Editor’s note: I received an email within the last couple of days that explains how city dwellers who do not have time to drive to a farm that supplies raw milk are at risk of not being able to access raw milk because the new regulations would prohibit the drop-off of pre-paid raw milk to collection points where the milk can be refrigerated until it is picked up by purchasers.
Excerpts from the email (from raw milk supplier) are below.
The petition documents are here:
Raw Milk Petition Cover Page – Sept 2015
The petition campaign is aiming for at least 10,000 signatures so please help if you support people having the choice of buying raw milk.
Hello everyone,
…You will be able to buy as much raw milk from the farmer as you want, said the headlines and everyone breathed and relaxed.
“However the idiocy of the fine print means we are now having to petition for permission to carry on delivering milk in the way we have been doing, to drop-off/collection points.
“The new regulations going before Cabinet in November will see collection points banned and new regulations only for raw milk to be delivered to each individual residential address, not work places (guess if you work at home you are allowed to get milk) and not fridges in shops. (Yes, you can come to the farm – we really really want 700 cars a week driving 80 kms from Wellington, up North Manakau Rd, Martins Rd and our farm driveway with kids round.)
“This is crazy – at present milk goes into fridges and chilly bins with ice packs – with the new system, the Minister ‘hopes’ we will hand the milk to the consumer who will put it in their fridge. If they forget to put out a chilly bin or ice packs who knows… They can’t get the milk from a dedicated fridge in a shop because someone might see them and try and pick up a bottle for themselves and not be tracked and more people will learn about raw milk … (But it’s ok to ask people who come to the farm to fill in a diary with their names and phone numbers but if they refuse we can’t do anything about that.. And if we did attempt to deliver house-to-house we would have to increase our customer base to make it economic and we would be advertising on the radio, on the van, on the highway… )
“As it is, the extra testing and inspection requirements, the new bottling system, new bottling room, labeling, and trackability requirement for each bottle sold will add quite significantly to costs. We already do the new actual milking stuff – teat washing, drying, separate vat etc.
“… People should have the right to informed choice with accessible milk.. Please collect as many signatures as you possibly can.”