I am a criminal dairyman here in Wisconsin who has dared to share raw milk with people.
We here are so envious of you in Vermont, but I can see from your article [“Notes from the raw milk tour,” October] who the heroes and villians are, same as here.
Your health department - of all the people you interviewed, happy, working hard, helping people - is in one sour mood and angry for sure, and all they have to say is “don't drink raw milk.” And you can bet - there, like here - they are not being cooperative one bit, in trying to make sure raw milk is safe, with a reasonable system without so much overhead as to be silly, to be the same as saying, “No raw milk.”
I have found that these health departments have some kind of psychosis about raw milk. They have not bothered to really educate themselves on the subject; they just get some kind of jollies out of spreading fear -- and, as we've seen, not being helpful under any circumstances, even when raw milk is legal.