Raw milk permit delays leave farmers with a sour taste

A draft bill headed to the Utah Legislature aims to provide clear guidelines when testing raw milk, and a standard to reissue a suspended permit. (Getty Images)

When the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food found campylobacter bacteria in the raw milk that Shayn and Kristen Bowler sold in Utah Natural Meat and Milk , their West Jordan farm, it triggered a monthslong process to reinstate their permit.

The department had linked the bacteria to 14 illnesses in September 2023, according to a news release , and issued a cease and desist order to the business. The farm, which usually had a line of customers from the Salt Lake Valley and other places, including Nevada and Wyoming, had to stop operations for about two months while the state conducted multiple tests, way longer than the 10 days it usually took the state to test the raw milk.

“The main problem, as you can imagine, that happened to us is that we started to run out of funds, and that became increasingly difficult to try and navigate the process of discovering with the department what was going on,” Shayn Bowler told legislators on Wednesday. “Consequently, during that period, we lost about $96,000 in revenue, and we were forced to sell off two-thirds of our dairy cow herd.”

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX

The Bowlers’ farm has a waiting list of about 500 people who want to buy raw milk, Bowler said, and they don’t have a location to do so. As raw milk gains popularity in Utah, a lawmaker is looking to create a quicker, smoother process for small farmers to resume sales after similar pathogens are found in raw milk.

In a meeting with the Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Interim Committee, West Jordan Republican Rep. Cheryl Acton presented draft legislation to provide clear guidelines to the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food when testing raw milk at third-party laboratories, and a standard to reissue a suspended permit.

“It is difficult and costly, of course, for a small agricultural business to maintain a herd for a prolonged period of time and dump the milk,” Acton said. “It’s very expensive, so it would be advantageous for those small producers to have a clear process.”

The Legislature would consider the bill during its 2025 General Session.

Some argue raw milk boosts the immune system and has health properties, such as beneficial bacteria that makes it easier to digest, and vitamins, minerals, enzymes and fats easier to absorb, according to a Bon Appétit report . But, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned about the risk of foodborne illnesses linked to unpasteurized milk.

Consuming raw milk could expose people to germs such as campylobacter (recently discovered in an outbreak in Idaho linked to raw milk), cryptosporidium, E. coli, listeria, brucella, and salmonella, the CDC’s website lists. Symptoms “can include diarrhea, stomach cramping, and vomiting. In some cases, more severe outcomes like Guillain-Barré syndrome or hemolytic uremic syndrome can occur, potentially leading to paralysis, kidney failure, stroke, or even death,” according to the website.

Dr. Hubert Karreman, a North Carolina veterinarian, who also runs a dairy farm that sells raw milk, testified during the committee hearing, citing a study associated with a couple of Canadian health care institutions that listed more hospitalizations and deaths linked with pasteurized milk from 2007 to 2020 — but also accounted for 20 outbreaks involving raw milk, versus 12 outbreaks related to pasteurized products.

“As a dairy veterinarian and dairy farmer, I certainly don’t want to make milk, pasteurized or raw, look like poison, because it’s not,” Karreman said. “Let’s be honest, the food we eat all has risks. CDC estimates every year 48 million, (or) 1 in 6, gets sick from a foodborne illness.”

While the Department of Agriculture and Food believes it can work out a smoother process to regulate raw milk, it still has some concerns about how the testing timeline would work, Craig Buttars, commissioner at the department, told the committee, since the bill requires genome sequencing — a lab test that helps determine the genetic makeup of an organism — to link a producer to an outbreak.

“It’s not clear if that testing is required before the department can issue a cease and desist order, or if that can happen after,” Buttars said.

Additionally, the department doesn’t do genome sequencing, and is unsure if those tests could be conducted in five business days.

“We have no control over it, or we don’t have access to patient data. It is more expensive, and we do not have the resources to pay for that. We do not have the funding that would be needed, and the cost would likely go to producers,” Buttars said.

Buttars also used his time before the committee to clarify that while some raw milk facilities advertise that their milk is tested by the department, and testing doesn’t ensure that raw milk is safe for all consumers.

“Advertising it could be a little bit misleading to the public, so we want to make sure that that’s clarified,” Buttars said. “That that practice is not standard.”

DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST