Ripley farmer Michael Overholt grew up on a dairy farm drinking raw milk. Today he is a homesteader with 10 cows and has been offering raw milk to his customers through a herd share program since 2018.
“It was a very natural choice for us,” Overholt said of unpasteurized milk. “A lot of it just had to do with what I learned, or it seems to me, that when we change nature, there’s usually sometimes a price to pay somewhere.”
In exchange for receiving one gallon of raw milk per week, herd share members pay a one-time fee that gives them a legal share in Overholt’s herd, plus an additional monthly housing fee of $35 for the cows.
The Herd Share Program has been a legal way for West Virginia residents to consume unpasteurized milk since 2016. June 7, when House Bill 4911 Since the law went into effect, Overholt and the state’s other dairy producers have been able to legally sell raw milk to customers without the herd-sharing program. Overholt said he has no plans to change his business practices, at least for now.
“What I’m doing is working,” Overholt said. “We plan to stick with it. In time, we may move to selling milk directly, but for now, I’m going to continue to hold the herd shares and wait and see how things develop.”
According to the Department of Agriculture, there were 12 raw milk herd share sellers in West Virginia earlier this year, supplying raw milk to 168 people under herd share contracts. Agriculture Commissioner Kent Leonhardt said the state will continue to recognize the herd share program even after the new law takes effect.
Walker Thompson of Kenna said he has been a customer of Overholt’s herd share program since it opened. He gets a gallon every week.
“I grew up with raw milk,” he said, “so I was familiar with it. And when it became available, we were very interested in buying it.”
Thompson said he hasn’t decided whether he will buy raw milk at the store, but he plans to continue getting it from Overholt’s herds.
Raw milk can pose solemn health risks. especially for vulnerable people.
A Outbreak of bird flu in dairy cows continuesAccording to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 83 herds in nine states have so far been affected. The risk of humans becoming infected with bird flu through the consumption of raw milk is unknown.
West Virginia has so far been spared from bird flu, but a dairy scientist West Virginia Watch said that bird flu is another reason not to consume raw milk.
Even before the bird flu outbreak, the CDC and the Federal Food and Drug Administration advised people not to consume raw milk to prevent foodborne illness.
Farmers who participate in the herd-share program may be somewhat protected from liability claims compared to farmers who choose to sell directly, Leonhardt said.
“The person drinking the raw milk is drinking it from their own cow, which has always been legal,” Leonhardt said. “They’re not going to sue themselves.”
The Department of Agriculture recommends that dairy farmers who want to sell raw milk get insurance, which can be challenging. Leonhardt said recently he hasn’t found an insurance company that insures farms that sell raw milk. One farmer told him he had found one, but that farmer isn’t yet insured.
“Personally, I wouldn’t risk my farm selling raw milk without being insured,” Leonhardt said. “I mean, I just wouldn’t do it. So my recommendation to farmers is to make sure they are insured before they sell.”
Overholt said members of the herd-sharing program sign a contract agreeing not to hold him liable for any diseases that might be transmitted through the milk. In addition, Overholt said he relies on his faith to protect himself from potential problems.
“As a farmer, as a farm, we are not actually insured,” he said. “Many people think that is not wise. But we simply chose to do so – for us it is an expression of our trust in God and his ability to guide us. That is why we have chosen not to take out farm insurance.”
Greenbrier Dairy LLC in Rainelle makes pasteurized, refined dairy products such as cheese, butter and yogurt. Owner and founder Trey Yates said raw milk is one of the most requested dairy products, but the difficulty of finding insurance is a huge reason for his decision not to offer it until now.
“We get so many messages asking if we sell raw milk. The answer is always no right now,” Yates said. “So we know there is a demand for it. But even though it’s a state law now, we can’t be held liable for everything without being insured.”
While the bill received broad support from Republicans during the regular legislative session earlier this year, some lawmakers on both sides opposed it. an earlier version of the bill It included language that would have made raw milk immune from claims and liability related to personal injury arising from actual or alleged acts, errors, or omissions, unless the acts were intentional. The bill ultimately became law without this language.
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Agriculture stated at the beginning of the year that neither citizens nor participants in raw milk production, nor public health facilities or private physicians had reported a case of food-borne illness linked to the consumption of raw milk.
According to the West Virginia Department of Health, over the past decade there have been an average of 3.9 foodborne illnesses per year among people who reported exposure to raw milk. Since 2016, the state has investigated a single suspected outbreak linked to raw milk.
Republican Rep. Michael Hornby of Berkeley, the bill’s lead sponsor, said he agreed that the liability waiver language should be removed from the final version of the bill.
“There is no precedent for this original language being so strongly worded in this bill,” Hornby said. “…For most farmers I’ve spoken to, this has not been a problem because most people who buy raw milk direct from the farm know they’re buying raw milk, and there aren’t many people who get sick from it anyway.”
