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Apr 10th, 2006 - 12:14:17 |
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| Terry Stump works the milking machines while one of the family’s Holsteins looks on, waiting to be milked. Driven by an increased interest in natural foods and local products, raw milk sales are growing in Pennsylvania. |
Glendora Stump keeps watch over the small store as customers file in with empty glass and plastic bottles.
It’s around 4 p.m. on a Tuesday, and her husband Joseph is busy milking the family’s herd of Holsteins in the milking parlor at their York New Salem farm.
The customers all know to set their bottles down on the stainless steel counter and wait for Glendora Stump to open the valve on the pipeline. They walk away with fresh containers of the creamy white milk that has become so controversial that some states have banned its sale, insisting it’s unsafe for human consumption.
Yet natural food subscribers and those longing for a taste of their childhood seek it out at the nearly 40 farms licensed in Pennsylvania to sell the raw milk, which has not been homogenized or pasteurized and is pretty much straight out of the udder.
It’s legal in Pennsylvania, where even the state’s secretary of agriculture once held a raw milk permit at his farm, as this is one of 28 states that allow the sale for human consumption. A few other states permit sales as long as the milk is only fed to animals.
“In Pennsylvania we’re ahead because we’re behind,” said Brian Snyder, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, a nonprofit group from the State College area.
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| Glendora Stump fills a jug with raw milk for a customer. Stump Acres Dairy Farm has been selling the milk, which is not homogenized or pasteurized, for 37 years. |
The state’s old-fashioned leanings and large Amish population, which drinks only raw milk, has kept the state from tinkering with its raw milk licensing, which began in the 1930s, he said.
Not welcome everywhere
Raw milk licensing has allowed Pennsylvania to capture a market that doesn’t exist in states such as Michigan, which have banned raw milk sales.
Michigan’s department of agriculture has said it banned raw milk sales because unpasteurized milk can serve as a vehicle for pathogens such as E. coli and Salmonella. They point to cases of elementary school field trips to dairy farms where some kids became ill after being given raw milk and cookies as a treat.
But Pennsylvania has stood by its licensing procedures, saying that milk sold from licensed dairies is safe. It requires the milk to be tested for bacteria, growth inhibitors and antibiotics twice a month and annual inspections of the facilities and annual testing of the herd’s health.
All of the milking equipment at Stumps also is automatically sanitized before each milking and immediately after.
And, Glendora Stump stands by her herd, she said. She knows their cows, and they don’t breed their stock with cattle from the outside, so it’s a “closed herd.” Also, the Stumps grow all the feed for their cows on their 1,600 acres of farmland. So they have control over everything.
“They know the milk they’re getting here is from the cows that live here,” she said of her customers.
Now more than ever, Snyder said, that’s what customers are looking for. They want to know who’s growing their food, and that appears to be particularly important in York County, which is ranked 27th in the United States for having the most sales made directly to consumers.
From the cow to your cup
But it’s the growing organic and natural foods movement that has led to rising raw milk sales statewide, Snyder said.
Natural foods advocates say that pasteurization kills the beneficial bacteria in the milk along with the bad as well as enzymes that aid digestion. Often, Stump says, people who are lactose intolerant are able to drink raw milk.
And, they say homogenization – the process of breaking down the fat molecules to keep the cream from rising to the top – destroys the beneficial fats that are found in raw milk.
“When people read about it and they find out what really takes place in the commercial dairy industry, that will captivate their interest,” said Willa Lefever, who manages Sonnewald Natural Foods near Stoverstown, which started selling raw milk from a Millersburg farmer four months ago. “And when they taste it they forget all about that, and then they’re captivated by the flavor.”
Angela Treherne drives from Stewartstown three days a week to pick up the Stumps’ milk for her family. She’s an organic gardener who raises her own chickens on organic feed, and after doing some reading figured raw milk was another healthy habit for her three kids.
But, she also is a believer in the taste.
“You don’t get that aftertaste with this milk as you do with the stuff at the regular store,” she said.
For those still worried about the fat content, Stump just tells customers to skim off half the cream, and they have 2 percent milk, skim it all off and they have nonfat milk.
But most just shake the bottle, she said, distributing the cream before they drink it because they yearn for that rich taste.
A way to keep farming
The Stumps got into raw milk sales nearly four decades ago because government-capped milk prices were low, and they wanted to be able to set their own. They sell their raw milk for $2.70 a gallon, compared to $3.22 for a gallon of homogenized, pasteurized milk.
Snyder gets calls regularly from dairy operators interested in entering into the raw milk business as a way to improve profits and stay on their farms.
“It’s in part a niche marketing strategy,” he said. “It’s also a reflection in a trend in society for consumers to be looking at byproducts that they feel will enhance their health in some way and to be able to know what farm the animals are coming from.”
People from Maryland, Virginia and other surrounding states have visited Stump Acres Dairy Farm to buy raw milk, Glendora Stump said.
A large segment of her more than 130 customers are immigrants who need raw milk to make their own cheese and butter.
Valentin Partida drives from New Oxford with a carload of new red plastic gas cans, which he fills with at least 28 gallons of the Stump Acres milk two to three times a week. He’s been coming to the dairy for raw milk for nearly two years, he said, because he needs milk in its natural state to make Mexican cheese. And the Stumps have a number of regulars from Russia, Yugoslavia and France as well.
“We used to think we were good to sell 30 gallons of milk in one night, now we have a guy that gets that much at one time,” Glendora Stump said as she filled up the jugs.
The dairy also sells glass bottles, which customers are instructed to wash thoroughly and then return for refilling. The milk will last about 10 to 17 days, and then it simply becomes the “sour milk” some recipes call for anyway, Lefever said.
Jodi Baker stops by Stump Acres after work two to three times a week on her way home to Hanover.
Her grandmother likes to bake with raw milk so she sometimes picks up a bottle for her. And her kids have become more enthusiastic milk drinkers since she started stopping there in 1997.
“I like the milk, it’s fresh, it’s great. ... My kids actually drink more milk when I tell them it comes from here because they see the cows,” she said. “I just prefer local. I know where it comes from.”
Reach Jennifer Gish at 771-2090 or jgish@ydr.com.
At a glance
Stump Acres Dairy Farm sells raw milk, its own eggs and homemade hot dogs, as well as ice cream, butter and penny candy from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
The farm is located just outside of York New Salem. Look for their sign off of Indian Rock Dam Road or call the store at 792-3216.
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