Standing up against protectionist dairy industry
By Greg Hertz
During the last few weeks I have been working with other legislators on three bills related to the food industry in Montana. The first bill was HB 478, better known as the “Food Cottage Bill.” This bill creates standards for cottage food and cleans up sections of current code that have led to confusion and uneven enforcement. The bill will also allow cottage-food products (low-risk and non-potentially hazardous products) to be made in small quantities in a home kitchen and sold directly by the producer to consumers in Montana. It also decreases the red tape for mobile and temporary food stands by creating standard regulations that won’t change from county to county. I would like to thank Jan Tusick with Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center in Ronan for her hard work on putting this bill together over the last couple of years. It passed the House with my full support.
I have also been working on changing the milk rules and laws in Montana. Most of these rules and laws have not been changed over the last 35 years and have not kept up with scientific changes or consumer demands. The first bill was HB 399, which would have allowed the processor of milk to establish a use by or best by date to place on the product just like all other items a consumer purchases in the dairy case at the retail store. This bill was killed in committee by the dairy industry. The dairy industry controls the Board of Livestock and has been establishing rules that have benefited their industry at the expense of the Montana consumer. We have the highest priced milk in the Northwest due to limited competition. This bill would have allowed more competition in the milk industry in Montana, which would result in lower prices to consumers. It would have also stopped the destruction of thousands of gallons of perfectly good milk all across Montana, which has also resulted in driving retail prices higher.
The other bill was HB 245, better known as the “Raw Milk Bill.” The dairy industry has also not allowed Montana consumers to purchase raw milk for the last 25 years. This bill passed the House with my full support. Milk is one of the perfect foods provided to us by Mother Nature yet those in the dairy industry don’t want current consumers to have access to this great product even though many of them and thousands of others in Montanan consume raw milk on a regular basis. Currently the only way a consumer can have legal access to raw milk is to have a milk cow in your back yard. This is not practical for most people in Montana. If we can get this bill passed through the process it will allow the consumer the ability to buy raw milk directly from the dairy farmer just like most other states.
If you would like to discuss these bills or others issues please call, mail, email or text me. greghertz11@gmail.com
Hertz is a state representative from Polson