Northern Alberta municipality wants federal government to allow on-farm sale of raw milk
CBC
A northwestern Alberta municipality is moving a resolution at the upcoming Rural Municipalities of Alberta convention to ask the federal government to allow the on-farm sale of raw or unpasteurized dairy products.
Buying and selling raw milk in Canada has been illegal since 1991, when it was banned due to concerns of food-borne illnesses.
Pasteurization is a process that involves heating raw milk to at least 63 C to kill harmful bacteria, such as salmonella and E. coli.
The Municipal District of Greenview, located about 390 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, said many people within the community already consume unpasteurized milk, despite the risk.
“There actually is quite a bit [of demand],” said Reeve Ryan Ratzlaff.
“People are looking for more options for revenue to keep small farms sustainable, and there's a lot more people looking for independence from markets and things like that where they can buy locally sourced goods.”
The resolution requests that sale of raw milk be “under specified conditions” to informed consumers.
It also requests provinces be allowed to develop frameworks that include producer food safety training, labelling requirements, traceability, on-farm oversight, and the option to pilot direct sale programs in rural municipalities.
Ratzlaff said he looked at regulations in the United States and other regions as he was writing the proposed motion.
“Part of me says let’s take the rules off and let people choose, and do what they want, but we also need to have that aspect of making sure someone is safe,” he said.
“I would say this is the first step of many hurdles, to get it to the Rural Municipalities of Alberta level, and then to promote it to the province, and then the province has to take it to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture confirmed the province does not support the sale of raw or unpasteurized milk and notes the sale of unpasteurized dairy is prohibited throughout Canada under the federal Food and Drugs Act and regulations.
“It is associated with harmful bacteria that can only be eliminated through pasteurization,” it said.
The background section for the resolution from Greenview notes that a 2023 review by Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation concluded that the risks associated with raw milk outweighed the benefits.
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