| | Attend Hearing April 8 & Contact Senators Support Raw Milk in Montana with HB 245 UPDATE: House Bill 245 ( HB 245) has been assigned a hearing in the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee on Wednesday, April 8! Please contact Chris if you plan on attending (see contact info below). It is currently illegal to sell raw milk in Montana. HB 245 would change this. The bill would allow small-scale farmers who meet specific standards to sell raw milk. Please help to get this bill passed: Attend the hearing, email committee members, and contact your legislator! This is one of multiple stages for the bill. For more information, see below or contact Chris Rosenau at [email protected] Please pass this alert on and ask others to do the same.
|
Action #1 - Attend the Committee Hearing on April 8 WHEN: Wednesday, April 8, 3 p.m. WHERE: Capitol Building, Room 317 1301 East 6th Avenue WHAT: Hearing before the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee WHY: Having people in the room really makes an impact on the legislators! See More Information below to better understand the issues. **Chris Rosenau is using a different strategy this session to accommodate the Committee, so if you plan on coming to the hearing, contact her as soon as possible at [email protected]!** |
Action #2 - Email Committee Members Whether or not you can come in person, please email all of the members of the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee to urge them to vote yes on HB 245! It is OK to contact the committee up through the date of the hearing and even for a few days after the hearing before they vote on the bill. Just click on this link, and fill out the form to send the same message to each senator in the entire Senate Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee at one time: http://leg.mt.gov/css/Sessions/64th/legwebmessage.asp - Enter your name, address, email, etc
- Select "Senate Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee" from the drop down menu after clicking the "committee" bubble
- Type in HB 245 for the bill number
- Click on the "for" bubble to show you support raw milk
- Include a short message as to why in the box below
- Hit "send" and it will go to all the members of the committee at once
|
Action #3 - Contact Your Own State Senator Call your state senator (not your U.S. senators) at 406-444-4800, and urge him/her to do everything he/she can to move HB 245 forward! Or send him/her a web mail at this link (same as above for the committee); just choose the "legislator" bubble instead of "committee." Don't know who your state senator is? Find out here. |
More Information HB 245 creates a small herd exemption from the existing mandatory pasteurization requirements as well as from the cost prohibitive Grade A dairy construction and equipment standards. It allows a small farmer to have up to 7 lactating cows and 15 lactating goats or lactating sheep and sell raw milk. The farmer must have a permit. Milk can only be sold to people coming to the farm to buy it. Lactating animals must undergo yearly Tuberculosis testing and Brucellosis testing per current Montana state laws. Fluid milk and milk products will be tested eight times in a year (all animals' milk co-mingled together, not individual animals' milk tested). Signs and labels indicate at the farm and on the products that the product is unpasteurized. The bill also allows Grade A dairies to sell raw milk directly to consumers who come to the farm. Since Darigold and Meadow Gold forbid the sale of raw milk and 99% of the dairies in MT are members of those pools, this would apply, in practice, only to the two independent dairies in the state, or to those dairies having the means and desire to leave the pools and become independent. Updates will be posted on the Raw Milk Montana Facebook page. Please use this URL as many people are being directed to an inactive page that is not associated with this bill: www.facebook.com/rawmilkmontana For more information, contact Chris Rosenau at [email protected]
|
 |
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit [EIN 20-8605130], defends the rights and broadens the freedoms of family farms and artisan food producers while protecting consumer access to raw milk and nutrient-dense foods. Learn more About Us or read the FTCLDF 2013 Summary.
Donations to the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund are always appreciated though not tax-deductible. Prefer to make a tax-deductible donation? Contact us by email at [email protected] or call 703-208-FARM (3276). |
Please forward this alert to others who are concerned about protecting locally-sourced nutrient-dense foods and preserving sustainable small family farms and artisan food producers as well as defending the rights to sell and to access the foods of one's choice from the source of one's choice. |
| | | | | | |
|
