Last October a social media post led to, as some would say controversial comments, news articles and even angry chaos.
Arkansas' Raw Milk Revolution was born.
Local farmers market owners at Me & McGee came under scrutiny from the Arkansas Department of Health for the sale of raw milk labeled for pet consumption.
Many viewpoints have been discussed throughout the months following the forced removal of the raw milk.
Republican state Sen. Alan Clark of Lonsdale spoke to the Reckoning during the October fiasco. He said at the time, “It's ridiculous. We are working on a bill now to give Arkansas families more freedom in accessing natural foods including raw milk.”
Clark kept his word, and he’s not alone in support for the legislation.
The bill has three sponsors in the House — lead sponsor Cameron Cooper of Romance, Wayne Long of Bradford and Mary Bentley of Perryville.
The Reckoning talked to Cooper on Wednesday about the bill.
Cooper, who is a farmer, filed a similar bill in 2023 but pulled it because it was filed too late in the session to gain steam, he said.
His interest in raw milk comes from owning goats. Three years ago, he said, someone asked him about buying raw milk after seeing Cooper’s goats on his farm. He decided to check out the state’s law, which currently makes a person who wants raw milk to travel to the farm where it is produced and buy it directly from the farmer.
“You can't deliver it to them,” Cooper said. “You can't meet them halfway like where we live. Under current law, you can't deliver the milk to somebody's house. You can't meet them halfway at the Dollar General and you can't sell it to a farmers market. They have to drive to your farm and buy at your farm, and that's just not possible for some people, especially older people.”
Cooper said a lot of older people reminisce about the “good old days” when they milked cows and goats.
“They say, ‘That's all we drank, and yeah, I would like some milk, but I can't drive, you know, 30-40 miles to your farm. So I had the bill drafted. All the bill does is it's one page and it strikes out eight words out of the current law. The eight words are “at the farm where the milk is produced.”
Cooper said, “That makes it where you can sell the milk wherever two consenting adults want to do business.”
This bill, he said, won't help the owners of Me & McGee because it still doesn't allow the resell of raw milk, which is state law and enforced by the Department of Health.
That law raises questions about fairness and common sense, Cooper said.
His daughters make goat milk soap and sell it in local stores.
“Most of our milk, we'll use ourselves or my girls make goat milk soap,” Cooper said. “Okay, so they sell the goat milk soap, which the health department has no problem with, but the milk's not pasteurized. These soaps are made from unpasteurized milk, but apparently the health department doesn't think its dangerous to rub it on your skin.”
Cooper noted Arkansas has allowed the selling of raw milk law since 1995.
In 2013, a law was passed “to allow incidental sales of raw cow milk for personal use” in Arkansas. Farmers can sell up to 500 gallons a month.
The FDA and CDC warn against drinking unpasteurized milk, citing a long list of possible illnesses like Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria. The process of milk pasteurization began in the late 1800s by Louis Pasteur, French chemist and biologist
Cooper said those agencies have other warnings but people ignore those.
“They also recommend against eating rare steak, undercooked eggs, and raw oysters yet all three of those items you can buy in restaurants, right? So if people want to be intellectually honest and say raw milk is dangerous then they'll also have to say that rare steak, runny eggs and oysters are dangerous.
“You know, I love steak but I don't like rare steak. I like medium-well eggs not runny eggs. I won't eat raw oysters, but I don't care if somebody else does. I'm not going to tell somebody else that they can't eat that stuff. So it's the same thing with raw milk. If you don't want it, don't drink it but don't tell somebody else they can't.”
The Raw Milk Revolution
The Raw Milk Revolution is by far not just an Arkansas issue.
Another writer here on Substack
— Liz Reitzig — often tackles the subject. Raw milk even became an issue during the presidential campaign.America is supposed to be the land of the free and home of the brave.
Many people think that at every turn opposition to freedom is lurking to stomp out a person's right to make their own decisions — even what they can purchase and consume.
Whether you are for raw milk or against it, freedom should be a choice. Cooper is fighting for that freedom.
“If somebody wants to drink raw milk, drink it,” he said. “If you're not violating somebody else's rights or hurting somebody else, then you should be able to do what you want to do and other people should mind their business and not alienate people for that.”
Read the raw milk bill below.
[Clarification: Rep. Cameron Cooper's daughters make and sell goat milk soap. They do not sell goat milk.]
Pasteur developed pateurization to save the french wines that were spoiling
We're like slaves asking our masters if we can have the good milk.