Michael Schmidt toasts the queen of England, at a food rights rally in Toronto two weeks ago.
The Michael Schmidt legal situation has gotten so tangled that Ontario courts are having difficulty scheduling his court appearances.
As for Schmidt, he’s gunshy about even leaving a courtroom: “It’s gotten so when I walk out of court, they arrest me,” or so it seems to the embattled raw dairyman, about the Canadian practice of serving legal papers in courthouses.
Right now, he has three active cases:
-The sheep-napping case, which goes back four years now, and is still in the pre-trial stage. The pre-trial court hearings resumed this week and are scheduled to continue through next week. The case has gone on so long that half or more of the regulators involved in the case have retired or otherwise left the public trough, Schmidt estimates.
-The “cameras” case. This is the bizarre case in which Schmidt is charged with theft for removing cameras last summer that were set up in trees near his farm to spy on Schmidt and visitors to his farm. Isn’t it obvious he should have left those cameras, from parties unidentified, humming along recording life at this dairy? And that when he reported discovery of the cameras to the local police, he should have turned them over to the gendarmes without know whether it was a local pervert, or national intelligence authorities, or some other party, who had placed the cameras there.
-Obstructing police officers. This is the most recent case, an outgrowth of the raid by agriculture officials on his dairy in October in which Schmidt and his supporters outflanked and outmaneuvered the harassers by blocking them from leaving in a truck loaded with Schmidt’s milk and farm equipment. The regulators apparently didn’t take well to being put into the humiliating position of unloading their truck and giving back to Schmidt his stolen property, in order to be able to leave the scene of their crime.
Other charges may be pending, such as illegal distribution of raw milk, in connection with Schmidt’s ongoing private distribution of unpasteurized milk to members of his dairy. There are signs, though, that Canadian authorities may be tiring of the ongoing drama, in which Schmidt achieves ever-higher folk-hero status with each set of new charges.
A couple weeks ago, Ontario’s minority party leaders in the provincial parliament agreed to meet with Schmidt, after the province’s premier, Kathleen Wynne, refused repeatedly to meet with him. Then, last week, as Schmidt led a demonstration in Toronto that included supporters signing a food rights declaration, there was some conflict among officials. As some of Schmidt’s supporters pulled out raw milk to toast Queen Elizabeth, the titular head of the British Commonwealth, local police threatened to arrest participants for illegal distribution of raw milk. The parliament’s sergeant at arms intervened, since the demonstration was on parliament grounds, and the police left everyone alone.
Schmidt also reports that a group of his supporters could take the offensive in Canada’s highly restrictive raw dairy arena by organizing a class-action suit against the government over its denial of their access to raw milk. Schmidt didn’t have a lot of details about the suit, saying it was in the hands of farm shareholders.
There is a solution to the tangled legal situation, according to Schmidt: a “self governing” approach similar to the herd-share arrangements legalized in a number of American states over the past decade, like Michigan, Ohio and Colorado. Schmidt contends that regulators in Canada’s provinces could imitate regulators in places like Michigan and Ohio and simply declare private raw milk arrangements legal. Then, much of the air would come out of Michael Schmidt’s tangled legal web.
Schmidt recounts his entire protest history, going back to 1993, in this press conference, posted on Facebook and on The Bovine web site. Schmidt also is continuing fundraising via a crowdfunding campaign to defray the legal costs associated with the sheep-napping case.
it’s worth folding-in to the summary of Herr Schmidt’s legal predicaments in Ontario, the contrast between the different ways the bright lights who govern Brital-imumbia deal with foods of animal origin, which are consumed raw.
here, last summer, 65 people got sick from eating raw oysters during the red tide, in which a bacterium blooms and makes shellfish poisonous. Just this week, comes an announcement that the BC Centre for Disease control is convening a workshop to educate oyster farmers how to reduce chances of vibrio parahaemolyticus reaching restaurant plates.
contrast that with what the so-called “Health authority” did to Michael Schmidt back in 2011 – 2013. The guy who’d master-minded a private enterprise which supplied 500 households with raw cow’s milk – labelled as Cleopatra’s Bath Milk – wound up with a 90 day gaol sentence. Supreme irony being, that, at his trial, the Health Inspector who testified against him ( George Rice) admitted that there is no evidence of anyone ever getting sick from drinking raw milk, in BC.
The big dairy news today reported that dairy milk prices continue their down ward slide with no hope of recovery anytime soon. Yet….researchers in the EU report that dairy processors are taking more calls than ever with demands for raw milk being the consumers cry!! Yet they can not bring raw to market!!
The pure economics of CAFO dairy milk prices set below breakdown….will eventually break the market place. It is not possible for dairymen to continue indefinitely under these market conditions.
I spoke with one EU researcher today that reported on allergies to pasteurized millk shown in rat studies and those same studies matched parallel human child studies with no allergies to raw milk but allergies to processed milk !!
It is just a matter of time before dollar voting kills pasteurized milk and the consumer demand for raw milk screams even louder. “Processor pride and consumer deftness ” will kill the entire market segment taking down dairy after dairy in debt.
I am simply stating the obvious. Yet….no one is listening. Pride and its deftness are so powerful….they should be considered a tragic mental syndrome. Like a ships captain in denial of his ship sinking as water reaches his neck while wishing and wanting a better future.
Wishing and wanting don’t work!! Recognize the need for Change or die!! All very Darwinian.
Michael is a hero and a genius among idiots in denial.
“Michael is a hero and a genius among idiots in denial.” I second that. But, Michael is also a hero and a genius encircled by a sinister type of mafia system of pure protectionism.
The main mafia system I think you are referring to is Canada’s dairy industry. Dairy farmers are protected with huge government supports to keep the price of pasteurized milk high. To these dairies, Michael Schmidt and his distribution of unpasteurized milk is a real-life threat. They know how hugely popular raw milk could become, even if only allowed to be distributed privately, as Michael and a few other farmers do.
I am not so sure David. Certainly the dairy industry has acted to protect its interests and the interests of it’s bigger corporate members, note recent organic meadows bankruptcy. But are they mafia esque? When I think of Mafia i think of mob bosses who take out the competition and those that don’t agree with them. The news conference speaks for itself in this regard.
Well, in this current scenario, the government regulators become the “enforcers” who take out the competition. It sure is much easier when you don’t have to hire unreliable thugs to do your work. I was going to say it’s also cheaper, but that’s probably not the case, since you have to provide “contributions” to the politicians who provide the regulators with their budgets.
There is no doubt such a system places the integrity of public agency under suspicion. And while such a system may seem or in fact be hijacked by private interests, they non the less are comprised of a variety of stakeholders , and amongst those stake holders come to consensus. If such a process could ever be achieved amongst the stake holders of raw milk I certainly would be sure to not associate it with Mafia. But as one person seems to hijack the entire process and conversation , I would liken it far more to Mafia then industrial be beaurocrasy
Michael does well to appear like a hero, a champion of rights. But many have argued that Michael himself has been the biggest obstacle to raw milk in Canada. I am not sure if that is the case, but the argument sure has merit. I don’t think anyone is in the belief that a class action suit is in the works,which equates to more lies, nor does anyone believe the story that he was concerned the cameras we owned by pedophiles. There are some people that see government and corporate corruption and then excuse when those holding their same bias act in the same manor. Lies are lies , it does matter who tells them.
I think I made reference in my post to the possibility the cameras were posted by perverts. Given the circumstances under which the cameras were discovered, it wasn’t at all clear what they were doing there, who placed them there. My point is that the range of possibilities was pretty large, though certainly the most obvious one was that government snoops of some kind had sponsored them. Indeed, when government snoops are discovered, they typically disavow their intentions. In this case, the snoops actually admitted they were snoops, and then had the audacity to charge the target of their snooping with removing the cameras. You have to seriously wonder about the competency of those doing the snooping, who screwed the mission up so badly, to the extent they have actually gone and charged the target of their snooping with a crime when he tried to end the snooping. It’s difficult to imagine a judge reviewing the facts of this case, and keeping a straight face.
Clearly, Michael was under investigation. And it may also be very possible he was being played as he has predictable tendencies. Whether he fell into a trap or just happened upon the investigation, his own approach is what has lead to his charges. Let’s explore the facts as we know them. The cameras were in public property facing the road, and not his property. So the cameras are in the Domain of the public. He found them and removed them. They were not his , nor were they on his property. He reported them to the police, and claims to have given them to his lawyer. When the police came and said they know the owner and can attest they were not placed there under unlawful means and request them back, he became contemptuos and refused to do so. Then went to social media and was insulting to his local police force . Why did he not just let his lawyer take care of it, and just point the officer tongue lawyer? He was basically dating them to charge him. And they did. Unlike raw milk However, it’s a criminal charge, which carries a criminal record. So, the notion of it being right or not that they were investigating him is a mute point when compared to the overall need for integrity of law. Not being too sure what they were doing there? Let’s see your under federal investigation for conspiracy. Pedophiles. Really?
so ? ” … many have argued that Michael ( Schmidt) himself has been the biggest obstacle to raw milk in Canada …” pardon moi!? Perhaps you’ll provide the names and contact info of at least 2 of the “many”… since my forte is getting right down to the brass tacks of lawsuits, I’ll call them up and verify your outrageous assertion.
and whilst yer atit OtherSide … see if you can muster the backbone to make public your identity. Otherwise you’re opinion is troll-speak. If you aren’t grown-up enough to identify yourself, go on back and be seated in the Peanut Gallery. …. you aren’t up to speed-skating with those of us on the front lines of this most political of issues, ie. how the largess from the govt. trough is ladled-out. Confer with Andrew Coyne’s excellent article in the National Post, today [ Dec 8 2015,] explaining how the main business of business in this poor suffering Dominion, now, is = “lobbying for subsidies” … He doesn’t mention the dairy cartel, but it’s THE prime example of how, at the end-stage of communism, it implodes under the weight of corruption.
…..I’ll bet you a pre-’67 silver dollar to one donut-hole, that you = OtherSide = voted for the Dauphin … Justin Trudeau … dincha? And mainly because of his hair do. Yes, indeed, as he put it “Canada is back” … meaning Central Canada, and its Natural Governing Party, and all the pork-barrelling that is so much a part of that tradition
Haha, nah did not go for the good cop bad cop bullshit. But very hungry for electoral reform. C51 and TPP are bad deals. The only issue is electoral reform. If your so curious just ask Michael. I am sure he has a list going
I certainly would not call it a smart move to insult the very person your seeking to act in your interests( I.e milk act exemption). First, there is the insult of learning from China, and the ostentatios threat of civil action, with no base in reality , and then the contemptuous insult to the highest public official in the domain. Seems foolish to say the least. But then it’s not the first time. Which might leave all interested parties concerned for any viable outcome
The other side, I wonder what the alternative might be to the “insult” of civil disobedience. Have the authorities ever offered to sit down with Michael Schmidt and his shareholders to discuss alternatives to confiscation of their food, fines, criminal charges, and other aggressive actions? This whole affair has been going on for more than 20 years, and Schmidt has been very polite overall from what I can see. Am I missing something?
I think civil disobedience is different then contempt. I think that Michael is really good at some things and fails miserably at others. The biggest fault is actually not being able to recognize this. It’s becomes challenging to negotiate when someone is hurling insults in public. It becomes challenging to negotiate when it is uncertain that vulnerabilities will be appreciated. And with federal charges , various other charges, who is going to step into that? So if we we to really look at some solutions and ideas on how to attain that then there simply must be broad inclusion. And frankly professional facilitation, people that are well schooled. Otherwise, it’s another show, and division of interests. This has been attempted in the past, but obstacles were placed in the way.
N’OtherSide > your babble ignores the last 2 decades years’ of our experience in B. C. on the raw milk issue. After I came in ( 1999) I obtained 2 letters on official stationery, exempting our raw milk cowshare from the law of general applicability to do with industrial milk destined for the pasteur-izer. But that didn’t stop the over-educated idiots … “people who are well schooled”, as you put it … / the Bureaucrats / from ignoring what we had to say, then driving for a conviction, in order to placate those who convey political donations ( known colloqually as bribes) to the Party in Power.
…”hurling insults in public” ? you say? Gee you sure weren’t paying attention to the utter lies put out by the Chief Medical officer of BC, Perry Kendall … up on his hind legs braying like a jackass, in Dec 2009, about “some poor little child lying ill in hospital, after drinking raw milk from Home on the Range Dairy” over the national media. But when I forced him to admit THAT NEVER HAPPENED! did we see a retraction? an apology for the rank propaganda to suit the commercial interests? of course not.
You want “professional facilitation” do you? Well, how ’bout the lawyer for BC’s Fraser Health authority, – who’s a certified mediator! … sneering at me when I proposed mediation instead of prosecution? Oh no, that case was worth a quarter of a million $$ to her lawfirm, out of the Health Care budget! if you please!!
….OtherSide, you’re a simpleton. You have no understanding of the dynamics of what’s going on with the milk quota racket. Let me educate you on the fundamental factor : it ain’t about any risk of harm to the public health posed by REAL MILK
I don’t disagree with you . I know it’s not about gesltg risk. I am totally for raw milk. I am just not for Michael as its voice. Sorry, sole voice. I also have no issue with RAWMI standards, in fact replacing CSC with RAWMI made perfect sense on account of Michael. But it’s true not too sure about BC. But I do know it’s provably home of the only legitimate herd share cooperative. I read through a few of your medal cases too actually. What I gond so fascinating is that the raw milk as been always framed about raw milk consumption instead of access. Raw eggs are one if the biggest causes of food illness and yet they are sold raw. The difference being that producers don’t advocate eating it raw. Why do some raw milk producers insists on public ally promoting consuming raw milk? Of course health agencies will have issue.
So where is your “not anonymous ” voice . It is rather funny how there is such a resentment to anything I do. It’s not me wanting to be “hero”. One becomes a hero in the mind of others when one sticks to the message and to the cause. This round of publicly is not my wish if you want to be heard and seen or if those who rather stay underground it is your and their choice.
If you want a proper dialogue then call me or see me or I see you and call you. The reason these two farmers stood WITH me was, that they felt that it should not be my fight. It’s a courage thing to stand there and not hide. So either you come out of your closet or stay where you are and make a fool of yourself.
I would be more than happy if somebody else would stand up and do the “right thing” whatever it might be in your mind
Perhaps you could request the administrator of TheBovine to post all comments, held for moderation. I am sure you would not be behind anything if that sort, (?).
the otherside, eh? like, you mean?, the darker side? where people slither-around in cyberspace, posting half-baked innuendo which would be slanderous in what passes for the real world in which the rest of us live and move and have our being.
… but, as my old man used to say : “there’s nothing so useless it cannot at least be used as a bad example” …
since theBovine. Word press, seems to be your peculiar hobbyhorse, I have first-hand experience with Mr Chomko’s censorship. More than onec’t some little adolescent nubmskull posted comments slanging me by name, because I uttered notions about race, which she – brainwashed in the public fool system – assumed were “illegal”. but – in his eminent wisdom, Mr Chomko ruled that my rebuttals were not allowed to be seen’
hey = it’s his website and he can do with it what he wants, but the worst thing about Censorship is [ XXXXXXXXXX }
enough time dealing with you, N’Otherside. If you identify you-self in a way that can be verified, fine, we can have a productive discourse. OtherWise, you’re one of the ones of whom the Bible says are here “to wear out the saints”
There are always different views, different approaches, different opinions on any subject.
There are always anonymous writers who know better how others should behave and act.
Since we are all different let’s celebrate diversity.
Like the saying goes ” be judged by what you do and not by what is said
What ? You have sat before the public seeking an exemption for raw milk producers that take your specific approach, while suggesting that all other approaches be treated differently! You subsequently clarified this on your bovine post. And has your approach ever considered to include or involve other approaches? Are you three the only stakeholders? What makes your view and opinion greater then any other? If your to be judged by your own actions what would that ruling be?
Mark, it would seem as though RAWMI imherenrly lacks credibility on account of conflicting interests. It is difficult for a standard to be credibly administered when it’s governance is also an advocacy and political organization, of which, it’s head has a crucial conflict of interest for their own interests. Aside for out right denial, how do you consider that RAWMI addresses such concerns?
Other Side of the Story,
Not sure who you are but….
Michael is at the middle of the Canadian Raw Milk Hurricane because he has the heart, guts & balls to be at the middle of the Canadian Raw Milk hurricane. All over Canada there are many small raw milk producers that are “going about quietly and successfully feeding lots of Canadians with plenty of raw milk”. It is because of Michaels efforts and his being the lightening rod that they are not hit with the bolts that strike him. He draws fire so they don’t have to. He leads the charge for change as they enjoy the shadow of progress in the fight.
Michael sees the greater injustice, the greater goal and mission of correcting this nutritional access issue.
Yes…there may be quieter methods to accomplish this goal, but I do not think that huge change comes easily. There must be leadership and leaders draw fire. I totally and completely support Michael as he bends the plies of history and creates change where none would have occurred without heat, passion and pressure.
To change Canadian raw milk laws and access is ugly, uncomfortable and necessary. I think you should be praising his poise under impossible circumstances. Try wearing his Moccasin’s for a few miles and see how they fit and feel. It is so very easy to shoot arrows from behind rocks especially while using an anonymous name.
Michael is a leader, a visionary and a hero…simple as that.
And your all certain of the details from way over in Ca? I don’t think I have heard anyone claim that Michaels public voice has not brought more to raw milk. In fact, he himself has recruited more to raw milk production. There use to be over ten CSC producers and now only two sit by his side. No that is likely true, he brought many into raw milk. Though WAPF did A great job of it too. And yet still there were s good amount before him.
Often the means define the end. Perhaps one too many betrayals, one too many indiscretions, one too many lies.
Is Michaels legal situations still about raw milk? Or is it now more about him personally?
When there is more people under the bus then in the bus , then there is a problem!
Sadly, Mark, nothing that Michael Schmidt has done will ever change Canadian law, has ever had a chance of changing Canadian law, nor will change it in the future. Canadian law and government does not operate that way.
A whole lot of clutter and cluck going on here for my money.
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
“for my money”, Ingvar? then you have no complaint, ’cause you ARE getting your money’s worth … nest ce sue pas?
Michael Schmidt was convicted of contempt of Court, in May 2013. after which his appeal took until Feb 2015, on one point only = “consumer choice”. From the Bench, Judge Harvey Groberman of the BC Court of Appeal, mocked his lawyer’s pitch : that the white liquid in the jars being delivered to the Big City from the farm in Chilliwack, was “Bath milk”.
…After that ruling, the members of the cowshare were demoralized. Yet those who understood why REAL MILK matters so much … especially, for children … kept at it, expecting that the ( so-called ) Health Authority would come roaring into the farm yard any day, with a few cop cars. That never happened as long as Alice Jongerden had her constitutional question alive. After 7 years’ of warring with the Powers that Be, she finally ran out of $$ in the face of the Ontario Court of Appeal decision in Schmidt’s case.
… today, the dairy which started out as Home on the Range is formally registered as The Society for Ethical Agriculture. The REAL MILK is flowing on those same premises. Crucial difference being = the members come out to the farm every day, do the work themselves, jar-up their own property, then take it home.
… my guess, now, is : as long as people who want raw milk for themselves follow that model – strictly – the Canadian authorities will leave you alone. Just don’t go doing what I did = get on national tv/being so mouthy, telling the truth about the swill coming out of the Stalin-ist dairy cartel / all the good little taxpayers get cantankerous when you force them to confront the hypocrisy of their sanctimonious self-image versus reality
…Doesn’t matter to me that that viper hired by the govt. to ‘pin our hides to the wall’, managed to get a dry judgment against Michael and me …. all-in-all, I made my original point … one cannot “distribute” his own property to himself. Thus we never were breaking the provincial Milk Industry Act prohibition against “supplying and distributing” milk without it being par-boiled ( Pasteur-ized) on its way to the consumer. QED.
Your correct The arguments against raw milk are entirely bogus. They have been framed as a health issue on account of the assumption that those that get raw milk will consume it raw. While totally ignoring that getting it raw does not mean consuming it raw. The more legitimate argument for public authority is in public access. On account that there is public control of milk on the books, and therefor in the public domain. There seems to be some issues with how herd share operations are structured and run in regard to responsibilities and public interactions. And that many fail to walk the talk is problematic in itself. The idea overall makes sense, sadly so few are true. What lies behind the failure to be true to the its appearance seems to be stem from the fact that they are really just covers to sell milk to the public. So the weakness of the herd share is in failing to walk it’s talk. But so often it’s an opportunistic farmer that takes all the risk in capital and labor, and both unskilled in organizational facilitation. To adequately include herd share owners in management and unwillinging to surrender their financial stake.
I should mention that science now can show that raw consumption is not as risky as previously held, but it’s still a mute point so long as other similar foods can be available raw with public position on preparation
To Theothersideofthestory, If you were to be a leader of Raw Milk, how would you promote it and how would you want me to help you promote the consumption of it? Sorry, in the last 7 years I have not heard of you and you have many opinions. If you are a Canadian, give us positive direction. May I ask, “Have you consumed raw milk?”
How brave of Michael Schmidt to keep fighting in the face of such oppression. Raw dairy supporters in Canada are fortunate for his activism. May he and his fellow raw dairy farmers prevail soon!
The situation that Muchael is in is likely no longer about raw milk. In the broader context of finite resources and developing national strategies to deal with anticipated fall outs, Michaels ideals, actions, and overall approach likely places him in a different category of concern. Of which his utility to legitimizing raw milk and being able to positively contribute has been affected. Small farmers developing networks with closed communities is not a problem to the overall picture . Loud voices of contempt backed by similar sctions likely are. Just look at history.
indeed, N’etherSide = let us “just look at history”. The milk marketing quota racket was integral to the Progressive Economic Plan, as put forward by the Fabian society in England, after the First world War. The Fabians, of course, being hardcore communists who were sophisticated-enough to cloak themselves as “socialists”. Un-appologetic Centrally-dictated planning of the economy. Which has worked out in Canada the way communism Always plays out – disastrously for the people. while power accumulates to the tyrant.
… both Michael Schmidt and I got involved with the Campaign for REAL MILK, assuming that this society would welcome our good-faith effort to help people get good nutrition. Little did we know we’d stepped into one of the more dangerous of all political mine-fields … that being : exposing how America is a crypto -communist / red fascist society. The pinch-point comes when an accidental activist comes upon, then publicizes how state control is wrapped around the very basic elements necessary for feeding and breeding.
… in my own case, I was ( literally) tossed into the fray, on the so-called “Pro-Life” thing. A decade or so later, the lesson came into focus – through the genius of Dr Henry Makow – that there most certainly IS a long-running agenda underway, to control the population.
… with the raw milk, a newcomer refuses to believe it, but it’s this simple. Our mortal enemies are wittingly stealing the nutrition out of the mouths of our children, especially, those of reproductive age, as part of the evil end to eliminate white Christians because Caucasians have the Law of God written on our hearts and minds … in our very DNA.
… well do I know that that concept comes across as absurd, to someone whose ability to think for demself, has been neutralized by the public fool system, and the continuing programming of the propaganda outfalls known as ‘the media’. Where I’m at now, is = urging people to “get the FACTS. Think for yourself”, at the same time, doing my utmost to get REAL MILK into the hands and mouths and bellies of my kinsmen
elaborating on Michael Schmidt’s part in all this : he did not go “looking for trouble” for his own aggrandizement. Just the opposite. Having met the man and fellowshipped with him, I know that he’d be happiest, farming. But he’s the kind of character who rises to the occasion, rather than compromise his convictions for the sake of personal comfort.
…. Some of us could see that what the CFIA was doing to Montana Jones, and her sheepies, had ZERO to do with any genuine risk to the ovine herd north of the 49th Parallel. Rather ; it’s bleeding obvious that there’s a calculated agenda by the fascist, to control the genetic information. For instance ; the Human Genome Project is only the Eugenics movement started by Margaret Sanger and her fellow-travellers, the National Socialist Party of Germany, re-branded.
…. This is being done, a ] – for corporate profit-ability. But, much more ominous b ] – to control agriculture totally. Meaning ; the globalist vision of one-world anti-christ government, has, as a core operating principle, that “no un-licenced races of animals will be permitted”. Human beings, being one of those categories.
… yeah, I know = , at this stage, guys like me are ‘too far ahead of the herd’, so, rather than harken to the prophetic type, alla the good little pew-warmers prefer to have me put in gaol, or destroyed, whilst “thinking they do God a favour”. Back in 1992, when I came along in the (so-called ) Pro-Life thing, the Human Reproductive Technologies Act RSC was introduced. Which effectively allowed state control of producing human beings. I was out on the street, warning and informing the nation that Planned Barrenhood was in business, dealing in human body parts. Response was : to imprison us and write a special law to prevent us reaching the consciences of the individual, and the nation.…. lately, we’ve witnessed how the traffic in body parts of aborted babies is now just ‘business as usual’. How do you like feminism, so far?!
…. same thing is happening with corporate assumption of control of animal genetic information. Anyone who has the intellectual integrity soon sees that Montana Jones was railroaded then framed-up for persecution, because she was acting independent of the corporate agenda. And, what the CFIA did to her, was so IL-logical it provoked public revulsion. So she had to be demonized by the Powers-that-Be. She couldn’t have handled the insanity of it, by herself. Which is where Michael Schmidt comes in with his broad shoulders = one of the noblest of them all. Yet – as always happens – the nattering Nabobs of negativity are right there yapping at his heels. Fortunately our Commander in Chief, Jesus Christ, gave us direction how to deal with the cheap shot fiery darts : the big shield of Faith. This too, shall pass
Tosots
And what might that category of concern be?
Raw milk visa vie the Milk Marketing Board gives processors and government bureaucracies the leverage needed to manipulate the dairy industry, which in turn inadvertently infringes on the consumers freedom of choice.
“Raw milk” and our freedom to drink it is very much the issue. Without it we wouldn’t be here having this conversation. It takes someone with Michaels’ ideals, actions, and overall approach to expose the injustice of it all.
Political change is not about comfort. It is about application of directional maximum discomfort. Think of it like this. Politicians sit in certain chairs at a table. They find those chairs comfortable and very familiar ( and often paid for ). When that chair grows mean ugly thorny spikes and that seat becomes damn uncomfortable, the politician shifts his butt and eventually moves to the side of the chair or moves to another chair completely…but that move is always associated with an expletive announcing his or hers displeasure. Look at Ram Immanuel and how long it took to fire the chief of police in Chicago after the shooting of the kid in the street. It took a year to release the police video that clearly shows murder by cop!! The shift happened at the last moment and after intense pressure. Look at South Africa and Nelson Mandela. The examples are endless. Look at CDFA and AB 1735 in CA in 2007 and heat created by the formal raw milk hearings officiated Senator Dean Flores. Intense heat was created….CDFA refused to show up. That was intense heat brought by hundreds of families and all a part of strategy to gain change and respect for CA raw milk and it worked!!
We know what creates change. It is intense heat and pressure accompanied by an offering of a new more comfortable un-thorny chair where release of that heat and pressure can be relieved. In other words, use of strategic pressure forces a shift to another seat that is of our choosing that is more comfortable. Michael is applying that heat and pressure…he is also creating a better seat to sit in by preparing his raw milk producers with RAWMI LISTING so that politicians look like damn fools if they can see the safety and test data from their newly discovered enlightenment. Surely….Canada can feed itself with raw milk. It can join the majority of the rest of the free world and provide consumer access to safe low risk raw milk.
No…I think Michael has it right.. it just takes time, heat, strategically directional pressure and persistence. While at the same time creating a better chair to more comfortably sit in.
a nice treatment of the current situation to do with REAL MILK in British Columbia, is in the article in Concrete Garden magazine : I’ve posted it just now, at the top of my website homepage
URL
when he visited it in 2014, Mark McAffee declared the milk being produced on this little farm “perfect milk” !
Gordon,
Where is your website homepage?
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
Gordon,
Please relink the article from the Concrete Garden. When I visited the Concrete Garden website, I could not find the article. What a nice publication. Impressive!!
the article in Concrete Garden magazine is posted atop the home page on my raw milk website
nope = for some reason, this forum automatically deletes a line of URL
so I’ll spell it out with spaces ; my raw milk website is = www dot freewebs dot com /bovinity
whole article
………………………….
Raw Deal
Who’s afraid of cowshared milk?
By QUINN MACDONALD
Do you know what a cow is? It seems like a simple question. But have you really thought about it? ( If you grew up on a farm, you’re disqualified. ) That means she’s had at least one calf. Before that, she’s a heifer.
Similarly, you may not have considered the process milk goes through as it moves from a cow to your fridge. Pasteurization — heating raw milk to 72 degrees Celsius or greater for at least 15 seconds – has been around for more than a century. And for the last three decades in British Columbia, it’s been the law.
Raw milk is still widely available in many countries around the world, including in some European vending machines, but it cannot be legally sold or purchased in Canada, the only G8 country to outlaw its sale, as part of a 1990 amendment to the Food and Drug Act. Two years earlier, B. C. had passed a law that classified all raw milk as a “health hazard”, and the law persists as Section 2 (a) of the Health Hazards Regulation under the Public Health Act.
The penalties for selling raw milk? Up to $3 million in fines and three years in prison. The only way to legally consume raw milk in Canada is to produce your own or bring back $20 worth from the U.S. per day.
With 545 dairy farms and 72,000 cows, B. C.’s dairy industry is the third largest in the country, behind Ontario and Quebec ; in 2009, the province’s cows produced over 650 million litres of milk and B. C.’s dairy farms are some of the largest in the country with an average of 135 milking cows each. The industry employs more than 11,000 people and contributes over $1 Billion to the economy. The Milk Industry Act regulates how that milk gets collected and pasteurized at one of 33 processors in B. C.
Raw milk today represents a conflict between personal freedom and social safety, as well as a tug-of-war between industrial farmers, raw milk lobbyists, and their competing health claims. How do we strike a balance between access to a fresh source of nutrients that hasn’t been pumped out of an abused animal and pumped full of anti-biotics while acknowledging potential dangers?
The BC Dairy Association (BCDA), a nonprofit society funded by the province’s dairy producers, includes a “Raw Milk Q&A” on its website with links to “real life stories” about what can go wrong. It claims pasteurized milk is a healthier choice “because you can enjoy all the nutritional benefits of milk without the concern of contracting harmful and possible fatal diseases.”
And yet for all the warnings, people still drink raw milk. They just find ways around the law.
One avenue to raw milk is a cowshare. It’s a type of herdshare agreement in which consumers pay a farmer, or “agister”, a fee to board their cow ( or a share of a cow), care for it, and milk it. You’d be forgiven for not knowing about cowshares : when it comes to finding raw milk, you need to know someone who knows someone in the know. And agisters often prefer to remain anonymous because of their quasi-legal status. “It’s a very closed society, secret handshakes and stuff,” says “Farmer”, a local agister located just outside Victoria who provides services for the owners of a cowshare.
Farmer, 58, speaks with a slight English accent. He arrived in Canada in 1997 to obtain a helicopter pilot’s licence and ended up working with Medevacs in Victoria. Becoming a raw milk agister wasn’t part of his career plan.
“Three months before the cows arrived, I hd no idea this was going to happen,” he says. On a hike in 2013, he met a nutritionist who suggested he drink raw milk, after which Farmer discovered how difficult it was to obtain. He had enough property and decided to help others, starting with a woman in Metchosin looking to get rid of her three cows, Audrey, LouLou and Victoria.
“I hit the ground running,” says Farmer. “I made a lot of mistakes. I had to throw away a lot of milk.”
In September 2014, Mark McAfee, a raw-milk farmer and spokesman for the Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI) in California, gave a talk at the University of Victoria that is available on line. RAWMI was founded in 2011 because the U.S. also lacked standards for raw milk. The Institute’s guidelines act as a resource for regulators, farmers, consumers and legislators. “You’ll never h ear us say ‘guaranteed perfect’ because no food is guaranteed perfect,” McAfee told the audience. “In fact, the idea that pasteurized milk is perfect is far from true.” The U. S. Centres for disease Control and Prevention recorded 77 deaths associated with pasteurized cheese since 1972; there were zero deaths from raw milk during that time frame.
McAfee says that pasteurized milk is no longer milk but rather a milk product. Most people just don’t have anything to compare it to. “Unfortunately when you don’t have a market that’s mature, like the raw milk market isn’t mature, then people don’t know what they don’t have, so they won’t go and say, ‘Don’t take that from me.!’
How to collect clean raw milk
Victoria the cow meets Farmer at the gate, but first he needs to feed the new calf, Solstice. Born on June 21, the calf will stay on the farm until she’s weaned in four or five months. Calves take around two years to mature enough to produce milk. That costs money. Farmer says it’s easier to buy a ready-to-milk cow on UsedVictoria.com
In the milking parlor, Farmer gets a bucket of oats for Victoria and begins the cleaning process. Cleaning the udder has three purposes : it keeps the cow — and the milk – clean, while the massaging also triggers oxytocin production to “let down” the milk and to promote the health of the udder. Farmer uses a soapy towel, folds it in four, and double cleans all four quarters of the udder, flecking off bits of manure before cleaning around the teat.
The goal is to maintain the teats : remove the shit but keep the hundreds of types of beneficial bacteria that live on them. Farmer hoses away dirt, dries off the teats with paper towel and does the “stripping” by removing a few streams of milk by hand to check for abnormalities and encourage let down. The cleaning process takes more time than milking.
Fresh milk is warm and tastes slightly sour and more full than pasteurized milk. Farmer drinks the frothy liquid from a small container, something he always does out of respect for the cows.
The inconspicuous farmhouse where Farmer lives was built in 1913. The basement door looks on to the two acres of pasture, so he can keep an eye and an ear on the “girls” and his helpers while he carries out the next step in the milking process: filtering. Filtering determines whether or not the milk will go into people’s jars. Farmer pours the of the can’s milk through the filter and inspects it. All clear except for a couple of specks. “When I see things like that I think ‘Ehhh, I didn’t do such a good job,’ but you know, that’s totally okay, it’s a little grain of something.”
Just because Farmer is thorough doesn’t guarantee others will be – which supports the case to legalize raw milk rather than leave its production underground. “I know of other agisters that don’t even check their filters before they put the milk into the jars.” says Farmer.
Milk is tested for two main things: coliforms, bacteria found in the digestive tract of animals ( including humans) and standard plate count, the total number of bacteria in one millilitre of milk. There is also a routine yearly test for tuberculosis, a disease that no longer exists in B. C. Both Farmer and McAffee agree that showing consistently strong, safe test results is how to convince authorities to change the laws. Farmer tests every month and displays the results of the last two years on the fridge in the basement.
Farmer says the total coliform test results tell him how well he’s doing “out there” in the milking parlor, while the standard plate count number reflects how well he’s doing “in here”, where he does the filtering, bottling and cooling. Cooling and storage affect test results. To keep bacteria rates low, milk needs to be chilled as quickly as possible, as bacteria doubles every 20 minutes at room temperature. Farmer uses a converted freezer that he keeps at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Since raw milk is illegal in B. C., the province has no test standards for it. Some commercial dairy farmers also keep high cleaning standards, but the milk from those who care and those who don’t all gets mixed together in one of the processors. Conscientious farmers don’t get compensated for the time spent keeping their operations clean.
A different kind of Herdshare
Farmer’s cows came with roughly 30 clients. That has grown to a total of 70 shares, although some members have multiple shares and others have only half-shares. ( One share is equal to four litres per week.) As Farmer fills the cowshare members’ jars, he gestures to seven rows of wire shelves, one per day of the week, lined with name-tagged glass bottles. Members must provide and clean their own jars for the operation to remain legitimate. “The law allows that you can drink milk from your own cow, but I can’t sell it and I can’t distribute it.” He explains, “so if I was putting milk in my own jars then that would amount to distribution.” Farmer will reject any jar that appears contaminated.
Farmer doesn’t like the term “cowshare” because of its association with people who operate illegally. He calls himself a ‘bovine mechanic” and compares the process of doing an oil change for a car owner. This mentality sets Farmer apart from other would-be agisters who own their cows. Because Farmer’s cows came with member owners, he never developed a sense of control over them.
Farmer has also innovated how to run a cowshare. “I knew nothing about it,” he admits, “and it’s just a beginner’s mind: How should this be done?” He says his operation is now 95 per cent legal. Under the current contract, which covers both ownership and his services, he still has the final say over who can be a member; this power clouds clear ownership. He and the other members are working to turn the herdshare into a non-profit, which will then handle shares and hire Farmer purely for his bovine mechanics. “It’s not tested in court,” he admits, “but I believe we can have an entirely legal operation here.”
A 2003 reply letter to the herdshare from the Ministry of Agriculture about enjoying a “dividend” from joint cow ownership explained that the Milk Industry Act “does not prevent you from consuming unpasteurized milk from a cow which you own.” What if someone owns a cow but lacks the space or ability to care for the animal and hires someone else to do so – can the owner still drink its raw milk? In a second letter, sent in 2015, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall pointed out that “raw milk is considered a health hazard” and suggested “the double boiler method for home pasteurization,” but, yes, the owner could drink it.
“So we know that the authorities agree that it can be done,” says Farmer. And yet the raw-milk trade remains illegal in B. C. “It is ridiculous how they’ve got these regulations structured.”
When asked directly, Kendall remains opposed to legalizing unpasteurized milk and would not promote a regulatory framework for its sale. Unpasteurized milk, he says, has health risks, mostly food poisoning, especially for children and seniors. Kendall hasn’t seen positive test results from raw milk farmers in B. C. and says that persuasive evidence would require a big data set. Based on test results from Quebec, which has a regulatory regime for raw milk cheese, and from U. S. states that regulate unpasteurized milk, Kendall has still observed unacceptable levels of bacterial contamination and a higher risk of human illness.
“You can’t test every product, every litre of milk from every cow, every time you milk them.” says Kendall. “I know people want to drink it. However, scientifically, I don’t think there’s much in the way of evidence to suggest it is beneficial.”
How to get raw milk legalized divides the raw-milk community. Farmer disagrees with outspoken advocate Michael Schmidt, the owner of Glencolton Farm in Ontario, who was convicted of distributing raw milk in 2011 – and whose farm was raided again by authorities this fall. As a “loose cannon”, Farmer says Schmidt has brought attention to the issue but also created publicity blowback for agisters.
Other raw-milk “mechanics” have copied Farmer’s less controversial approach. “I don’t have the baggage of people who’ve been doing it for decades and actually own the cows,” he says.
Getting operations quasi-legal, however, puts raw-milk producers in a paradox where the regulations don’t need to be changed. The status quo doesn’t help anyone who wants raw milk but doesn’t want to belong to a cowshare. And it doesn’t help dairy farmers or cowshare members recover revenue by selling the extra milk.
“It can’t be done legally within the existing structure,” says Farmer. “But it would be better if we can change the regulations and make an honest living out of it.”
Cleaning up the Conditions
The final step in the milking process is cleaning up. Back in the milking parlor, Farmer says his ability to ensure his equipment is clean distinguishes his farm from larger commercial dairies, which use miles of pipe and large amounts of equipment – making pasteurization necessary. He mops the rubber mats with diluted detergent and talks about how people are turning to raw milk herdshares to reconnect with the source of their food and understand how the animals are treated.
“A litre of raw milk is a fair amount more expensive than the stuff you buy in the grocery store,” says Farmer. “But that’s a price they’re willing to pay.”
Farmer’s cows eat only non-GMO feed: grass from his field seven months of the year and hay for the rest. He plans to reseed his pasture next year with Indiginous grasses and legumes. As a treat during milking, his cows get a small amount of grain, using non-GMO pellets from a supplier in Duncan.
Farmer operates h is cows on a milking lifespan of 10 years; anything after that is a bonus. The “girls” are between four and six-and-a-half years; the matriarch, LouLou, is nearing her peak. On commercial farms, the average lifespan is five years, as older cows are replaced with heifers and sold for meat. After 10 years, the volume of milk declines and the cows lose their value as producers, so the cowshare will decide as a group what to do then.
Testing the Health Benefits
At least 25 per cent of Farmer’s cowshare clients drink raw milk to benefit medical conditions, including Lyme Disease, Parkinson’s and gastric problems. Proponents of raw milk’s health benefits are often influenced by the “Campaign for REAL MILK,” from the Weston A. Price Foundation. Founded in 1999, the foundation focuses on “real” instead of processed foods and lobbies for universal access to raw milk.
Linda Morken, the head of the Victoria chapter, got involved with the foundation while treating a chronically-depressed immune system. “I had a chest cold that lasted six weeks,” says Morken. “That was the turning point.” Her research led to information about gut flora, which can affect physical and mental health. As chapter leader, she informs members about local sources for farm-fresh foods.
Morken is quick to point out that she’s just a grandma, not a nutritionist. She gets constant requests from people seeking raw milk and passes along names to raw-dairy farmers. Because of the law, she never gives out information on her own accord. “There is more demand than there is supply,” says Morken.
Morken has written letters to the B. C. Minister of Health and editorials for local papers. “It’s a simple food-rights issue,” she says. She also believes raw milk should be legalized so it can be regulated. “I’d be afraid to drink raw milk that was not being raised according to standards that people who know how to keep raw milk safe, have developed,” she says, citing the work of McAffee.
The evidence, however, for the health benefits of raw milk remains anecdotal. In July 2015, John A Lucey, a professor of food science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the Wisconsin Centre for Dairy Research, published a review titled “Raw Milk Consumption: Risks and Benefits.” The article explains how “recent scientific reviews by various international groups have concluded that there was no reliable evidence to support any of those suggested health benefits.”
The same review claims that pasteurization causes no changes in the protein quality or mineral concentration and only minor losses of vitamins. However, effects of the industrial dairy process not related to pasteurization – such as packaging material, light exposure, storage time and temperature,and type of feed – can impact the nutritional quality of the final milk product.
According to Dr Perry Kendall, reviews commissioned by the Office of the Provincial Health Officer suggest there is a risk with no real benefit. He is also troubled by how online advocates promote the benefits of raw milk for children, who are at a higher risk for serious outcomes and who, unlike adults, cannot make their own informed decisions.
And what if proponents of raw milk one day sway politicians to legalize their drink of choice? “If the government did want to create a regulatory regime, I would like to be engaged in defining how strict it would have to be,” says Kendall. “It would have to be self-financing, and I would want a caveat that said you do not give this product to children.”
Linda Morken thinks more research can be done to understand bacteria’s role in human health. “I get dis-illusioned by the fact that our modern world thinks we have to prove everything in a reductionist kind of way,” she says. “when it’s already been proven by thousands and thousands of years of tradition where people didn’t have the illnesses we see today.”
Both she and McAffee talk about raw milk benefitting allergies and asthma. Lucey’s scientific review did not find any data to link pasteurized milk to an increase in respiratory allgergies; however, he did cite epidemiological studies that suggest growing up on or near a farm can decrease the risk of allergies and asthma.
And here is the crux of the debate. As McAffee says, “We have city folk wanting to have immune systems like country folk.” A 2010 paper in Preventative Veterinary Medicine showed that nearly 90 per cent of Canadian dairy farmers consume milk unpasteurized. Maybe our disconnection from the land bothers modern urban consumers. We have learned where our other food comes from … so why not dairy?
People can switch to nut milks, but nut plantations have big ecological footprints, while dairy remains a high source of protein and fats. ( And who really wants to trade cheese and ice cream for a nut-milk substitute. ) While it might be hard to raise cows in the city, getting in touch with the source of our milk products can empower consumers to make better choices about their food. Until there’s a change in the regulatory framework of raw milk, however, that choice will remain out of reach for most of us.
Farmer tells a story of two girls from a nearby school who walked past a neighbour’s field where he had pastured his herd for the day. The girls stopped to take selfies with the animals. One of the girls asked, “Are these cows?”
“Of course they are!” said her friend.
“Well, they’re not black and white.”
Farmer laughed. His own three “girls” are tawny light-brown jerseys, favoured for raw milk because they have the highest milk fat content of any cow. The schoolgirls only knew the stereotypical black-and-white cow, usually a Holstein, like Daisy the Island Farms’ mascot. That was the animal you get the milk from. In reality, a Holstein is just one of 800 breeds around the world.
“It’s so out of touch. It’s crazy,” says Farmer. “And I think it’s true for so many people.”
Fall . Winter 2015 . 2016 CONCRETE GARDEN
black market food co-op on trial in Fort Worth Texas … … treated as criminals for organizing their own food supply chain outside the commercial system ; ringleader charged for driving REAL MILK from the farm, to town
http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/2015/12/15/city-code-expert-testifies-in-fort-worth-raw-milk-trial/77363772/