Lindsay Farm is one of the biggest raw milk producers and suppliers in NZ. Photo / Supplied
Lindsay Farm is one of the biggest raw milk producers and suppliers in NZ. Photo / Supplied
Tukitiki MP Lawrence Yule has urged the Ministry for Primary Industries to rethink its regulations surrounding the supply of raw milk.
It comes as a stoush between MPI and Lindsay Farm, which it raided in early December and ordered to stop supplying milk as part of a nationwide crackdown, reachesloggerheads.
Yule has voiced his support for Central Hawke's Bay based Lindsay Farm, one of New Zealand's biggest suppliers and producers of raw milk, which he says was "running a good operation".
Lindsay Farm is a family-owned operation run by Paul and Christine Ashton, Christine's father Bryan Donovan, Mike Ashton, their eldest son, and Ange Brooks, their eldest daughter.
"It would be a real shame if this kind of productive system was shut down.
MPI said it had executed the search warrants on what it said were unregistered and "non-compliant" suppliers, following a year-long operation.
MPI's manager of food compliance Melinda Sando said the purpose of the co-ordinated site visits was to gather evidence of the offending and to allow further investigation of non-compliant sales.
"We believe that the suppliers we visited ... are operating outside of the regulatory framework.
"By not adhering to the rules for selling raw drinking milk, they are putting consumer health at risk."
Yule said the critical thing in the MPI regulations surrounding raw milk was the collection points.
From March 1 2016, regulations were introduced requiring registered farmers to sell raw milk directly from the farm gate or by home delivery.
Tukituki MP Lawrence Yule supports Lindsay Farm and the freedom of choice in relation to raw milk supply. Photo / File
Collection points were no longer allowed. Customers buying raw milk were asked to supply their contact details, so they could be reached if a batch of milk fails hygiene or pathogen testing.
With Lindsay Farm supplying milk from the farm gate, it would mean customers would be taking milk which could be at the risk of spoiling without refrigeration.
"[Because of the regulations] 1700 people have effectively lost their supply."
Lindsay Farm had created a farm partnership which people signed up to at no cost, becoming partners in the ownership of the herd of cows.
What it meant was the partners paid them to take care of their cows and milk them, and volunteers of the partnership delivered the milk to a collection point of their choice.
"Collection points are not allowed under MPI regulations, and for me that is no more dangerous, probably less so, than people collecting the milk themselves.
"These regulations need to be looked at.
"To my knowledge in the 12 years or so they have been in operation Lindsay Farm has never had an incident [of sickness] trace back to them."
While Yule himself prefers to drink pasteurised milk he says people should have the choice.
Lindsay Farm supporters have also spoken up vehemently against MPI's raid of the farm.
They started a petition, "Save our raw milk farms" on change.org which has garnered more than 5000 signatures.
Lindsay Farm, which has been in discussions with MPI lawyers in recent days, declined to comment.
