Page 89 - Summer2010

WISCONSIN: The most significant developments in the raw milk movement continued to occur in Wisconsin. First,
the Governor vetoes a bill that passed in a landslide through the legislature; then a dairy farmer openly defies an order
from the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) to stop distributing raw milk and
raw milk products.
Until a March 10 public hearing in Eau Claire on raw milk legislation before the General Assembly and the Senate,
it did not appear that a raw milk bill would pass in the current legislative session (see Wise Traditions Winter 2009 for
more background). That all changed with the hearing; around seven hundred people attended the hearing and the
testimony was overwhelmingly in favor of the legislation. Shortly after the hearing, the Senate Agriculture Committee
amended the original version of the bill; the new version was not as favorable as the original but still allowed for the on-
farm sale of raw milk by Grade A dairies. SB 434 passed out of committee with a unanimous vote and then was passed
by the full Senate 25 to 8. The General Assembly adopted the Senate version of the bill; SB 434 was voted out of the
Assembly Rural Affairs Committee with eight of nine members in favor. It then passed the full Assembly by a vote of 60
to 35 on April 23, the last day of the legislative session. Initially, Governor Jim Doyle said that it was likely that he would
sign the bill. That was before the dairy lobby and public health officials stepped up their pressure on the Governor. On
May 19, Doyle vetoed the bill, ignoring the wide margins by which SB 434 had passed in the legislature.
In his veto message, the Governor stated, “The sale of unpasteurized milk has become an increasingly contentious
issue in Wisconsin and around the country. I recognize that there are strong feelings on both sides of this matter, but
I must side with public health and the dairy industry.” Shortly after issuing the veto, Doyle told reporters that he had
to “rely on what the public health people are telling me.” If all governors followed Doyle’s reasoning, there would be
hardly a State around that would have a law on the books legalizing the sale of raw milk. State health departments are
lockstep with FDA in the desire to ban all distribution and consumption of raw milk.
As for the “safety of the dairy industry”, Doyle went on to say in the veto message, “The dairy industry is the cen-
terpiece of Wisconsin agriculture. . . An outbreak of disease from consumption of unpasteurized milk could damage the
State’s reputation for providing good, healthy dairy products, and hurt sales of pasteurized milk and other dairy products,
resulting in significant financial loss for the entire dairy industry at a time when dairy farmers are already suffering.” Yet,
there is no evidence that any outbreak of foodborne illness attributed to raw milk consumption has ever hurt the dairy
industry. As State Senator Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) asked, “Where is the drop in sales caused by the hundreds
of thousands of members of dairy families, their employees, and visitors to the farms who drink raw milk now? There is
none. The only danger to the reputation of milk is coming from the Dairy Business Association that is exaggerating the
dangers of raw milk.”
If the Governor were interested in reversing the suffering of dairy farmers he would have signed the bill; the prices
dairy farmers could get selling raw milk direct to consumers are more than double what they are getting from the pro-
cessors. Continuing on with the existing system means more of the failed policies that have been responsible for the
number of dairy farms in the State declining from 29,000 in 1995 to between 12,000-13,000 today.
In response to Doyle’s veto, Senator Pat Kreitlow (D-Chippewa Falls), the principal sponsor of SB 434, issued a
press release which stated, in part, “The Governor’s veto is disappointing to the thousands of farmers and consumers
who will continue to be treated like criminals for wanting nothing more than to buy or sell fresh milk off the farm. . .
The fairness to family farmers is lost because of today’s veto and that is why I call on DATCP to suspend its efforts to
treat farmers as criminals when they try to meet the demands of customers for their products on the farm.”
Kreitlow wasn’t the only legislator asking DATCP to stop enforcement actions against raw milk producers. Grothman
supported a return to the policy of the past, noting that even though the general prohibition against the sale of raw milk
has been the law for many years, “DATCP, bowing to common sense, largely did not enforce the law until 2009 when
new bureaucrats got a toehold in the Division of Food Safety.” The new bureaucrats are Steve Ingham, the administrator
for the Division of Food Safety, and Cheryl Daniels, assistant legal counsel for DATCP. Ironically, as an administrative
law judge for DATCP, Daniels issued rulings in 2002 and 2004 that enabled anyone who purchased shares in an entity
operating a dairy farm and possessing a Grade A permit to purchase raw milk and raw milk products from that farm.
Thousands of people took advantage of the ruling to obtain raw milk from the shareholder dairies.
DATCP was not listening to the Senators. On June 2, just two weeks after Doyle’s veto, agency inspectors along
with Sauk County Health Department officials and deputies of the County Sheriff descended upon Vernon and Erma
Hershberger’s dairy farm, Grazin’ Acres in Loganville, to execute a ‘special inspection’ warrant. DATCP inspectors taped
freezers in the Hershbergers’ farm store and placed a hold order on thousands of dollars of food in the store, mostly
raw milk and raw milk products. Under the hold order, the Hershbergers were prohibited from selling or even moving
any of the food in the taped freezers. DATCP sent inspectors out to the farm because the Hershbergers had refused
to comply with an intrusive request by the agency for documents and information going back over seven years.
The Hershbergers’ on-farm store only sold products to members of a private buying club. DATCP has referred the

SUMMER 2010 Wise Traditions 89