Texas farmers tout new raw milk rules as a major victory
The state now allows delivery of raw milk directly to consumers.
FILE 2010 Raw milk is carried to car at a Collin County farm.(ANDY JACOBSOHN/Staff Photographer)
2:46 PM on May 19, 2021 CDT
Buying raw milk just got a whole lot easier in the state of Texas. The Texas Department of State Health Services published a new set of rules that legalize the delivery of raw milk anywhere in the state and allow small farms to more efficiently get their product into the hands of consumers.
Such changes have long been lobbied for by groups like the Cameron, Texas-based Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance that advocates for independent family farms in Texas. Raw milk is milk that has not been put through the pasteurization process that kills most bacteria.
Related Carolina Mueller and her partner were starting crops ranging from onions to broccoli in their greenhouse and tending to a collection of winter crops growing at Middle Ground Farms, their small, diversified organic vegetable farm outside of Austin, when the unprecedented snowstorm and deep freeze hit last month.
All the crops they had in their fields parsley, purple sprouting broccoli, radicchio and chard were lost in the freeze. And because the storm overwhelmed the state’s deregulated power grid, triggering widespread blackouts, their irrigation pumps shut down, so Middle Ground Farm lost access to water.
They weren’t able to water the plant starts and lost a whole round of young plants, setting them back by weeks if not months, and likely creating gaps in production for their wholesale clients and the community supported agriculture (CSA) subscription they provide in the Austin area. In total, they estimate they lost $30,000 worth of output.
Happened in US 40 Years Ago : 87 US Farmers Unions Speak Out for Indian Farmers Protest Reagan era furthered the farm crisis through deliberate federal policy changes, with systematic erosion of parity prices and other deregulatory efforts.
Rakesh Tikait, president of Bharti Kisan Union, one of the largest farmers unions, is helped to get onto a stage upon his arrival to attend a Maha Panchayat or grand village council meeting as part of a farmers protest against farm laws at Kandela village in Jind district in the northern state of Haryana, India, February 3, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Danish Siddiqui.
World21/Feb/2021
New Delhi: Citing damning examples of Reagan era policies that have led to irreparable damage to the US’s farmers, 87 farmers’ unions in the country have extended solidarity to the ongoing protests by farmers in India.
Austin 360
Central Texas farmers have been devastated by this week s freeze and power outages, and local organizations are already finding new ways to get financial relief to farmers who need it.
One way that people can help farmers whose winter crops have been decimated in the past week is to shop at local farmers markets, which will be open this weekend. Many are waiving booth fees for farmers, who will be bringing produce they harvested before the freeze and any other shelf-stable products they sell, such as pickles. Some vendors will not have anything to sell at the market for weeks as they start over and re-plant, says Nora Chovanec, deputy director of Texas Farmers Markets. Others will have limited inventory.