In Brief:
- Develop modern regulations and a certification process for farms that provide the sanitary production, distribution and sale of unpasteurized milk in the province.
- Adopt the draft Artisan Herdshare Regulation proposed by the British Columbia Herdshare Association
- Create a new class of farm: “certified herdshare farm” under the Milk Industry Act
- Amend section 2(a) of the Public Health Act, Health Hazards Regulation, to exempt herd-shares certified under the new Regulation;
Additionally:
The current law in British Columbia forbids distribution of a raw milk, AKA unpasteurized milk – a product which is legal in 43 US states plus England, Ireland, New Zealand, and all European nations.
The prohibition is obsolete. The Raw Milk Institute has developed an on-farm food safety training program for raw milk production producing excellent results. It has been proven that milk can be produced in British Columbia pathogen-free.
Keeping the sale of raw milk illegal isn’t stopping the distribution, but merely criminalizing the act and also forces B.C. residents to travel across the border to Washington to purchase it.
Consumers in B.C. deserve to have legal access to farm-fresh unprocessed milk. Eighty-nine percent of Canadian dairy farmers drink their own farm-fresh milk according to a 2010 study by Guelph University.
It’s time to extend that privilege to all British Columbians.
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