Despite economy, consumers go to great lengths for raw milk
Most farmers still keep herd-share deals quiet, but consumer demand is high.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tim Wightman pours fresh raw milk onto a filter during a milking session on his farm near Arcanum. Story focuses on a business trend story on the growing demand for raw, unpasteurized milk. The sale of raw milk is illegal in Ohio, but Wightman supplies milk to consumers by way of herd-share agreements, through which consumers purchase shares of the herd. Wightman's shareholders run the gamut, from home-school moms seeking a nutritional product for their child to professionals at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.The highly secretive business of supplying raw, unpasteurized milk to consumers continues to expand, despite the sour economy.
Dairy farmers like Tim Wightman of Darke County, who supplies milk from five Milking Shorthorns to 157 shareholders in local towns such as Yellow Springs, Kettering and Beavercreek, said demand for fluid milk remains strong, though consumers are making more cream and butter themselves to cut costs.
"We've got some people making serious concessions in the rest of their lives to get these products," said Wightman, 47, whose Yore Farm near Arcanum began operating in March 2007.
Wightman said consumers of his herd's milk range from home-schooled families to professionals at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
At least 500,000 U.S. residents, including dairy farmers, drink raw milk, said Sally Fallon Morell, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for raw milk and other foods it deems "nutrient-dense."
At least five dairy farms in Montgomery, Darke and Butler counties are sources of raw milk for Dayton-area consumers, said Jim Roberts of Dayton, who heads the local Weston A. Price chapter.
The Kremer family's E.A.T. Food For Life, which delivers raw milk produced at another Darke County dairy farm for pick-up near the 2nd Street Public Market in Dayton, has seen its number of Dayton-area shareholders soar from 165 in 2006 to nearly 300. "It's the catalyst that fuels the local food movement," Dan Kremer said.
Joe Streit, 65, of Butler County, started buying Jersey cows three years ago with his wife, Janet, when many of his friends were buying retirement condos. His herd has expanded to 20, with 270 shareholders, the bulk of them in Hamilton, Warren and Butler counties. He's hiring a full-time farmhand to keep up.
"We became swarmed with people who wanted raw milk," Streit said.
Wightman said he receives three to four times more money per gallon of milk through herd-shares and has lower per-cow overhead costs, but said his per-cow costs for feed and testing for his milk's sanitation and quality are much higher than those at larger dairies.
And herd-share agreements aren't a good fit for all farmers, he said. Raw-milk consumers often are picky.
"If you're not good with people, you're not going to want to see that car drive in the driveway," Wightman said.
Still, Streit said he finds dealing directly with raw milk consumers empowering.
"I decided I was going to set the price and not have some guy in a fancy suit sitting in a cubicle someplace determine what the price of my product was going to be," he said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7457 or
bsutherly@DaytonDailyNews.com.
Why the cry
over raw milk?
Retailing raw milk is illegal in Ohio and 24 other states, reflecting public health concerns about food-borne illness outbreaks from raw dairy consumption.
Dairy farm owners may legally drink their cows' milk because they own the cattle. And consumers who believe raw milk is more nourishing than pasteurized milk can get it by purchasing shares in dairy herds, thus making them cow owners.
Dairy farmers who sell shares in their herds were heartened two years ago when a Darke County judge overturned the state Department of Agriculture's revocation of the milk license of a Versailles dairy farm with herd-share agreements, claiming it had sold raw milk.
Many dairy farmers still keep quiet about herd-shares, lest they face similar encounters with state regulators, said David G. "Gary" Cox, general counsel to the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund.
A Washington County court ruling against the state Department of Agriculture in October allows the manufacturing of pet food from raw milk, protecting another market for Ohio's dairy farmers.
