We, the citizens of British Columbia, hereby respectfully petition the British Columbia government to legalize raw milk herdshares in British Columbia.  We respectfully request the Minister of Health, the Honorable Dr. Terry Lake, to repeal clause 2(a) from the Health Hazards Regulation.  We respectfully request that the Government of British Columbia present a motion in the Legislature to amend the Milk Industry Act to exempt herdshares.

Raw milk is deemed to be a HEALTH HAZARD in British Columbia under the "Public Health Act, Health Hazards Regulation", punishable by a maximum $3M fine or 3 years in jail.  B.C. is the only province or state in North America with this type of law.  This antiquated law was brought in at the behest of commercial dairy farmers who wanted to "eliminate the competition," without any studies, consultation, or evidence to back it up. The excuse was "food safety," but no-one actually looked at food safety statistics and facts to see if it was necessary.

It is also illegal to sell or supply raw milk in British Columbia under the provincial "Milk Industry Act". Meanwhile, in neighboring Washington State, anyone can walk into one of over 100 grocery stores or to 43 licensed raw milk farms and purchase this safe and nutritious product.

FACT:  Pasteurization does not guarantee safety.  By the CDC's own statistics, there have been NO recorded deaths from fluid farm-fresh, unprocessed milk in North America in over 50 years.  The two deaths often cited were from illegal queso fresco cheese.  Meanwhile, there have been over 70 deaths from pasteurized milk.

We are adults who can make decisions for ourselves and our families regarding the foods we eat.  We do not need the government telling us what we can and cannot eat, particularly when this government refuses to look at the evidence that raw milk can be produced safely by using raw milk best practices such as RAWMI training. 

The government officials making these decisions have never visited a raw milk farm and have turned down invitations to see first-hand what they are making life-changing decisions about. Meanwhile we raw milk consumers know our farms and our farmers, and see first-hand how they lovingly care for our animals and practice strict sanitation to keep our milk pathogen-free. The government refuses to listen.

At NO time has the raw milk community ever been consulted by the government about these laws which so hugely affected us.  Our community is still not being consulted or listened to.  Our letters to government go unanswered, and politicians have refused to meet with us when members of our community have request meetings.

Please fight for the freedom of Canadians and sign this petition.