Pattie Chelseth thinks she has the right to sell you a fraction of a cow.

Chelseth, operator of My Sisters' Farm in Shingle Springs, keeps two cows owned by 15 people.

A cow's owner can legally drink its milk filtered but unpasteurized, so she believes each of those 15 owners is entitled to a share of the raw milk.

California's Department of Food and Agriculture sees it otherwise.

"We consider that a commercial transaction and subject to the dairy food safety laws," said Steve Lyle, the agency's public affairs director.

A battle in a milk bottle is brewing, as small farmers challenge state and federal regulations.

Chelseth is trying to land the latest blow, floating an ordinance for El Dorado County that she thinks would give small producers the right to sell unregulated goods – milk, cheese, home-baked pies and more – directly to the person who consumes them.

She will hold a local meeting at her farm on Friday.

She said there are at least eight other dairy shares in El Dorado County, and others are interested.

"If it's a private customer, from person-to-person," Chelseth said, "that shouldn't be regulated."

For her to be regulated and inspected for milk would be a $100,000 proposition, Chelseth said.

She's not even trying to be in business. She bought a cow in order to get raw milk for a grandchild, she said.

She started the herd share when others came to her for raw milk.

The Department of Food and Agriculture has served her with a cease-and-desist order, Chelseth said.

"We see it as a food safety issue," said Lyle.

Chelseth is promoting a "Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance," modeled on ones passed in Maine beginning this year.

The El Dorado ordinance, like those in Maine, reads more like the Declaration of Independence than a county law:

"We the People of the County of El Dorado, California, have the right to produce, process, sell, purchase and consume local foods, thus promoting self-reliance, the preservation of family farms and local food traditions."

"This is all about freedom," Chelseth said.

Maine's state agriculture agency has told towns that passed similar rules that they do not supplant state law.

"They don't change a thing, actually," said Hal Prince, director of the Maine Department of Agriculture.

Maine already has relaxed rules for home food production of so-called "low-risk" items like jams, jellies and many baked goods, he said.

El Dorado Supervisor Ray Nutting likes Chelseth's idea, but says it needs more work.

"I'd be willing to sponsor it, but I want to take something to the Board (of Supervisors) that would help them, rather than just support them," Nutting said.

He said he asked backers to "give me something that actually changes the law."

Other area food activists support the idea.

"I think it makes total sense," said Joanne Neft, former agriculture marketing director in Placer County. "It is because of the overrestrictions by our government that do not give us permission to eat healthy food."

Similar sentiments are expressed throughout the state, said Shermain Hardesty, director of UC Davis' Small Farms Program.

Local food isn't necessarily healthy food, said Bill Marler, a Seattle food safety attorney.

"What these kind of ordinances are trying to do is 'let me do whatever I want to do because I believe (that) because my product is local it's safe,' " Marler said. "And that's baloney."

Marler is a sponsor of www.realrawmilkfacts.com, a website Lyle cited in support of state rules.

People are unaware of the dangers of uninspected foods because they don't see the consequences, Marler said.

"I've been in a lot of ICUs, I've been at funerals, I've seen children die because of what's in the food," he said.

"Regulation is not a bad thing," Marler added.

Hardesty agreed that there are options besides relaxing all the regulations.

She favors establishing smaller meat-processing plants to aid small producers and is studying possible rule changes that would establish different, but safe, standards for produce that isn't widely distributed.

Raw milk is a different question, she said.

"I think that would require a tremendous amount of research to justify that," she said.

Chelseth is unconvinced. She believes the rules only benefit big farms, where many food pathogens originate.

"If it's about public safety, my milk is clean," she said.

"I refuse to be underground," she said. "I'll go to jail, and I won't drink anything but raw milk."

Editor's note: This story was updated to correct the URL for the website "Real Raw Milk Facts."

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