Selling raw milk to consumers continues to be a controversial subject. Where do you stand on the issue?
Richard Hebron, 41, was driving along an anonymous stretch of highway near Ann Arbor, Mich., last October when state cops pulled him over, ordered him to put his hands on the hood of his mud-splattered truck and seized its contents: 453 gal. of milk.
Yes, milk. Raw, unpasteurized milk. To supply a small but growing market among health-conscious city and suburban dwellers for milk taken straight from the udder, Hebron was dealing the stuff on behalf of a farming cooperative he runs in southwestern Michigan. An undercover agricultural investigator had infiltrated the co-op as part of a sting operation that resulted in the seizure of $7,000 worth of fresh-food items, including 35 lbs. of raw butter, 29 qt. of cream and all those gallons of the suspicious white liquid. Although Hebron’s home office was searched and his computer seized, no charges have been filed. “When they tested the milk, they couldn’t find any problems with it,” says Hebron. “It seems like they’re just looking for some way to shut us down.”
What raw milk fans most resent is stepped-up efforts to crack down on a personal choice that wasn’t doing anyone else any harm.