Texas consumers and farmers who testified Wednesday before the House Public Health Committee in support of several bills seeking to help local farmers better market their products promised to be back next week for the second Family Farms and Local Foods Education Day.
“We plan to take our message of support to all the members of the legislature on Friday, April 29,” explained Judith McGeary, the executive director of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Foundation and a supporter of the legislation. “That’s when consumers and farmers from throughout the state will converge in Austin to help educate legislators on family farms and local foods.”
During the hearings Wednesday, the committee received an estimated 100 witness affirmation forms from supporters of the bills, with a dozen farmers, health professionals, and parents testifying in support.
Dr. Mary Traverse, a chiropractor from Austin who works with autistic children, testified in support of one of the bills, HB75, which would allow raw milk delivery to customers at their homes or farmers markets. Current regulations limit the sale of Grade A raw milk to the farm where the milk is processed, which means consumers must drive to dairies that are often hours from major cities.
“One of the hallmarks of special needs children involves the difficulty around feeding these kids,” Dr. Traverse said. “I have seen a number of these families seek out raw milk products and give the raw milk to their special needs children with amazing results. Their children generally thrived from the robust nutrition of raw milk.
She urged the Committee to ease the burden on such families who “are exhausted---financially, physically and emotionally (and are) least equipped to travel several hours on a weekly basis to go to a farm to buy milk. However, most of them do somehow manage it, because of their incredible dedication to their sick children.”
The Committee also heard testimony on two other food bills under consideration—House Bills 1139 and 2084—which would exempt small-scale producers selling specified foods directly to consumers from the requirement to use a commercial kitchen for food preparation. HB 2084 would also help small-scale cheese makers and improve access to local foods at farmers markets to people who participate in the state’s food stamp program.
“We are particularly interested in increasing the bi-partisan support we already have for HB75,” McGeary said. “By making it difficult for people to access a legal, licensed source of raw milk, the regulations are actually increasing the risk that people will get sick from buying raw milk illegally from unlicensed dairies that may be more conveniently located, " McGeary said.
McGeary noted that raw milk has an excellent safety record in Texas with only two reported cases of illness from raw milk reported by the Centers for Disease Control from 1998 to 2008, while there were 225 cases in Texas tied to ham salad, 29 to strawberries, 47 to chicken soup and 852 illnesses and five deaths to turkey.
“Any food carries some risk of food-borne illness, but licensed raw milk farmers take extensive precautions to ensure the safety and quality of their product,” she said.