Health Law

Raw milk case updates

By Drew Falkenstein

The Chippewa Herald reports that a judge in Dane County Wisconsin has postponed ruling on a motion that "that could blow a hole through Wisconsin's ban on raw milk sales."  Dane County Circuit Judge Patrick Fiedler was scheduled to rule in the case on Tuesday involving Grassway Organic Farm's claim that the state has no right to stop them from selling raw milk to customers who have become part-owners of the farm.

Maybe the judge was waiting to see the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund's response to the FDA's motion to dismiss the Fund's suit for declaratory and injunctive relief against the FDA's ban on interstate sale of raw milk.  This is a separate case in federal court in Iowa.  The Fund was granted additional time to respond to the FDA's motion to dismiss, and had until June 14, I believe (have not checked filings in the last couple of days). 

The Fund describes its suit as follows:

The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund has filed suit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and its parent agency, Health and Human Services (HHS), claiming that FDA's regulation banning the interstate transport of raw milk and raw dairy products for direct human consumption constitutes several violations of the United States Constitution and federal law. FDA has responded by filing a motion to dismiss, arguing, among other things, that there is no fundamental right to travel across state lines with raw milk in one's possession, and that there is no fundamental right to consume the food of one's choice or to give one's family members the food of one's choice. The Fund is in the process of responding to FDA's motion. Once the matter is fully briefed to the court, a decision will be issued on whether the Fund's case should or should not be dismissed. The Fund anticipates its case will not be dismissed and that the next phase of the case will go forward.

The Fund's response actually has nothing to do with the Judge's postponement in Dane County Wisconsin.  It will be interesting to monitor both suits though. 

Full post as published by Food Poison Blog on June 15, 2010 (boomark / email).