Bowing to strong public pressure about the right to buy and drink raw milk, the New Zealand government has unveiled new rules which permit farmers to sell this most basic, probiotic rich and nutritious of foods directly to consumers.
Direct farm sales include home deliveries of raw milk to both rural and urban consumers, paving the way for the return of the beloved milkman.
The new policy requires raw milk farmers to register with the Ministry for Primary Industries, meet hygiene requirements, test milk for pathogens, keep records of sales, and label the milk correctly.
Food Safety Minister Jo Goodhew said that the New Zealand government has “worked hard to find the right balance between managing the risks to public health while recognising the demand from rural and urban consumers to access raw milk.”
It seems that despite the forward thinking decision, New Zealand government officials are sadly still in the dark about how safe raw milk really is compared with other foods as gleaned from data provided by the Centers for Disease Control.
Research by Ted Beals MD in 2011 examined an exhaustive list of published reports of illness attributed to raw milk from 1999 to 2010. During that eleven-year period, illnesses attributed to raw milk averaged only 42 per year. There were no deaths. The calculation of raw milk illnesses on a per person basis comes from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) FoodNet survey, which found that 3 percent of the population consumes raw milk, or about 9.4 million people, based on the 2010 census.
Extrapolating these government figures for the entire United States population, Dr. Beals established that a person is about 35,000 times more likely to get sick from other foods than from raw milk.
Fortunately, the misguided belief that raw milk is an inherently dangerous and high risk food did not prevent the New Zealand government from doing the right thing in paving the way for consumer access. A number of options had been investigated during the government review which included the complete prohibition of raw milk sales or at least limiting the volume available to the public. Both of these plans were dropped in favor of direct and unlimited farm sales including home delivery.
Goodhew said that the new requirements for New Zealand farmers who sell raw milk will come into effect on March 1, 2016.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
More Information
New Raw Milk Rules Unveiled
Government Data Proves Raw Milk is Safe
CDC Data: Raw Milk Safe During Pregnancy
101 Uses for Soured Raw Milk
Raw Milk Significantly Eases Labor Pain
The new rules are far from good news. The increased red tape and associated costs have effectively killed the raw milk trade in all but the large raw milk suppliers in new Zealand. 🙁
Raw milk is all we need—Lets see we can buy soft drinks which are all chemicals, smoke cigarettes which we know kills you, purchase skim milk which is all sugar, eat candy which is all processed sugar and more, etc. But to consider being able to buy a product that is health and good for all would be insane! We have certainly lost our common sense. Proud to be able to drink unpasteurized milk. I will never drink store milk. Only milk directly from an organic farm
Now we need ALL of our nations to allow highly nutritious grass fed raw organic milk AND change all of the cows over to A-2 milk.
Congratulations New Zealand! Smart Move. Here is a brief video interview I did with Dr. Ron Paul about Raw Milk a few years ago: youtu.be/sAQdjjXCN6A
Not in Australia.
The Nazi-Gaystapo will oppose it. Over their dead bodies they say !
My dream. Let’s hope so !
Either way! Cows milk is cows milk. Meant for bringing a calf from 65 lbs to 400 lbs quickly. Thats growth we don’t need. Not a healthy choice by far.
History would disagree with you. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/why-milk-matters-and-why-its-not-just-for-baby-cows/
You are so wrong….raw milk from organically raised grass fed cows is a super food that can heal humans of many diseases…it’s the homogenized milk from big Agra dairies that are toxic death.
Check out milk-diet.com Two independent doctors in the early 1900’s prescribed milk (when it was all raw and organic) to restore health to many diseased and afflicted people. They both wrote books about it and one of them is available for download. The reason the calves grow so fast and large is because of the nutrient density of healthy cows milk. It certainly won’t do that to me….I’ll be satiated way before that even begins to happen.
This is an argument I have heard most of my life….do you see any 400 pound babies out there? Would you suggest that obesity is from drinking cows milk?
Reading this seems to me that there were no rules for raw milk, and now it has been codified with rules that will make it burdensome to sell raw milk. So while previously you had to prove that raw milk caused harm, now raw milk sellers have to make sure they are not causing harm.
It seems to me that selling raw milk became much harder now. I don’t see this as a good development.
There were apparently rules before … it is my understanding that there were limits on how much raw milk could be sold per farm. This is a positive development from the New Zealanders who have emailed me about it.
Yes. There were rules before. You could only buy directly from the farm gate and only 5 litres per person. There were ways around this – ie co-ops. Cannot comment on hygiene rules etc though.