An editorial from the Charleston Daily Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — To hear opponents of the bill passed by the Legislature legalizing the sale of raw milk, you’d think grocery store shelves would be full of the unpasteurized product, and hurried consumers might unwittingly pick up a bottle of raw milk when they meant to buy pasteurized.
If that were the case, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s veto of raw milk bill might have made good public health sense.
But under Senate Bill 30, relating to shared animal ownership agreements to consumer raw milk, public health would not be in danger.
Passed with bi-partisan support, the legislation would allow individuals to consume raw milk only when they purchase partial ownership in the milk producing animal, helped pay for the animal’s care, agreed to not redistribute the raw milk, sign a document acknowledging the risks and receive milk only from animals which had tested negatively for certain diseases in the past 12 months.
In other words, only a small percentage of consumers — informed and educated on the issue and passionate on the product — would go to the trouble.
