Allison Cooley Agee gathers the dairy cows she keeps on leased land during a tour of her raw milk operation in Big Timber on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. The tour was part of a raw milk training hosted by the Raw Milk Institute and Montana's Alternative Energy Resources Organization
Empty milk jars are lined up at Allison Cooley Agee's raw milk operation on a farm in Big Timber on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022.
Allison Cooley Agee shows how she tests her raw milk for coliform and and bacteria on a farm she leases in Big Timber on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022.
A tour crowds around a milk cooling tank at Allison Cooley Agee's raw milk operation in Big Timber on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. The tour was part of a raw milk training hosted by the Raw Milk Institute and Montana's Alternative Energy Resources Organization
A dairy cow walks through a tour of Allison Cooley Agee's raw milk operation in Big Timber on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. The tour was part of a raw milk training hosted by the Raw Milk Institute and Montana's Alternative Energy Resources Organization
Allison Cooley Agee gathers the dairy cows she keeps on leased land during a tour of her raw milk operation in Big Timber on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. The tour was part of a raw milk training hosted by the Raw Milk Institute and Montana's Alternative Energy Resources Organization
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BIG TIMBER — A collection of Montana farmers, public health officials and raw milk advocates gathered behind Allison Cooley Agee as she showed off her on-farm lab equipment for her raw milk dairy.
Agee tests her cows’ milk weekly. Pressing the sample into a test plate and placing it in the machine, she said that in just 24 hours, she’ll be able to see the milk’s bacteria and coliform counts — the presence of which indicate unhealthy bacteria and pathogens that could make people sick. The crowd, who had come here to attend a free daylong training about raw milk safety practices, listened attentively as her cows mooed in the background.
Testing milk for bacteria is just one of the ways advocates are trying to reduce the risk of consuming raw milk.
Last year, the Montana Local Food Choice Act, or Senate Bill 199, legalized the sale of raw milk directly to consumers for small dairies in the state. The legislation prompted nonprofits like the Raw Milk Institute to offer trainings on how farmers can safely produce raw milk, following fears it could be banned again if farms don’t follow safety practices and make too many people sick.
Allison Cooley Agee shows how she tests her raw milk for coliform and and bacteria on a farm she leases in Big Timber on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022.
Empty milk jars are lined up at Allison Cooley Agee's raw milk operation on a farm in Big Timber on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022.
Raw milk hasn’t been pasteurized — a process that destroys milk’s unhealthy bacteria and pathogens. The FDA warns drinking raw milk can increase the risk of food-borne illness like E. coli and Listeria.
But pasteurization also destroys the healthy bacteria in milk that can benefit humans. Raw milk enthusiasts push their product as a more nutritious, tastier alternative, and a good option for lactose intolerant people.
Raw milk is only a small part of SB 199 — the bill as a whole allows Montanans to sell certain food products out of their own homes while exempting them from permitting, labeling, and inspection regulations.
Every legislative session since 2013 has seen a bill to legalize raw milk or allow a “small herd exemption,” which would let people sell raw milk if they had under a certain number of cows. Small-herd exemption laws passed the House in 2013, 2015, and 2017, only to be killed in the Senate. Last year the bill — which limits raw milk dairies to five animals or fewer — finally got through the Senate, mostly along party lines.
Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, who sponsored the bill in 2021, said direct-consumer food sales were already happening in Montana before SB 199.
“There was a big black market there for people selling stuff like cookies, wedding cakes, pies, and raw milk out of their homes,” Hertz said. “I didn’t think it was right that people were selling perfectly good products but had to break the law.”
But raw milk proponents and state sanitarians have expressed concerns that SB 199 is a “knee-jerk reaction” to government overreach. They say the bill provides significant freedom for raw milk producers but minimal guidelines on how to produce and sell raw milk safely.
“It’s clear the legislation was written by politicians and not farmers,” said Mark McAfee, president of the Raw Milk Institute.
SB 199 says that a small dairy should test their milk every six months for bacteria and that test records must be maintained for two years. But the law doesn’t line out the healthy range of bacteria, coliform and somatic cell counts that milk samples should fall under. Producers also aren’t required to report those test results to anyone. They only need to keep track of them for public health officials in case a sickness is traced back to their farm.
Megan Spry, sanitarian for the central Montana environmental health district, said to her, the lack of test standards in the bill was the biggest oversight.
“Most people don’t know what those numbers mean and how they translate,” Spry said. “People will call us and say, hey, is this a good number? …The tests are in place for a reason, but without guidance, they are useless.”
Spry said the bill also falls short on labeling requirements. Under SB 199, raw milk producers don’t have to use product labels with their contact information.
She noted a few instances where someone had gotten sick from raw milk purchased on Facebook, but the producer hadn’t put their contact information on the label.
“Without a testing standard or labeling, there’s really nothing protecting the consumer,” Spry said.
Raw milk dairies are also not required to register with the government. That makes it difficult to know just how many people are selling raw milk in Montana and how that number has changed since SB 199 passed.
Sources from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, Montana departments of agriculture and livestock, and the state milk control board all said they don’t track the number of raw milk producers.
Since 2020, there have been at least 10 confirmed cases of raw milk illness in Montana, including one in Gallatin County, an investigation by the Daily Montanan found.
Raw milk enthusiasts say education is the key to reducing the risk.
A tour crowds around a milk cooling tank at Allison Cooley Agee's raw milk operation in Big Timber on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. The tour was part of a raw milk training hosted by the Raw Milk Institute and Montana's Alternative Energy Resources Organization
A dairy cow walks through a tour of Allison Cooley Agee's raw milk operation in Big Timber on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. The tour was part of a raw milk training hosted by the Raw Milk Institute and Montana's Alternative Energy Resources Organization
Back in Big Timber, over 20 people gathered in the library basement for the first part of a robust raw milk training session, put on by the Raw Milk Institute and Montana’s Alternate Energy Resources Organization.
People snacked on an assortment of raw cheeses as McAfee clicked through a powerpoint that highlighted everything from testing milk to cleaning equipment to marketing. Later that afternoon attendees saw everything discussed in the classroom in real life, on Agee’s farm.
“The legislation is essentially a freedom bill,” McAfee told the farmers in Big Timber. “But to keep freedom, you need to know what you’re doing. Freedom should come with standards and how to do it right.”
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Isabel Hicks covers agriculture and is a Report for America corps member. She can be reached at 406-582-2651 or ihicks@dailychronicle.com.
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