by Pete Kennedy, Esq.

New York–Government Inaction Hurting Raw Milk Producers and Consumers

While only a few states have yet to legalize some form of raw milk distribution, there are many among the legal states that need to change their laws to improve access for consumers and give farmers a more viable market for their milk. New York is one state that badly needs to amend its laws.

Under current law in the state, only on-farm sales by permitted producers are legal. The prohibition on the delivery of raw milk by permitted dairies has resulted in millions of dollars in sales every year lost to raw milk farmers in neighboring states such as Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Connecticut. The only other raw dairy product New York farmers can produce and sell is cheese aged 60 days, a further limitation costing producers substantial income.

In 2004 the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets (NYDAM) had plans to legalize the sale of other dairy products but never followed through. Until 1994, the unregulated sale and delivery of raw milk was legal in New York State; that year, NYDAM issued regulations limiting transactions to permitted sales on the farm. NYDAM has the power to issue new regulations, allowing both delivery of raw milk and the sale of any raw dairy product without needing further authorization from the legislature. Farmers and consumers have been contacting NYDAM for years about changing the law, but NYDAM has done nothing, ignoring the massive loss of revenue that instead flows to producers in neighboring states.

A veteran dairy farmer with decades of experience in producing raw milk for both pasteurization and direct consumption has set up an online petition asking signers to contact New York State Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball and NYDAM Division Chief Casey McCue requesting that the department issue regulations to allow deliveries of raw milk and sales of raw dairy products other than milk and cheese. The petition can be accessed online at: bit.ly/3HjsLmM.

NYDAM’s intentional inaction is not only hurting raw milk farmers and consumers; it’s ensuring that the consolidation of the state’s dairy farms continues. The family dairy farm in New York is rapidly disappearing. A recent USDA Census of Agriculture report shows how far the dairy industry has fallen off in the state. According to the census from 2017 to 2022, the number of dairies declined by one-third in the state; New York lost almost two thousand dairies during that period. Big increases in input prices over the last few years, along with
a federal pricing system that continually shortchanges farmers, have accelerated the number of farms producing commodity milk that have gone out of business. There was already a steep drop in dairy farms before 2017; over the past twenty-five years, the number of dairies in the state has decreased from nine thousand to around three thousand today.

Dairy farmers trying to get out of the commodity system have three options: (1) bottling and pasteurizing their own milk; (2) processing their own milk into value-added products, such as butter and cheese; and (3) selling their own milk for direct human consumption. By far, the last option is the easiest and least expensive way for the dairy producer to escape the commodity system and remain in business. A change in the raw milk laws by NYDAM would enable many more Grade A dairies to successfully make this conversion.