Page 100 - Summer 2017 Journal

In all, almost one hundred and fifty farms are selling raw milk in the UK and Ireland.
at the Second Annual International Raw Milk Symposium in April 2010.15 Reporters who at- tended the conference wrote about the machines. Many people asked me the same two questions: “How do we get the machines?” and “Would they work in the US?”
When I returned to Slovenia the following summer, I met with an Italian producer who was willing to change out the electricals in his model of the vending
VENDING MACHINES IN THE UK Farmers in the UK and Ireland have had better luck importing raw milk vending ma- chines, and the major vending machine produc- ers have made rapid inroads there. Starting in 2011, officials have allowed farmers to use raw milk machines on the farm.14 In all, almost one hundred and fifty farms are selling raw milk in
machine to meet the one-hundred-and-ten- volt standards needed for operation in the US. He even offered to send a raw milk machine for use at the WAPF con- ference being hosted in Pennsylvania that year. After more sleuthing, however, I found that the machine definitely would not clear U.S. customs.
Fen Farm Dairy raw milk vending machine in the UK
As far as trying to obtain approval to sell raw milk via vending machine in my home state of Pennsylvania, where raw milk is legal, officials at the Pennsylvania Department of Ag- riculture strongly discouraged me from embark- ing on such an enterprise. A female veterinarian who worked at the Agriculture Department told me it would be a grueling bureaucratic process and said that they would never approve vending machines because there was no way to police them. Even after I explained how farmers could track their machines via a special iPhone app and stated that inspectors could gain access to the machine at any time with an entry key, the idea seemed unfathomable to her.
As a result, no American farmers thus far have been successful in bringing vending ma- chines to America. It would be a Herculean task to surmount all the obstacles and barriers that are in place. On the other hand, it is currently possible in the U.S. marketplace to purchase milk machines that dispense pasteurized milk or milk powder products in sugar-laden chocolate and strawberry flavors.17
personnel say that their local government gave permission for the machine to be operational on the premises. Selfridges stopped selling the milk, but the FSA persisted and is prosecuting Selfridges as well as Steve Hook, the farmer from Longley’s Farm in East Sussex who was in charge of filling the machine.19,20
Jonny Crickmore of Fen Farm Dairy in Suffolk has been farming for over eighty years. Jonny was the first farmer in the UK to install a farm-based raw milk vending machine in 2011. He and his brother George milk three hundred French Montbéliarde cows, run a beef herd and make raw cheese, butter and cream. His “Baron Bigod” is Britain’s only raw brie and is de- scribed as “creamy, smooth and nutty.” Jonny’s neighbor, Julie Cheyney at White Wood Dairy, uses his milk to make her celebrated St. Jude cheese.21,22 Jonny likes the fact that he, rather than a processor or supermarket, is in control of the milk. He uses the DF Italia machines and sells them to other farmers.14 On Saturdays he sells about one hundred and ten liters of raw milk and is confident that he will sell up to two hundred liters eventually because people are just learning about the vending machines. He
the UK and Ireland.18
The placement of a vending machine at a local Selfridges store (part of a department store chain) has been more controversial, be- cause the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) views it as tech- nically breaking a law
that bans the sale of raw milk from main- stream retail outlets in England, Scotland and Wales. Selfridges
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Wise Traditions
SUMMER 2017