WI Raw Milk Bill-Action needed today

[Guest guest]

This is a real balancing act. On the one hand it would be great for WI to have

some way for any sales of Raw Milk, since they are set on banning all sales of

any kind state-wide. However, what you said is absolutely true. Not only do

you need a contract with a processor, if you quit shipping to the processor,

they are required to inform DATCP in 3 days and if you don't resume shipping in

30 days your license is revoked. There is no way to have a grade A license and

not be large enough, capitilized enough and committed enough to commercial

darying, organic or not, to continuously ship at the required quatities to

processors. In other words, if raw milk sales finally make it more profitable

for you to scale back and rely on those raw milk sales, your license will be

revoked and you will not be able to sell raw milk. Sound like a catch-22? It

is.

But you may feel that some raw milk sales - even if it is limited to commercial

dairys - is better than none, so If you live in WI and want to see this Bill

move forward, phone your State Senator or Assembly person TODAY (Thursday) and

ask them to become a co-sponser. They need as many co-sponsors as possible to

keep the bill alive! Senator Kapanke of the LaCrosse-Vernon County area has

already signed on, as have a few others, but more is needed. The deadline for

co-sponsors is 5:00pm Today!

~Jan

>

> To be fair, there is a lot of controversy surrounding this bill right now.

The bill would require a dairy to have a grade A license, and in order to get a

grade A license one needs to have a contract in place with a milk processor.

This effectively blackballs any small, independent dairies from legally selling

raw milk under this bill. Also, in order to have a grade A license, one would

need to register their premises under the draconian Premises Registration

system, the first step of NAIS. WICFA (the WI Independent Consumers and Farmers

Assocation) opposes the bill for these reasons. Please read the following

article by Marti Oakley for more perspective on the opposition to this bill:

>

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http://ppjg.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/wisconsin-a-state-under-seige-by-its-own-go\

vernment/#more-4974

>

> and WICFA's position:

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> http://www.wicfa.org/wicfa_opposition_to_LRB3242-3.htm

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> Cheryl

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