Posted on 01/22/2014 5:04:36 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A proposed Maryland bill would restore the right of the states’ citizens to participate in cow shares, or cow boarding, to obtain raw milk. Maryland citizens lost the right to raw milk via cow shares in 2006, when the appointed director of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene redefined the word “sale” to include agistments. A hearing on the bill is scheduled for January 28 at 1:00pm at the Lowe House Office Building in Annapolis.
Cow shares or cow boarding refers to a practice in which people buy shares in individual animals for a portion of the milk they produce. These people may not own the land or have the skill or time necessary to own a cow (and since cows produce far too much milk for a single family to consume selling shares even makes sense for people who are able to own a cow or two), but the farmer is paid to care for the animals and distribute the milk to the cows’ owners. It is a very popular way of getting around raw milk bans nationwide.
Since the undemocratically passed ban on cow shares in Maryland criminalized this practice, the state’s residents have been forced to look elsewhere for their milk (participating in cow shares across state lines, as the sale of milk across state lines is illegal on the federal level), while hundreds of Maryland raw and natural dairy farms have closed down.
House Bill 3 was filed by Annapolis Delegates James Hubbard (D-23A) and Nic Kipke (R-31). Hubbard and Kipke point to a variety of reasons for proposing the legislation. They say it will help local farmers, create more economic opportunities, and would help keep agriculture local. In keeping sales of agricultural products local, the bill could help more money stay in the state and in individual communities, prompting Hubbard to call the bill a “win-win-win.”
A hearing on the issue will take place in Annapolis’s Lowe House Office Building on January 28 at 1:00pm. In addition to the environmental, economic and tax benefits, the bill has obvious freedom implications. It would re-open and renew a whole new, increasingly popular market. Raw milk advocates say that unpasteurized dairy has significant health benefits, including increased protein, vitamins, minerals and probiotics.
I won’t argue against any of that. As well, we both have the constitutional right to voice our opinions on this matter and to petition our government as we see fit which brings me back to my original point, we pasteurize milk for a reason, because unpasteurized milk has long been known to be unsafe.
and there are laws that govern the delivery of electricity into and throughout your home as well, laws which prevent your house from burning down. Shall we do away with those laws too?
Thanks for the ping!
No one is trying to take your corporate government-approved pasteurized milk away from you. lol
Those procedures are already in place, it's called "pasteurization". lol
You’re so devoted to the Nanny State you can’t even tolerate the idea of selling raw milk even though you’ll still have pasteurized milk.
I just don’t want to see people getting sick because small farmers want to save a buck or two.
Your straw men are getting more and more absurd. It isn’t about farmer’s saving a buck or two (it isn’t farmers’ who pay to pasteurize milk to begin with) it’s about consumers who want raw milk.
“There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.” ― Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
I just had my first jug of raw milk — felt like I had contraband, but fortunately, we are still semi-free in Arizona and allowed to buy it. I’m not a big milk drinker at all, never have been, but wow... was this ever delicious.
The FDA (run by Monsanto-Big Pharm-Big Ag) have all done such fine jobs protecting the public, not altering “food” and medicine at all... /sarc — I’ll take my chances with the smaller, more careful farmers.
“The federal FDA regulates food and drugs in the name of public safety every day of every year.”
Yes they do, and the result? Tens of thousands of food and Pharmaceutical related deaths each year.
>> If you want to drink raw milk then have at it.
I agree with you regarding raw milk consumption — but the essence of the OP is to get the nanny state the hell out of our lives and let those willing to take risks to achieve benefits have the freedom to do just that.
Right?
>> I just don’t want to see people getting sick because small farmers want to save a buck or two.
You haven’t a clue about either the science or the economics of small-scale agricultural production.
I have never tried it or even looked for it so I don’t know if it’s available here in CO. I would like to. All of the older generation in my family is gone now except for my Mom and they all talked about how good fresh milk from the cow was. I get the feeling some here are afraid they’ll be exposed to second-hand milk. lol
I had read so many testimonials about the good things it does for one’s teeth, so decided to break down and buy some... It was readily available at one of the local health food stores (the dairy is near Phoenix, so a couple of hours away from us, but still, local enough :).
Our kitties all really liked it too. I tried it first to make sure it was safe, not the other way around, heh.
Hahah, totally about the second-hand milk! Geez...
After I watched the jackboots raid and destroy the Venice Beach coop, all for the crime of selling to coop members, I realized how far gone some were...
some consumers want to use heroin too. I don’t think they should be able to use that either and I’m comfortable with our government interfering in such activity. It doesn’t make me a proponent of the nanny state, it makes me “reasonable”. You are the one grasping at straw men here, not me.
why else would I give a damn one way or the other?
Comparing raw milk to heroin is the sign of a degenerate mind who doesn’t even know what a straw man argument is. LMAO
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.