The legislative process to change California’s AB1735 and its coliform standard is rapidly moving forward.

I expected progress from the hearing, but I didn’t think that less than 24 hours  after the late-night California Senate hearing on raw milk things would have advanced so far. Sen. Dean Florez appears determined to introduce new legislation to replace AB1735, and today he had his committee’s lawyer in touch with Mark McAfee, owner of Organic Pasture Dairy Co.; the governor’s office; and anti-raw-milk professors from the University of California, Davis, who testified at the hearing (and appeared to be serving as "fronts" for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which refused to send representatives).

The lawyer’s calls appear to have already secured the basis of a compromise under which the replacement legislation would cover the three areas I described in yesterday’s post: 1) required pathogen testing of raw milk; 2) a new coliform limit–possibly of 50 coliforms per milliliter in the bulk tank (as opposed to the bottle); and 3) required Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plans.

On this last point, Mark McAfee agreed to provide a draft HACCP plan by noon tomorrow (Thursday) for review by the UC Davis experts. Mark said he could complete something so quickly because he has previously prepared such plans, including for an apple-growing business at his farm in the 1990s. A key component of the plan will involve regular testing of milking cows’ manure, according to Mark. "You’re not going to get pathogens in the milk if you don’t have it in the manure," he says. In addition, his plan will cover things like dust control, rodent control, regular checking of milk filters, door closers, and various aspects of worker sanitation.

If there’s a possible hangup, it’s likely to be over gaining approval of Mark’s plan by the UC Davis people. If they can get together with Mark and agree on what the plan should cover, then Sen. Florez expects to have new legislation ready to move through the legislative process at the end of next month. He seems committed as well to butting heads so as to get the agreement between the opposing sides that will be necessary. Since the UC Davis people were the ones to suggest the HACCP approach, it could be difficult for them to suddenly change their minds…though in the raw milk arena, lots of strange things have happened.

Mark admits he was taken by surprise–pleasant surprise, that is–by the HACCP suggestion from the UC Davis people. It’s an approach Sen. Florez has pushed with California spinach and lettuce producers, following on the major outbreak of illness from E.coli 0157:H7 in 2006 in which 200 people were sickened and three died. "As soon as they said HACCP plan, I said, ‘done deal’," observes Mark.

Is the kind of horse-trading process that Mark is now engaged in a sellout? An abandonment of the principle of food rights? I don’t think so. Most foods have some kind of standards associated with their production and sale–whether by trade associations or by the government. In a sense, the deal-making now going on can be viewed as a potential recognition and legitimization of raw milk as simply another food. If it actually comes off in a peaceful and cooperative atmosphere (certainly not a given), then it could set an example for other states. This kind of open and above-board process is exactly what the CDFA has been seeking to avoid by not participating in the hearing process.