The Alaska House of Representatives on Thursday voted to pass House Bill 22, which proposes to strengthen food security in the state by adding new opportunity for dairy farmers. HB 22 increases access to raw milk and raw milk products by moving the herd share program from regulation to statute, adding certainty to this successful program. The bill would create new business opportunities by allowing value-added products like cheese and ice cream to be sold through a Herd Share Program.
One of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Geran Tarr of Anchorage spoke on the House Floor, “Herd Share Programs currently only exist in regulation and through working with the Farm Bureau, the Farmland Trust and dozens and dozens of farmers, we came up with this idea of how to strengthen the Herd Share Program that would be to put the Herd Share Program in statute and additionally expand the opportunities through Herd Share Programs by allowing for value added products. This bill’s not about selling raw milk. I did have a bill about selling raw milk a couple of years ago and it came with a million-dollar fiscal note. That’s why this bill was not about selling raw milk.”
District 29 Rep. Ben Carpenter who also was a bill sponsor, “I am, in all transparency, identifying myself as somebody who drinks raw milk. We have been doing this for many years. It is a healthy way to drink milk. Milk should never stay good in your fridge for a week or more. It’s meant to do things when it sits there, when it’s raw.”
Section 1 of the bill states that an individual who has an ownership interest in a milk-producing animal may pay or reimburse another individual owner of the animal the costs incurred to board, milk and care for the animal and share raw milk and raw milk products produced with other owners of the animal. Raw milk is recognized as milk that is not pasteurized.
House Bill 22 passed on a 38-1 vote and now goes to the Senate for consideration.
Transcribed audio courtesy of KTOO 360TV.