Paris Dairy Farms. Regulating Urban Dairy Production, 1815-1830

During the first half of the 19th century, cities were supplied with milk by a network of dairy barns within the city limits: the vacheries. Thousands of cows were housed in the city in order to supply markets with a rapidly perishable product. Paris had the highest density of dairy barns in Europe, which meant that a hygiene police force was needed to monitor the quality of the milk, to reduce nuisances caused by these barns, and to ensure that inflows of cattle feed and outflows of manure were organised properly. The Conseil de salubrité (health council), headed by veterinary surgeon Jean-Baptiste Huzard, was in charge of this policy. The Conseil adopted regulations that were fairly lenient towards these “milk factories”, giving priority to ensuring the food supply of Parisians. As a result, although the number of dairy barns in central Paris declined in the 1820s, this had more to do with changes in the way milk was marketed than with strict enforcement by hygiene authorities.