Nourish Cooperative was ordered to destroy their raw milk, raw butter, and other raw dairy products in their inventory by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) due to licensing issues.
Why was Nourish Cooperative ordered to dump their raw milk?
Michigan is a herdshare state, consumers must buy into a private membership association to acquire raw milk and raw dairy products from producers.
Nourish Cooperative was selling raw milk to their members under a feed license. Their raw dairy products were labeled as “pet food,” a common distribution venue in other jurisdictions, but the State of Michigan claims this is not allowed under its feed licensing regulations.
A cease and desist order was issued on May 28, 2024. On July 3rd, 2024, the co-op was ordered to destroy thousands of dollars worth of raw milk, raw butter, raw cheese, and more under MDARD’s observance.
This is a state-level action carried out by the State of Michigan, not federal.
While the state has ordered an increase in biosecurity efforts by all dairy farms due to bird flu, no connection to this order has been identified. Hypothetically, this action might be the result of one or more agents within MDARD attempting to shut down Nourish Cooperative in a roundabout way as a result of heightened bird flu anxiety – and there has been much speculation regarding this. Given the media hype, this assumption is understandable. We currently have no evidence that this is the case.
The co-op began operations last year – it makes the most sense that a year or so is how long it would take MDARD to become aware of the farm, investigate their use of the feed license, determine that this use is outside the state’s realm of permitted use, order them to cease and desist, and order the destruction of this unapproved food.
Needless waste over petty technicalities
We have no reason to believe this food was produced under any different of a standard than if they were distributing through a herdshare. As seen in the video, tons of good food was destroyed due to improperly structured paperwork.
They asked the state if they could keep the food for themselves, but the State of Michigan denied this request. Nor could they give the food away or restructure this inventory under a private membership association.
Nourish Cooperative claims to have lost $90,000 in damages to their inventory due to this regulatory action. If you would like to help pad their losses, while they reorganize their production with legal guidance, find their funding campaign on GiveSendGo and find them on Instagram.
I’ve maintained their listing page in the hope that they’ll get through this whack in the nuts and continue selling raw milk in whatever format the state will approve. View: Nourish Cooperative
