The FUTURE is ORGANIC - Raw Dairy Choice

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"It Used to be a Family with One Cow had a Business!"
Lora Lea Misterly
Quillisascut Farm
Rice, WA 99167
www.quillisascutcheese.com

You may change the wording however you like. It's also available as an MS Word document.

AND, you can simply email this to WSDA by clicking the button above.

And, please don't forget to join the Campaign by clicking the JOIN button above. It only takes a moment.

To: Claudia Coles
WSDA Food Safety Program
PO Box 42560
1111 Washington Street SE
Olympia, WA 98504

All over the country, families like mine are becoming dairy farmers. We're buying shares in herds of dairy animals and are contracting with small family farmers to board and tend our herds, keep them milked and make our milk available to us. The “shareholder dairy” helps consumers obtain the freshest, most nutritious milk and dairy products possible while it helps support small and micro-scale neighborhood dairy farmers. Because the milk is not being “sold” (it is being acquired by consumers who have become producers of their own dairy foods), some state governments, like Colorado, do not require shareholder dairies to be encumbered by expensive licensing programs. A reasonable level of cleanliness and care are all that is necessary for small-scale and micro-scale shareholder dairies to produce safe, healthful products for their shareholders.

However, the Washington State Department of Agriculture claims that only shareholder dairies that are licensed to produce grade A milk can legally operate in the state. This effectively eliminates the economic viability of the shareholder dairy in Washington. The reality is, Washington consumers continue to exercise their right to produce their own dairy foods, which is perfectly legal in Washington. WSDA’s stance on this issue forces consumers and producers who choose to cooperate with each other in producing their own dairy foods underground. This is an untenable and unnecessary situation.

I have joined a drive called the Raw Dairy Choice Campaign. We urge WSDA to stop rallying its forces against unregulated shareholder dairies and accept that the model is no different than that in which a private family raises its own dairy animals and consumes its own dairy products (which, again, is legal in WA). We want to see the shareholder dairy model unfettered by WSDA allegations of illegality so that more consumers and producers can take advantage of the model and so that education and peer to peer networking can improve methods and standards among participants in the open.

For more information, visit:
http://www.thefutureisorganic.net/dairy/RawDairyChoice.htm

Yours truly,

Please join a growing up-swelling of Washingtonians and demand the official recognition of the private, unregulated shareholder dairy. To get involved, contact Chrys Ostrander at:

More information on the benefits of raw milk, the detriments of pasteurized milk, the history of the raw milk movement and efforts to defame raw milk through misinformation, go to

The Future is Organic Raw Dairy Choice Campaign

You could become a producer of your own fresh raw milk and cheese for you and your family...

But WATCH OUT! The Washington State Department of Agriculture might take ENFORCEMENT ACTION against you if you partner with your friends and neighbors to do it.

Here's a letter you can send to the Washington State Department of Agriculture in support of Shareholder dairies.

You may change the wording however you like. It's also available as an MS Word document.

AND, you can simply email this to WSDA by clicking the button above.