June is Dairy Month, right here in the Dairy State. While it is true that California's factory farms enable them to produce more milk, we proudly insist that Wisconsin's quality makes up for their quantity.

Incredibly, however, the state of Wisconsin does not trust its family farmers to sell their quality product directly to consumers who want to buy it, while California and 14 other states do. Big Nanny strikes again; or is it Corporate Big Brother?

A century ago, all the milk they drank was "raw milk." There were no massive pandemics or growing obesity problem. By the 1950s, a massive lobbying effort by the dairy industry removed the raw milk option for consumers "for their own good." They knew very well that the small farmers would not be able to compete once these laws were passed. Large dairies were able to consolidate the market and largely drive small family farms out of competition.
Sound familiar?

In 2010 the state Legislature, after much fussing and nit-picking, did manage to pass a bill that would return the option to buy "real" milk to those consumers who prefer it for taste or health reasons and who are willing to drive out to a farm to buy it. However, the dairy industry then applied major pressure on the governor, who reversed himself and vetoed the bill. Opponents of the raw milk bill claim that the health risks of drinking raw milk are unacceptable-- for themselves and (this is the sad part) for everyone else. Libertarians, on the other hand, insist that each of us, not the government, own our bodies and are the only ones to decide what to put into them.

So now the dairy industry has guaranteed its continued control of milk and milk products, from Wisconsin farms to our dinner tables. At least for now.

Those who are sincerely convinced that real milk is bad for them shouldn't drink it. They have every right to attempt to persuade others not to consume it. It is wrong, however, to hijack the power of the government to impose their choices on others. The number of family farms which might sell milk  directly would be small and there are relatively few real milk purists who want to buy. We should support their freedom to do so.

By the way, California and 13 other states also beat Wisconsin in giving their sick citizens the right to another natural health product, medically prescribed marijuana, another bill which mysteriously got sidetracked in Madison. This is another aspect of the "Do we own our own bodies?" principle for a minority of our fellow citizens.

There are some who claim that the pharmaceutical industry benefits from bans on both real milk and medical marijuana. More government bans, more customers. A timely topic for another column.

"The spirit of liberty is not merely, as multitudes imagine, a jealousy of our own particular rights, but a respect for the rights of others, and an unwillingness that any man, whether high or low, should be wronged and trampled under foot." --
William Ellery Channing.

Jim Maas is the vice chairman of the Libertarian Party
of Wisconsin and a candidate for the 85th Assembly
District.