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Contact:
chrys@thefutureisorganic.net
"It Used to be a
Family with One Cow had a Business!"
Lora Lea Misterly
Quillisascut Farm
Rice, WA 99167
www.quillisascutcheese.com
This page is under construction. Please check back for updates.
PLEASE NOTE: Any shareholder agreement or contract reproduced on this website is provided as a sample for educational purposes only. The language of shareholder dairy contracts continues to evolve. Language usually must be tailored to fit within different states' legal environments, particulars of each farm and preferences of shareholders. Raw Dairy Choice is researching shareholder dairy contracts and we are putting together this web page devoted to this crucial area.
Contracts are contested in court every day – just check
with any contracts attorney. Contracts attorneys exist because contracts are
contested in court every day. What does that mean for a shareholder dairy
operation? It means that folks can enter into a shareholder contract, with
someone who is at the time a friend, neighbor, relative, etc., and both sides
can believe that the contract is binding and waterproof. Down the road,
something happens – the customer believes there’s an offtaste in the milk,
someone is unhappy with how the milk is produced, someone gets sick and they
want to (correctly or incorrectly) blame it on the milk, whatever. There are as
many possibilities as stars in the sky. Bottom line is, if one of the
shareholders no longer approves of how the operation is being managed, many
contracts are written too vaguely to clearly define who is at fault and how to
remedy the disagreement. That leaves room for debate over what the contract does
and does not say. That debate is where attorneys step in and cases go to court
to resolve the matter. That’s where the shareholder model can fail to protect
the interests of a small-scale dairy and can be so costly, that even if the
dairy wins the case they could very well lose the farm due to the costs of
defending themselves.
It must also be said that one reality out there as present as contested
contracts and high-paid lawyers, is trust. There is a lot of trust between
shareholders and the dairy men and women they deal with. Yes, things can go
wrong and the trust can break down resulting in court cases, but trust is a
value worth being nurtured as the future of the shareholder dairy unfolds.
Concomitant with the tightening of the legal structures of all shareholder
dairies needs to be a reconfiguration of the relationship between producer and
consumer. When food production is re-localized, there is a face on it – it’s not
an anonymous transaction any more – there’s accountability, there’s dialog,
there’s community. With shareholder dairies, there’s also a sharing of risk and
responsibility. Legal documents are almost always drafted to anticipate the
worst-case scenario. In reality, much can always be done to rectify difficulties
when parties to agreements hold each other in high regard and maintain mutual
respect. The shareholder dairy represents an opportunity for the evolution of
human relationships and provides a fertile ground for deeper, more meaningful
and more compassionate discourse.
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:
The Future Is Organic Raw Dairy Choice Campaign
Ph: 509-725-0610
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