milkman (though raw milk can’t be sold in any other way besides direct-from-the-farm and home delivery; no farmers markets, for example).

She made these points about the five-year effort to change the law:

• Registration of producers and testing were huge issues in the legislative push, and eventually, a compromise was reached. Tier 1 farmers, who can sell up to 50 quarts per day but cannot deliver, need not register with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture. Tier 2 farmers do need to register, and must submit to regular testing (for total bacteria, somatic cell, and coliform). The registration-inspection issue “was realy, really, really important to sellers,” Shollenberger said. At one point in the legislative process, the House version required registration for all raw dairies, but that was eventually changed.
• Home delivery took precedence over retail selling. “We pushed for delivery instead of retail store sales,” she said. “We argued it’s safer for consumers to have a direct relationship with farmers,” a relationship that is lost at the retail level.
• The rules intentionally focus more on product standards rather than process standards. For example, the rules require raw milk to be cooled to a temperature of 40 degrees within two hours of milking, but the process isn’t spelled out. According to Schoellenberg, these methods can include use of bulk tanks, ice water baths, packing in snow, or placing the milk in a running stream or brook before refrigerating.
• The campaign was based solely on economics. “Our campaign was not based on health claims for raw milk,” Shollenberger said. “It’s an economic issue. It’s a farmer and consumer choice issue. We don’t care why people want raw milk.”

The campaign accomplishments didn’t come easily. “The dairy industry fought us hard. I was the only lobbyist in favor. We had 12 lobbyists working against us.”

And state regulators “tried hard to break the group apart,” such as by pitting larger farms against smaller ones. “It didn’t work…Everyone was always in agreement. 95% of what we wanted we got.”

She figures a total of about 300 Vermont dairies have been selling raw milk, though “a lot of them have been underground.” With the new regulations, “a lot are coming out now”—probably on the order of 100 are selling under the new regs.

Shollenberger acknowledges that the new rules aren’t perfect, and I agree. For example, I’d like to see the 50-gallon limitation on sales lifted. What kind of free market is this when a producer is limited in its volume sales by government decree? Further change is on the agenda, Shollenberger promised.

Overall, the campaign Shollenberger described is inspiring. It not only replaced highly restrictive regulations, but it wound up making raw milk much more broadly available, with minimal regulatory red tape, and based on economic-rights arguments rather than health claims.

One other thing: Shollenberger as of July 1 left Rural Vermont to become a political and organizational consultant.