Representative and Gubernatorial candidate Jon Hansen’s list of accomplishments are few and far between, especially this legislative session.
And as we end the second week of the legislative session, his first bill of 2026 is certain to set off alarm bells with the medical association as well as South Dakota’s dairy producers.
Hansen’s bill seeks to amend South Dakota’s raw milk prohibitions that were last visited over a decade ago, when the Department of Agriculture opened the door to allow raw unpasteurized milk to be sold in the state at the farm where it was produced. Now in 2026, in his House Bill 1121, Hansen proposes throwing open the doors to selling it in the state, allowing raw milk to be sold at farmer’s markets, at retail stores (RawMilk Mart?), and delivered directly to consumers by the RawMilk Man.
In 2015, raw milk sales were opposed by the State Medical Association as well as the South Dakota Dairy producers. However, Jon’s liberal anti-pipeline friends in Dakota Rural Action were proponents at that time, and will likely support the sales this time around as well.
We’ll see how this debate shapes up in the coming days.
Bring on the e.coli, brucellosis and some listeria. More crazy stuff out of Pierre
I drink a gallon of raw milk a week.
Surprising nobody at all.
*ding* *ding* *ding* *ding* *ding*
Absolutely comment of the day!
Yeah ya do, Mrs. Volesky. It shows in your aura.
So?? Unless you are still getting carded when buying alcohol, what’s the point? Is raw milk the secret to looking younger than your years?
Drew Dennert’s mama, who, when told she didn’t look old enough to have a son in the state legislature, said it was because she didn’t consume anything that was pasteurized. Oh yeah, that explained it.
Drinking raw milk doesn’t correlate with anything other than falling ill.
This is yet another instance of MAGA prioritizing the illusion of freedom over fundamental public health. The dangerous rhetoric surrounding vaccine denial and the promotion of raw milk is leading us towards spiraling insurance costs as society bears the burden of individual choices driven by ignorance and unfounded fears. It’s only a matter of time before MAGA realizes the crucial importance of science—if they haven’t already undermined it in our educational institutions. We are on the brink of losing America’s supremacy in scientific knowledge.
Here’s some science for you. Don’t hold your breath on any MAGA understanding or prioritizing science. You’ll be dead.
Another example of SDGOP interbreeding .
The West Virginia legislature sends its regards:
Lawmakers Drink Raw Milk To Celebrate Its Legality, Become Immediately Sick – Modern Farmer https://share.google/NPZb77cwgbNMqAXQ6
I grew up drinking raw milk, and no one in my family ever got sick from it. We had one milk cow that provided milk and cream, as did most farmers.
There’s a big difference between going out to the barn just before supper to get some milk to drink and selling that milk hours later at the farmers market. Bacteria don’t have much time to multiply if you drink the milk immediately. That’s not the case when the milk has been sitting at the farmers market all day.
Shhhh, we had a Darwinian Overton Window opening on a social arc that could have reduced the MAGA ranks. Let’s watch the play action on the field and see how that call works out for them Cotton
And if anyone has ever worked in a milk barn, quite often cow shit goes directly into the milk. It can’t be helped. If you are milking one cow by hand, fine. Otherwise….
meh
Mandatory pasteurization of milk made more sense before modern refrigeration/freezing. It is now possible for vendors to keep milk as cold as the raw meat they are selling at flea markets..
The odd thing is why anybody would want non-pasteurized milk. The taurine in it is sufficiently heat-stable, so it’s still in there. But goat’s milk is a much better source of taurine anyway. Other than that, what’s the point? There is a correlation between drinking raw milk, living on a farm, and having fewer allergies/asthma, but that is probably due to desensitization induced by a rural lifestyle, not to the milk itself…
There’s some truth to this. I was always kind of stuck between city and country and had cousins from both sides. Country kids always had runny noses, rashes, etc. when they were young. City kids, not so much. Later in life city cousins are lactose intolerant, gluten sensitive, asthmatic and have allergies. Country kids are strong as oxes, perfect skin, can eat a shit sandwich and no allergies. No of my country cousins drank raw milk yet came from dairy farms. Gotta be exposure to things at a young age and built up immunity.
Wow if only there were collated data sets from solid research and double blind testing to support this. THAT would be something wouldn’t it.
I like Jon. He’s like a hip Dusty Johnson. Edgy and plays the guitar but is a closet nerd like Dusty. Spoiler alert. Proponent testimony from Jon will detail that he was a city kid from Dell Rapids who dated a country girl, Sheila. He found Jesus when he suckled his first teet on Sheila’s parent place from a Holstein. It was Jesus juice that came out. The first sip, he was hooked. I mean, he has the self proclaimed record for most cows milked by a city kid in South Dakota. Loves to tell that story. That story is right up there with Kay on oxygen from Piedmont who can’t pay her property taxes.
That has to be the first time anybody ever called Jon Hanson “hip” or “edgy.” Bland as raw milk if you ask me.