ARMM has been formed from a core group of concerned consumers and producers of raw milk both in Victoria and other States. This page is for anyone, anywhere, who is concerned about the erosion of the public's right to consumption of safe raw milk. THE CURRENT SITUATION...
It is currently illegal to sell raw milk for human consumption in Australia. People looking to acquire raw milk could
purchase it from certain retailers under the label "Bath Milk"...where it was clearly labelled not for human consumption. The other method was to obtain it from your own cow. Now...not all of us have the luxury of being able to support a house cow in our back yards! So those people wanting to obtain it in this manner often chose to purchase a share of an animal and pay the producer to look after the cow, milk it, and deliver the milk to them (the milk they legally own as part of the agreement with the producer). This arrangement is called a herd share or cow share. The consumer owns the animal and is merely receiving the milk they are entitled to as owner of the animal. The producer simply cares for the animal & distributes the milk to them. This *is* legal under the current legislation as the milk is not being sold. The media brought attention in late 2014 to the tragic death of a Victorian toddler & the illnesses of three other children, supposedly attributed to consumption of raw "bath milk". The coroner's report has yet to be released. Test results on the milk came out negative for the pathogens being tested. Other investigations have strongly suggested there is no link to the illnesses/death and raw milk consumption in any of the cases. Despite this, Victoria Consumer Affairs minister Jane Garrett ushered in directives over the Christmas holidays that all bath milk sold in Victoria was to contain a bittering agent from Feb this year, which would make the milk undrinkable. There have also been rumours that herd shares may be next in line on the government's agenda. Denying people access to milk from their own animals is not only difficult to control but is a severe impingement on people's freedom of choice. And where does this type of legislation stop?! We believe that people should have the choice to access safe, unadulterated raw food. We can access raw meat, raw salad greens, raw pate, raw seafood. Even raw goat milk, which is legal to sell in Australia from licensed producers. But safe raw cow's milk is being targeted by the government and media with rabid headlines, untruths, and knee-jerk legislation. We understand that legalising raw milk in Australia is a long-term goal. This is the ideal we will eventually look to. For the short term, our current goal is to protect herd shares by ensuring the continued legal right to access safe, unadulterated raw milk that consumers own under herd share arrangements. We also want to ensure that producers will not be penalised for distributing this milk to herd share members. Why are we not specifically aiming to reverse the decision to add a bittering agent to bath milk? We believe it is more advantageous to start from a point that we feel legislators and regulators can openly discuss and work on. In time, it may be that we can then discuss the bittering agent but in the mean time, we want to protect what little ground we still legally have before moving forward with loftier goals. Producers are aware of the issues surrounding availability of herd shares and are also working to make these more available to interested parties. HOW CAN YOU GET INVOLVED? If you believe people should have freedom of choice in their food consumption...especially from an animal they legally own as part of a herd share...I would encourage you to share the ARMM page with your friends and other social networks. HANDS OFF OUR MILK!! Other resources:
Twitter: www.twitter.com/AusRawMilk
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvmeLFOYwSBXqYynN7tLDAw/playlists
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/australian-raw-milk-movement
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/br8nEn
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/ausrawmilk
