Raw Milk
This Springfield News-Leader editorial is absolutely correct:
It’s not like this family is forcing their products on anyone. They’re simply trying to meet a demand, like a good business is wont to do.
The family in question sold raw (unpasteurized) milk from their farm, as is legal in Missouri. Then, their two daughters brought the milk to a parking lot where customers could pick it up — also legal. What happened next got them in trouble with the law: Undercover investigators from the county health department asked to buy milk even though they hadn’t paid in advance, and the girls sold a couple of gallons on the spot.
This quote from a previous article illustrates the attitude behind the sting operation:
“That’s the problem with a distribution center. If they have extra milk because a customers hasn’t shown up, they’re very tempted to sell it instead of taking it back to the farm,” [Springfield-Greene County Health Department Environmental Health Administrator Karen] Prescott said. “Then they cross the line of being a food establishment.”
According to the government official, the family’s little makeshift stand in a parking lot is a food establishment, and it’s going to be subject to all the same regulations as a permanent grocery store — including the law that prohibits food establishments from selling raw milk.
The state’s lawsuit harasses this family for no constructive purpose. Nobody was coerced or misled in the voluntary transactions in a parking lot. The family and their farm’s customers stand to lose, and no one stands to gain.
