Baylen Linnekin on a Battle Over Raw Milk in Massachusetts

Lawton's Family Farm

Just across from Gillette Stadium, the gleaming Foxborough, Mass. home of the three-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots and their brilliant quarterback, Tom Brady, sits a small family farm that's stood in place since the 1730s. But while the 10-3 Patriots have New Englanders daring to dream of another NFL championship this year, the smaller but no less impressive Massachusetts institution that is Lawton's is struggling to fight an existential new threat proposed by the town's health department. That crackdown would subject Lawton's to a host of new, stricter standards for raw milk that go well above and beyond those Massachusetts presently requires of dairies throughout the state. And, writes Baylen Linnekin, the proposed rules are being spearheaded by a controversial local official.

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