Oregon farmer renounces dairy license to support raw milk

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Customers wanted raw milk and cheese from Mookie Moss’s goat farm.

So last week, the farmer turned activist — or maybe it's activist turned farmer — took to a stage on his 64-acre farm near Jacksonville and announced to a crowd that he was renouncing his grade-A dairy license and selling off his herd of 43 dairy goats in shares.

The move toward herd-sharing at Siskiyou Crest Goat Dairy marks the first time in Oregon that a certified dairy has shirked the oversight of state food safety programs. It’s an emerging concept in dairy farming nationally, however, in which farmers avoid restrictions on the sale of raw dairy products — enforced by the Oregon Department of Agriculture in this state — by allowing consumers to own a portion of their herd.

Because raw dairy products are only legally available to people who own their own goats or cows in Oregon and other states, allowing customers to own a portion of the herd enables farmers like Moss to supply them with raw milk and cheese.

One share at the Siskiyou Crest Goat Dairy now sells for $20 a month, and entitles a shareholder to half a gallon of milk or a four ounce block of cheese weekly.

"I was taught to make a really high priority of how we interact with our community," said Moss, who adds that he was raised by activist parents. "When it comes down to it, we didn’t have an opportunity to provide our community and our customers with the food that they wanted. They wanted raw milk and raw cheese."

That demand reflects a growing push nationally to return raw dairy products to consumers. People who prefer raw dairy say it contains bacteria and living enzymes that can be beneficial to health, digestion and allergies, and has a higher vitamin and mineral content than pasteurized dairy products.

Some states do allow the sale of raw dairy products with oversight. Raw milk and cheese are illegal for sale in Oregon and in other states, however, because the bacteria it contains can cause disease, and the products are especially at risk for contamination from E-Coli.

"If you’re not pasteurizing milk and meeting (food safety) standards, you just increase the risk for contamination," said Brent Searle, special assistant to the director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture. "That’s not to say you can’t have safety in that system, it just takes a lot of attention."

The safety of raw milk products depends on how the dairy animals are fed, whether they are confined, and how safely the milk is collected and stored. Moss said the goats on his farm are not confined and that he owns a grade-A processing facility that he will continue to use, although he will no longer pasteurize milk and cheese.

Whether the farm survives the move to herd-sharing, however, is at issue. The Siskiyou Crest Goat Dairy, which has three employees and four interns, earned about $75,000 a year as a grade-A creamery, and is likely to take a financial hit with the conversion to herd-sharing.

"We no longer have the ability to sell at farmers markets or any of our retail markets," said Moss, which he expects will reduce the dairy’s earnings.

He said other financial losses could come from a shareholder preference for milk, which retails at $10 a gallon compared with $22 a gallon for cheese.

Moss, however, said the losses are worth it.

"I am willing to struggle a little more economically and I’m even willing to risk the survivability of my farm … to stand up for what is really a large issue," he said.

He is among a growing number of sustainable farmers in Oregon who believe regulations and infrastructure favor large farms and conventional products. He said there is little support for small farms in Oregon, particularly those putting heavy and often costly emphasis on sustainability and ethics.

The Friends of Family Farmers, a group working to support socially responsible agriculture in Oregon, recently toured 17 communities and held two-hour meetings with small farmers to discuss policy obstacles and issues. Topics ranged from limited processing facilities for meat and poultry, to the expense and availability of land supply and the education of young farmers.

The meetings attracted more than 100 farmers, 70 of them were elected to ratify an Agriculture Reclamation Act proposing solutions, according to Kendra Kimbirauskas, spokeswoman for the Friends of Family Farmers. Kimbirauskas said the group is now working with the Oregon Department of Agriculture and elected leaders to promote change.

She said Moss’s move to herd sharing is not related to the group’s efforts, though Moss was once a volunteer.

Lee van der Voo, lvdvoo*at*gmail.com, is a freelance writer for Sustainable Business Oregon.