Allegany County farmer urges state to allow raw milk off‑farm sales

Jerry Snyder, a small‑farm owner from Alfred, urged the Allegany County Resource Management Committee on March 5 to press the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets to remove an “on‑farm sales only” restriction on raw milk sales so farmers with state permits can sell directly to customers at venues beyond their farms.

Snyder said direct marketing is the only viable revenue source for many small family farms and described a petition he has circulated for about a year and a half. “All I’m asking is for four words on farm sales only,” Snyder said. He told the committee his operation has more than 400 customers and is sold out.

Snyder framed his request as food‑sovereignty and farm‑sustainability policy. He cited a National Association of Counties (NACo) report and the University of Vermont Dairy Innovation Center as background, argued that pasteurization addressed historical public‑health problems while modern on‑farm practices can produce safe raw milk, and said small farmers face enforcement fines and regulatory barriers. Snyder said he was fined $600 in a prior enforcement action and that his written scientific response ended further direct enforcement against him.

Committee chair (identified in roll call as Mister Curran) said the committee would forward Snyder’s materials to state officials. “We’re gonna push this to the state and see what they do,” Curran said.

Snyder asked the county to request a formal response from Albany and to deliver his draft ordinance language and petition to state milk control officials. He proposed a model called a food‑sovereignty ordinance that would exempt face‑to‑face farm sales from certain regulations, and he referenced New York State statutes compiled in McKinney’s as supporting context for his petition.

The committee did not take a formal vote on Snyder’s request at the meeting. The discussion was recorded during the public‑comment/guest presentation portion of the agenda and ended with committee members acknowledging they would forward the material to state officials.

Snyder’s presentation touched on broader themes he said affect farm viability — consolidation in food processing, loss of farms in New York (he cited a figure that 14 percent of farms were lost between February 2012 and February 2022), and recent legal challenges elsewhere to direct‑to‑consumer or private‑membership raw‑milk sales. He also provided numerical claims about raw‑milk consumption and illness rates that were stated as his figures during the presentation.