Why are the Raw Milk Laws like this in TN?
Article by Shawn Dady on July 25, 2012
A brief explanation of why the TN raw milk laws are the way they are
It is very difficult to change dairy laws in our state because large and powerful companies in the dairy industry have a vested interest in keeping small farmers from being able to sell directly to the public. To protect their profits, they put out scare tactics to convince the public that raw milk is dangerous and attempt to keep raw milk sales illegal. The public should know what is going on.
In Tennessee we have a very powerful big dairy lobby. Mainly these are the big processors–think of the major brands of milk in the store. These big guys do not want raw milk made legal because it would make their processing more difficult and not as profitable. Many of their own dairies are confinement operations where the cows are never let out on grass. Mainly the reason for this is that many times they have no land to graze them on. Confined cows live about 42 months on average, as opposed to normal, healthy cows grazed out on grass that live 10 to 15 years.
Raw milk is a natural product and when refrigerated, it does not last as long as cooked milk. It should be consumed when it is fresh, within 7 – 9 days. Cooked milk lasts weeks on the shelf and gives processors more time to truck it long distances. Nothing that is alive is left in it and so nothing can die — although harmful new bacteria can grow in it. It’s kind of like white, dead, watery bacteria food.
And many times, commercial dairies can be less careful about getting dung and bacteria in the milk, because they are going to pasteurize it anyway, so what the heck. I personally don’t want to drink cooked dung.
Secondly, these big processors do not want small, direct-sale farmers in competition with them. It’s hard when you have a monopoly to let go of it. The big processors only pay the small dairies they use about 20 cents per gallon. A small direct-sale raw milk farmer can sell grassfed raw milk direct to the public for $6 to $8 per gallon. What a huge difference in income if small dairies could convert to grass feeding and sell directly to consumers. It could save small family farms.
In the last 10 years, milk prices have dropped so low (except at the grocery store) that more than 1000 dairy farmers in TN have been forced out of business, leaving the number now less than 500 in our state. It is very sad.
If the small raw milk farmers could sell directly to the public, a lot of farms could be saved. Some farmers in Connecticut (where raw milk sales are legal, even in retail stores) get upwards of $9 or $10 per gallon for their fresh, raw milk on the farm, as opposed to dairy farmers in TN who now simply can’t make a decent living. Most small dairies in TN are going out of business.