Raw milk in Wyoming...

My oldest son is starting college in Wyoming in the fall.  We are making lists and getting ready and part of our planning has involved looking into raw milk in the state he will be in. Let me tell you, I was very saddened to find out just how difficult it will be for him to get raw milk! You see, raw milk shares are not legally protected in Wyoming law and recently the state legislature killed a bill in committee which would have legalized the arrangement (see HERE). In Wyoming there is no law concerning the production and sale of milk but its status in limbo makes it scarce. You can find an interactive map with information about raw milk laws HERE and find up-to-date sources of raw milk HERE.

As for my son, he will be at a new, small college in Lander and he will not have a car. There are zero places for him to go within the radius he will be able to travel in (see the Wyoming real milk listing HERE). While his diet is not perfect, and none of us really has one that is, he will face a serious challenge in that he will no longer have raw milk available. When he went there last July for a two week program to visit the school, the day he came home he drank a whole half gallon. He told me it tasted so good and felt so good in his body.I am expecting that he will drink a great deal of milk when he is home on break and I will need to order some extra milk for those times.

I find myself troubled that all the work I put into what I put into my kids means nothing when a child heads off for college. It has nothing to do with his temperament (that I have even less control over) but has everything to do with Draconian laws and capricious enforcement. He is now 18, he is an adult and he should have the right to eat the foods that he chooses and to a certain degree, he can. If he wanted to eat pizza and soda three times a day and snack on chips then he has that right. If he wants to drink a glass of raw milk every morning, somehow this is illegal. My kid can acquire a variety of liver damaging drugs like acetametaphine cheaply and easily without a prescription in any c-store but if he wants to drink milk, then he needs a ride to meet his "connection". Really? Does this seem right to you?

Support Wyoming raw milk producers and consumers by connecting with them on Facebook HERE and becoming a member of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund HERE. The FTCLFD provides advocacy and legal protection for both producers and consumers of direct from the farm goods; you read more about their work HERE.

How have you in the past or will you handle the issue of food when your kids head off to college?

Linking up to Real Food Wednesday!