Posted June 19, 2014
A Blue Hill farmer, Dan Brown, lost an appeal to sell raw milk without a state license, according to an article on The New York Times by Jess Bidgood available here. Portland Press Herald also published an article available here, Boston Globe here, and The Republic here.
The case has started a feud between homesteaders and longtime family farmers.
“This isn’t about Dan Brown or Farmer Brown anymore,” said Mr. Brown. “They’re telling you that you don’t have the right to come get milk from a farmer.”
According to Mr. Brown, in 2006 a state official informed him that he would not need to be licensed or inspected if he sold from his farm without advertising. Later when regulators from the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry visited, he refused to upgrade his facilities to acquire a milk distributors license.
Brown was charged $1,000 for selling raw milk produced from a single, family-owned cow without a commercial milk distribution license, and Maine’s Supreme Court rejected his appeal, according to Portland Press Herald.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court rejected Brown’s claims that the utilization of an 8.5-inch-by-11-inch sign saying, “This milk is not pasteurized” at his farm stand was not enough in accordance with state law.
Brown’s case gained support from local food movement supporters. Blue Hill voters passed ordinances that allowed small-scale farmers to bypass state and federal regulations on foods sold directly co consumers, but the attorney general’s office ruled that state and federal law surpassed local milk ordinances, according to The Republic.
“It’s just time for me to move on,” he said. “Farmer Brown had his five minutes of fame, and now it’s time for Dan Brown to get on with his life.”
For more information on food safety, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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