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Vendors seek to sell raw milk, hard cider at Portland Farmers’ Market

The Portland Farmers Market on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011

By Seth Koenig, BDN Staff

Posted Sept. 27, 2011, at 8:09 p.m.
Last modified Sept. 28, 2011, at 4:30 p.m.

PORTLAND, Maine — Vendors at Portland’s Farmers’ Market are lobbying the city for the right to sell raw milk and hard cider.

The issue of unpasteurized milk in particular being allowed at the popular public markets came to a head as many who set up stands didn’t know the product was prohibited.

Doug Donahue of the Pittsfield-based Balfour Farm said it came as a surprise to him when he was taken to task for carrying raw milk just last week.

“As of last Wednesday, a city inspector came and told us we could no longer sell it,” Donahue told the Bangor Daily News on Tuesday.

John Golden, a food writer for Down East magazine who attended a Tuesday night meeting of the city’s Health and Recreation Committee, said Portland is the only municipality in Maine that doesn’t allow unpasteurized milk at its farmers markets.

“It’s not allowed at the [Portland] Farmers’ Market, but you can legally buy it at any other store in the city,” Golden said.

Neither raw milk nor hard cider are allowed to be sold at the markets, which are held on Mondays and Wednesdays in Monument Square and on Saturdays in Deering Oaks Park.

On Tuesday, the committee was slated to discuss adding hard cider to the list of products that can be sold at the farmers market. The proposed change comes in part in response to the recent passage of a state law that allows permitted farm winery operations to sell certain alcoholic beverages at farmers markets statewide.

David Buchanan attended the meeting and told the committee he plans to team with Eli Cayer of Urban Farm Fermentory to sell hard ciders at the farmers market and he thinks the allowance of the alcoholic product could be a further boon for the market.

“I’m really interested in bringing back the cider business, exploring different flavors and bringing it to market,” Buchanan said.

With the conversation open about what’s allowable at the Portland Farmers’ Market, nearly a dozen advocates for adding unpasteurized milk to that list also showed up at the committee meeting. Emails reportedly circulated among vendors and other interested parties that the raw milk issue would be discussed by the committee Tuesday.

Unpasteurized milk was not on the agenda, however.

“This started out as a question of, ‘Do we want [to allow] cider or don’t we,’ and now we’re talking about rewriting the whole ordinance,” said Cheryl Leeman, a city councilor and committee member.

The committee, which is chaired by City Councilor Dory Waxman and also includes City Councilor John Anton, will renew discussions of allowing both beverages at the Portland Farmers’ Market at its scheduled November meeting.

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Anonymous

attention liberals, progressives and socialists. This is what happens when you have too much government involved in every facet of your life. Who cares if you want unpasteurized milk. Adults who understand the risks and benefits of raw milk should be able to drink whatever they want.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_57C3XJX5VALK7UV27IFLFVB764 Scott

The irony is that pasteurized milk is probably worse for you than raw.
Anonymous

Here is an overview of some research on the health risks of unpasteurized milk. (Food poisoning, long-term illness, fatal illness) http://drinc.ucdavis.edu/dfoods5_new.htm

Do you have some information about the health risks of pasteurized milk? Or measurable benefits of raw milk?

I like raw foods and natural foods. I also don’t doubt that lots of people enjoy raw milk and don’t become ill. But if there’s data showing that making a food widely available for consumption can result in serious health problems for even a small group, there’s a good argument for restricting it.
Anonymous

Here is an overview of some research on the health risks of unpasteurized milk. (Food poisoning, long-term illness, fatal illness) http://drinc.ucdavis.edu/dfoods5_new.htm

Do you have some information about the health risks of pasteurized milk? Or measurable benefits of raw milk?

I like raw foods and natural foods. I also don’t doubt that lots of people enjoy raw milk and don’t become ill. But if there’s data showing that making a food widely available for consumption can result in serious health problems for even a small group, there’s a good argument for restricting it.
Anonymous

Here is an overview of some research on the health risks of unpasteurized milk. (Food poisoning, long-term illness, fatal illness) http://drinc.ucdavis.edu/dfoods5_new.htm

Do you have some information about the health risks of pasteurized milk? Or measurable benefits of raw milk?

I like raw foods and natural foods. I also don’t doubt that lots of people enjoy raw milk and don’t become ill. But if there’s data showing that making a food widely available for consumption can result in serious health problems for even a small group, there’s a good argument for restricting it.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_57C3XJX5VALK7UV27IFLFVB764 Scott

I grew up on a dairy farm and have consumed raw milk regularly for my entire life. I’ve never been sick from it even once.

You seem to have forgotten the dozens of meat recalls that occur every year in this country due to bacterial contamination. Some producers (mainly large agribusiness companies) put profits ahead of safety and often end up with tainted products.

Raw milk from small local farms is certainly no more dangerous than the mass-produced meat that is available in every supermarket in the country.
Anonymous

I showed information that raw milk can and does make people sick. The FDA regulates food industry to make sure that where a reasonable option exists to reduce the risk of death/illness in food production, it’s taken. I’m currently under the impression that there are no measurable benefits to consuming raw milk, and since pasteurization exists, I don’t see why the FDA shouldn’t require the use of pasteurization.

I guess you could do something analogous to meat regulations and just have the FDA recommend that everyone boil their raw milk before drinking it, and you could choose whether to do it or not. It seems sad to me though that children can get sick or die from bacterial contamination when technology exists to prevent it (and a good number of those cases go back to small family farms), and I haven’t seen any good reason *at all* not to use that technology.
Anonymous

I showed information that raw milk can and does make people sick. The FDA regulates food industry to make sure that where a reasonable option exists to reduce the risk of death/illness in food production, it’s taken. I’m currently under the impression that there are no measurable benefits to consuming raw milk, and since pasteurization exists, I don’t see why the FDA shouldn’t require the use of pasteurization.

I guess you could do something analogous to meat regulations and just have the FDA recommend that everyone boil their raw milk before drinking it, and you could choose whether to do it or not. It seems sad to me though that children can get sick or die from bacterial contamination when technology exists to prevent it (and a good number of those cases go back to small family farms), and I haven’t seen any good reason *at all* not to use that technology.
Anonymous

I do. I prefer the taste of raw milk. Government has no business telling me what I can put into or take out of my own body for any reason. It is time for all of us to stand up and demand sovreignty over our own bodies. It is the most basic of human rights.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_57C3XJX5VALK7UV27IFLFVB764 Scott

Pasteurization changes the quality of milk, destroying enzymes and beneficial microbes. It also makes milk taste kind of boring or bland.

I don’t care for pasteurized milk and I don’t think it’s the healthiest option, but I’m not going to push the government to limit customers’ choice by banning it.

The miniscule health risks associated with raw milk do not warrant a ban on its sale. If new regulations were created every time a few people got sick from something then we wouldn’t be able to buy uncooked meat at the grocery store and sushi restaurants would be put out of business.
Anonymous

What happened to the cream in the pasteurized milk? Its always their in the raw milk and we can make our butter and whipped cream from it also great in coffee. Maybe thats why you are talking so hard against it. Competes with to many by-products.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_57C3XJX5VALK7UV27IFLFVB764 Scott

There is still cream in anything but skim milk, but almost all mass-produced milk is homogenized in addition to being pasteurized. Homogenization breaks the fatty cream into tiny bits that mix in with the rest of the milk instead of floating on top.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_57C3XJX5VALK7UV27IFLFVB764 Scott

There is still cream in anything but skim milk, but almost all mass-produced milk is homogenized in addition to being pasteurized. Homogenization breaks the fatty cream into tiny bits that mix in with the rest of the milk instead of floating on top.

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