For a decade now, judges, regulators, and even some media have ridiculed the notion of ‘food rights,’ the idea that Americans have a right to grow, buy, and consume the foods of our own choosing. FDA lawyers in 2010 argued in a brief defending against a suit filed by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund that “there is no ‘deeply rooted’ historical tradition of unfettered access to food of all kinds…” That eventually led them to concluded: ““There is no generalized right to bodily and physical health.”
A year later, a Wisconsin judge wrote in explaining his decision against dairy farmers selling raw milk via a herdshare arrangement: “no, Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to consume the milk from their own cow;”
And in a kind of exclamation point, he added this to his list of no-nos: “no, Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to produce and consume the foods of their choice…”
In 2012, a federal judge ruled that an Amish farmer’s cow-share arrangement for providing individual shareholders with raw dairy was “a subterfuge” for avoiding regulations prohibiting interstate raw milk sales.
On and on the expressions of disdain and arrogance go. As recently as this past August, Food Safety News, a staunch defender of food regulators and regulations, went after me for my defense of Amish farmer Amos Miller’s private sale of meat slaughtered on the farm to food club members around the country, stating in its rant: “The fantasy in Gumpert’s mind is about ‘private food rights’ and ‘the right’ to purchase directly from farmers. In the ‘Food Freedom’ world, you have to go down many rabbit holes to find these ‘rights’ that come without responsibilities.”
Well, we may well be seeing an important turn of events in favor of food rights, thanks to a proposed amendment to Maine’s constitution; on November 2, Maine voters will be asked: “Do you favor amending the Constitution of Maine to declare that all individuals have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing for their own nourishment, sustenance, bodily health and well-being?”
This seemingly simple expression of food rights, which is designed to also cover the protection of seeds and reduction of food insecurity, is actually more than a decade in the making. When Maine regulators tried to make it harder owners of small farms to sell chickens and raw dairy to neighbors back in 2008 and 2009, one of those farmers, Heather Retberg, led an innovative end run around the regulators and legislature by convincing small towns to pass ordinances legalizing private food exchange.
Retberg’s approach gained traction over the last decade, with nearly 100 Maine towns having joined the ordinance parade. The Maine legislature in 2017 formalized the process of towns enacting food-rights ordinances. Retberg wanted more, though–she convinced several legislators to help give teeth to the food rights movement by enshrining it into the Maine constitution. “We wanted to enshrine a right to food in the most fundamental way possible,” she says. But getting a constitutional amendment approved requires a two-thirds vote of each legislative chamber, no easy task in today’s polarized political scene. After six years of legislative debate and exploration, that finally happened earlier this year, thanks to support from legislators across the political spectrum; one of the key supporters from the beginning was Craig Hickman, a liberal Democrat who owns a small farm himself. (I described Hickman’s inspiring speech mourning the murder of George Floyd in spring of 2020.) Now, it requires a simple majority of the voters in favor to make it happen.
She points out that one of the reasons regulators and judges have been so haughty about formal and legal expressions of food rights is that there is no easy way for small food producers to get the legal leverage they need to challenge the current system tilted toward Big Ag. “People have not had standing without something enshrined in the constitution,” Retberg says.
It’s not just a matter of fighting back against the corporate interests, which have the most to gain by repressing and denigrating food rights. It also is a matter of giving small farms an opportunity to play on more of a level playing field. Retberg says the local food rights ordinance in her town of Penobscot, Maine, helped keep her farm financially viable, as it has dozens of other small farms around the state.
There’s no organized opposition to the proposed amendment within Maine, but apparently at least one Washington lobbying group against cruelty to animals, and against the use of animal-based protein, has expressed opposition.
If the amendment is approved November 2, it could set the stage for other states to follow the Maine model for finally giving real substance to the notion of food rights.
There’s lots of background and discussion of Maine Food Rights amendment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/righttofoodforme
If true, this is a very bad turn of events for Amish Amos ©
required reading, is > research what happened to the Montana Freemen. Last heard of, Leroy Schweitzer was in super maximum security on a feeding tube. Still proclaiming himself to be a law unto himself.
In British Columbia, officials may be bothersome but we find a way to cope.
In the US of A, they do not kid-around
…………..
from the Lancaster newspaper
Upper Leacock farmer Amos Miller, embroiled in a legal fight with the federal government over his failure to follow food safety laws and court orders, is now taking advice from extremists who don’t believe in government authority, according to his current attorney.
Miller, who owns Miller’s Organic Farm, wants to get rid of his attorney, Steven Lafuente, of Dallas, Texas. And Lafuente wants out, too.
“I don’t want to have anything to do with these sovereign citizen people at all,” Lafuente said Wednesday.
“Sovereign citizen” adherents believe in the legally baseless assertion that individuals, and not courts or lawmakers, can decide what laws to follow.
Believers contend “they are beyond the jurisdiction of the courts,” prosecutors wrote in court filings aimed at keeping Lafuente as Miller’s attorney. “(Courts) have found such positions to be frivolous.”
A phone message seeking comment left for Miller was not returned on Wednesday.
In early October, Miller faxed a hand-written letter to Lafuente stating that Prairie Star National would be representing him in ongoing litigation with the government.
“Please notify the (United States Department of Agriculture) that you will not represent our farm at this time,” Miller wrote.
Prairie Star’s website contains little information other than describing itself as “reclaiming freedom” and providing “financial services.”
Prosecutors want Lafuente to stay on the case, basically arguing that he’s serving his client’s interests by trying to keep Miller on track with court orders and helping to bring the farm into compliance with federal regulations.
A hearing on Lafuente’s status is scheduled for Friday before U.S. District Judge Edward G. Smith.
Winning the court’s approval to drop Miller as a client won’t be easy, Lafuente said. For one thing, businesses like Miller’s must be represented by attorneys in federal court, and Prairie Star is not a law firm, Lafuente said.
Other lawyers who’ve represented Miller have been able to drop their representation. “The problem is, I’m the last attorney standing,” Lafuente said.
In the past, Miller’s Organic Farm has held itself out as a private club that sold only to members and was exempt from federal regulations.
A transcript of a 2019 deposition included in court filings related to the withdrawal request show that Lafuente had convinced Miller he was wrong.
Lafuente said Miller is smart, but impressionable and has apparently fallen victim to erroneous thinking again.
Lafuente noted federal authorities have “bent over backwards” to help Miller and said he worries that Miller could face jail.
Miller’s ongoing troubles
Miller and his farm have been at odds with the government for years over federal food safety inspection regulations.
In June, Smith found Miller in contempt of a 2020 consent decree aimed at getting him and the farm to comply with food safety inspection laws. Smith also fined Miller $250,000.
But in documents filed Tuesday in federal court, the prosecutors said Miller has been slaughtering and selling meat and poultry in violation of Smith’s rulings.
In August, Smith even set aside the $250,000 fine he had imposed on Miller a month earlier. Smith wanted to give Miller and the government more time to work on compliance issues. Miller had complied with some issues, but claimed he was having trouble with others, including using a federally inspected slaughterhouse agreeable to him and the government.
Even as Smith set the fine aside, he expressed skepticism about Miller.
“I think [that] there is a real belief that he has been hiding what he’s been doing, that he has been, basically, trying to play a game with the government enforcers and that game can’t be allowed to continue,” Smith said, according to a transcript of the hearing. “They can’t allow it to continue, I can’t allow it to continue.”
Smith’s words are in documents prosecutors filed Tuesday asking the court to find Miller in further contempt, enforce the $250,000 fine, levy another $25,000-a-day fine for each day Miller is found to have illegally slaughtered poultry, plus order potentially thousands of dollars in other fines and costs.
According to the filing, just two days after the August hearing, the federal Food Safety and Inspection Service received an anonymous tip that led to further investigation.
Prosecutors claim that soon after being found in contempt, Miller came up with a scheme to illegally slaughter and process poultry under a different business name, Bird in Hand Meats, and at his farm adjacent to Miller’s Organic.
“That stunning disregard for the court’s orders and the law … demands consequences,” prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors on Wednesday declined comment. A hearing hasn’t been set on the government’s request for a contempt finding and fine.
Miller’s came to the attention of federal authorities in 2016, when the Food and Drug Administration said it identified Listeria in samples of Miller’s raw milk and found it to be genetically similar to the bacteria in two people who developed listeriosis — one of whom died — after consuming raw milk.
That led to the Food Safety and Inspection Service investigating and suing Miller’s over the meat and poultry issues in 2019.
The government’s latest claims
Among the government’s claims:
• Miller had beef and hogs slaughtered without government approval at another facility.
The facility is licensed, but Miller wasn’t allowed to slaughter without a plan approved by the government that also addressed how he was to inventory and sell thousands of pounds of the seized frozen meat and poultry.
• On Sept. 8, inspectors found an employee cutting up fresh poultry in a non-refrigerated semi trailer at Miller’s other farm, which is not licensed for that type of work.
• Inspectors also that day found thousands of pounds of meat and poultry in a refrigerated trailer on Miller’s main farm, but which lacked required inspection markings.
• Inspectors visited a trucking company in late October and found three pallets containing meat and poultry from Miller’s Organic that were to be shipped to Miami, Florida-based “My Healthy Food Club,” run by one of Miller’s distributors. None of the products had required inspection marks.
In asking for a hearing on the proposed fines, prosecutors wrote that Miller’s “… continuing failures and refusals to comply … have flouted this court’s authority and the rule of law and have impaired and will continue to impair (federal regulators’) ability to fulfill their public health missions.”
As far-fetched as it may seem to John Q Citizen who has not been through the meatgrinder of the legal racket, this is how the federales perceive Amish Amos © once he starts mouthing that Sovereign-citizen claptrap. And they will treat him accordingly
Freeman leader gets 27 months; LeRoy Schweitzer guilty of tax evasion unrelated to 1996 standoff in Montana
HELENA, Mont. — Gagged, chained and handcuffed, the leader of the Montana Freeman was sentenced Thursday to 27 months in prison for failing to pay income taxes and refusing to appear for trial.
LeRoy Schweitzer, who has shouted down judges and tried to disrupt court proceedings in the past, had his gag removed from his mouth prior to sentencing so he could speak.
“I will not willingly participate in this fraud,” he said, claiming he is a citizen of “the country of Montana,” not of the United States, and that U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell had no authority over him.
In addition to prison, Lovell also ordered Schweitzer, 52, to pay $200,000 in fines and $112,683 in back taxes.
For that, he was castigated by Schweitzer.
“I am a justice of the Supreme Court of Justus Township,” he said. “I hold you in contempt for constructive treason.”
“Will you stand when you address the court, please?” Lovell said.
“I am the court,” Schweitzer replied.
Schweitzer was the leader of the Montana Freemen, who held the FBI at bay for 81 days last year around Justus Township, their remote farm compound in eastern Montana.
But the charges Thursday were not related to the standoff.
They involved unpaid taxes from 1984 through 1987, and his failure to appear for trial in 1992.
He was a fugitive until March 1996, when an undercover FBI agent lured him and another Freemen leader out of the compound.
Their arrest launched the standoff, which ended peaceably on June 13, 1996.
Schweitzer is still awaiting trial, in Billings, on an array of charges related to the standoff, ranging from bank fraud to threatening to kill a federal judge.
It gets worse for Amish Amos ©
In case some of my antagonists on this forum assume that I gloat about my prediction being correct. Just the very opposite. I am deeply sad to learn where this is headed.
Below is very bad news about Amos Miller’s legal predicament. The man has been inveigled to board the crazy train … next stop = the Penitentiary. He’s finding out the hard way : “the whole world lies in the power of the evil One”
I never doubted the high quality of products sold by his corporate entity, which styled itself as a buying club. What galled me, was = to see Mr Miller / his corporation making merchandise of the mythos of Amishvolk. … compromising genuine Amish culture for the sake of profiting in the profane currency of “the English” ( their term) Were they true Christians, Amos Miller / his counselors, would harken to what Jesus Christ told his followers >
“settle with thine adversary in the way, lest you be hauled before a magistrate … etcetera”
He stiffened his neck instead of humbling himself. Judge Edward G Smith bent over backwards to accommodate him. Miller then disdained that kindness. He will wind up in prison “… paying the utmost farthing”. People all around him best figure out real quick, if they want to go there, too
……………
A federal judge appears to be running out of patience with Upper Leacock farmer Amos Miller, who’s been embroiled in a fight with the federal government over his failure to follow food safety laws and court orders.
Miller failed to show at a court hearing last week. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Edward G. Smith ordered Miller to appear at a Dec. 16 hearing to explain why he shouldn’t be held — again — in contempt of court for skipping the hearing.
Smith also made clear he won’t have anything to do with the legal strategy Miller wants to use.
Miller is asking the judge for permission to drop his current lawyer so he instead can be represented by an entity called Prairie Star National.
Prairie Star, which lists an address in Washington state, is not a law firm. Its organizers espouse “sovereign citizen” beliefs, including the legally baseless assertion that individuals, and not courts or lawmakers, can decide what laws to follow.
Smith directed the court to reject any filings made by Prairie Star in Miller’s case. He also issued a warning to the group:
“… the court admonishes its audience that the act of filing false liens against the property of a federal judge or federal law enforcement officer is a federal crime, punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment,” Smith wrote.
Sovereign citizens have tried to file such liens against judges. In January 2020, a Georgia man was sentenced to 25 years in prison for trying the ploy against federal officials.
Prairie Star sent a letter earlier this month to Miller’s attorney, Steven Lafuente, of Dallas, Texas. Formatted with a combination of capital letters, red and black ink and irregular punctuation, the letter told Lafuente he was no longer Miller’s attorney. “For the last time… You nor your firm… Represent Amos Blank Miller, the living man, nor do you represent Miller Organic Farm… We quite frankly do not care what you or the In the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania…, do or don’t do…,” the letter stated in part.
Prairie Star also threatened to sue Lafuente or the court if either “persists in violating our client’s guarantees …”
One of the purposes of the Nov. 12 hearing was for the judge to determine whether Lafuente could withdraw. While Miller doesn’t need legal representation in federal court, corporations do, including Miller’s Organic Farm.
For now, Smith is keeping Lafuente on as Miller’s attorney. That’s something the government’s attorneys want, too, noting in court filings that Lafuente has tried to steer Miller in the right direction.
Miller didn’t respond Thursday to a phone message and email. Prairie Star responded to LNP | LancasterOnline’s request for comment with a response that said it represented Miller, the human being, and not his farm. and claims Miller is not subject to the court’s jurisdiction.
In June, Smith found Miller in contempt of a 2020 consent decree aimed at getting him and the farm to comply with the laws. Smith also fined Miller $250,000, but set it aside when he was given assurances that Miller was working toward compliance.
However, prosecutors said in a Nov. 9 court filing that Miller has been slaughtering and selling meat and poultry in violation of Smith’s rulings. Imposing the $250,000 fine and other sanctions will also be considered at the December hearing.
It’s difficult to know what to make of these latest reports about Amos Miller’s ongoing legal problems, except that they don’t sound very encouraging. He has in the past mused about the possibility of going to jail to stand up for his beliefs. Possibly he has despaired of ever coming to a successful legal conclusion against a government agency that continues to find fault no matter how many steps he takes to come into compliance with its demands. For the record, these reports come from a local publication that covers the Amish community fairly objectively. Here are links to the articles Mr. Watson copied:
https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/lancaster-county-farmer-at-odds-with-feds-over-inspections-faces-contempt-finding-again-after-skipping/article_839594b8-48ae-11ec-9d6c-b31b05efc059.html
https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/lancaster-farmer-at-odds-with-feds-over-inspections-getting-advice-from-extremists-attorney/article_eb40244c-4265-11ec-9287-8bbeeb6fd3b2.html?itm_source=parsely-api&utm_source=article&utm_medium=summary&utm_campaign=What%20to%20Read%20Next
Like I was saying … now comes Proof ! that the Campaign for REAL MILK is = white folks asserting our heritage.
Since I first came on this forum, and wrote about artisanal dairying being a space for white people, I was derided … but who be de racissss now? As the lib-tards do what they always wind up doing … self-parody
Would that the Monty Python troupe were around today, with this, below, as the script for a skit !!!
………….
Washington State University is amplifying claims that farmers markets and food charities are examples of “white supremacy” and “white dominant culture.” It has nothing to do with helping farmers thrive. This is about creating left-wing social justice activists.
The agriculture program coordinator for WSU’s San Juan County Extension Ag Program promoted a webinar event titled: “Examining Whiteness in Food Systems.” During the hour-long presentation, attendees learned that “white supremacy culture” creates food insecurity by “center[ing] whiteness across the food system.”
The materials claim that “whiteness defines foods as either good or bad” and that farmers markets are merely white spaces.
{snip}
The webinar was originally produced by Duke University and featured two speakers from WSU’s 2021 San Juan Islands Ag Summit on the same topic.
Jennifer Zuckerman of the Duke World Food Policy Center led the discussion. She framed the webinar around her identity as a white woman who has “benefited from whiteness for my entire life at the expense of other people.” With that in mind, she explored the “really specific ways in which whiteness shows up in the food system and particularly in the work of food insecurity.”
Promoting the belief that “whiteness permeates the food system” and that “it specifically articulates these white ideals of health and nutrition,” Zuckerman chided the “whitened dreams of farming and gardening.”
She took particular aim at farmers markets as being too white. She uses a quote from Rachel Slocum (“a preeminent researcher on whiteness and food”) as a jumping-off point.
“What that does is it erases the past and present of race and agriculture. What whiteness also does is ‘mobilizes funding to predominantly white organizations who then direct programming at nonwhite beneficiaries,’” she said. “And we’ll talk about that a little bit more when we talk about communities that can’t take care of themselves. Also, what this does is it creates inviting spaces for white people. Then program directors or farmers market directors are scrambling because they’re trying to add diversity to a white space. So what whiteness does is center whiteness.”
{snip}
Zuckerman is particularly offended by white groups bringing mobile food banks to communities of color.
Efforts to offer food free of charge presumes “that low income and or BIPOC communities and individuals (and that’s not necessarily one in the same) cannot provide or make decisions for themselves.” She says it comes out of the “white supremacy culture” of individualism and neo-liberalism.
{snip}
The CRT-framing around food systems wasn’t a one-off. It appears to be the very basis of the work this WSU extension course offers.
At the race-obsessed 2021 San Juan Islands Ag Summit in May, the focus was also centered on whiteness. {snip}
Entire Original article
https://mynorthwest.com/3116002/rantz-wsu-farmers-markets-food-charity-white-supremacy/
David thank you for writing about this. Food activists in Maine are leading the way to sustainable farm to consumer markets. These are the whole nutrient dense food markets.
When the USDA imagined “the get to know your farmer and get to know your food “ program years ago, it was very much rejected by processors and big ag brands. It has kind of faded away. Last year we saw the big ag food system stretch and then fail. It was a stress test. It was local Whole Food producers that adapted and were resilient! Big food is an American weakness. In so many ways. Cheap foods are extremely expensive!! Consider the environmental and health costs !
I totally love what Maine is doing. I just hope they take food safety as seriously as food sovereignty. When farmers sell directly to consumers and people get sick…It all blows up in our faces. True sovereignty is where farmers take full responsibility for their food and freedom reigns for both the consumer and the farmer. I think RAWMI gets it about right. High standards and high integrity plus testing…. Farmers thrive and consumers thrive and Marler is out of customers
I haven’t seen any reports of foodborne illness around the expanding food sovereignty movement in Maine. I think the key is that farmers are selling directly to customers, with no long-distance shipping and no retailers or other middlemen involved. I also think there’s lots more awareness of the risks of illness, thanks in part to RAWMI’s efforts over the years.
fake meat is a disaster, several ways. By Dr Mercola
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/lab-grown-meat-ultra-processed-product-farmers-ranchers/?utm_source=salsa&eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=d200939f-ced2-472f-9d57-f78d300b3d4b
at this URL is a wonderful article, for those intrigued by the Ancestral Lifestyle … which certainly does include REAL MILK. Long and worth it
https://www.lewrockwell.com/1970/01/karen-de-coster/the-ancestral-lifestyle-boom/
Gordon, Are you in touch with Dr. Mark Manhart?
Ingvar
I tried to read this article, but it’s a rant in every sense of the word–just goes on and on and on with half truths and complete lies. For example, it alludes to people wanting the U.S. government to get behind fake meat. In point of fact, the funding for fake meat has come entirely from the investment community, and its sales is entirely market based. It’s gotten strong reception from consumers, so now you see it in supermarkets and on fast-food menus. While I continue to think it’s an improvement over the Big Ag meat that has been sickening people for decades, that isn’t really the point. What’s happening is fundamental change in food production and products, and it’s going to be a positive in many ways, beginning with climate change and pollution. Take the stress off drought-plagued Central Valley and disperse veggie growing to urban veggie farms, which is happening before our eyes. As usual, you fall for the hysterical conspiracy-laden explanations.
Go, Maine! May Heather Retberg see her many years of hard work come to fruition on November 2. Thank you for sharing this heartening update, David.
We have seen a trend in raw milk producers over the last ten years. Only those that are serious are staying involved. We can thank Bill Marler for the additional pressures placed on producers to clean up their act. RAWMI has made training free! And the standards are easily understood.
One look at the USA raw milk outbreak tables shows a dramatic drop off after 2014. It went to near zero. It continues to be excellent.
But I will say there are a few totally unscrupulous producers that are selling raw milk very cheap and they are having recall after recall. Cheap raw milk is dangerous raw milk. It’s a failure to invest in good milking staff and use of low standards ( like those for pasteurization). And of course no testing.
We have also found that with time and fate… those cheap milk slingers get caught up
In their own greed and folly. Funny how that works. The only people they end up cheating and hurting is themselves. Because they are not trusted and they get shut down.
Long term investment in quality and high standards always pays off for everyone in the food chain.
I am so happy to see Maine doing such a good job. No ethical farmer ever wants to see a recall or sick consumers. Ethical farmers will do the best they can. That means research and Excellence in food production. It also means sleeping well at night and a strong and trusted sustainable relationship with consumers. Everyone wins!!
Well it did not take long for RAWMI to get the desperate call from a Montana raw milk producer crying help!!!
In May of this year Montana passed SB199. It is a food sovereignty law that allows the unregulated sale raw milk! No standards and virtually no testing! Just go do it and we wont look!!
Now one of the producers made someone sick from Campy and the health department came to collect samples. No one knew what to test for and no one knew the standards to measure against. Why even take a sample ?? The farmer is freaking out? !
It’s a total cluster …you know what.
Sovereignty must come with some instructions. Farmers want to do well. But if they don’t have a clue, then all that freedom does not mean much. Raw milk gets a black eye and people get sick and those same people may sue you. It does not take much to convert a raw milk customer into a Marler client. So much for freedom coupled with ignorance.
SB199 should have been titled: freedom to go hang yourself act.
Rawmi is now hard at work training a Montana Raw milk producer that does not want to hang them selves… after being nearly lynched.
Freedom lovers. It ain’t free. You need high standards and training and some testing to go with all that sovereignty.
Another reality check. No raw milk producer wants an unfair playing field. If anyone can go produce sloppy dirty raw milk for dirt cheap, then how will the better producers stay in business if they invest in doing raw milk with excellence costing much more?
If it takes people getting sick and learning the hard way, That’s not food sovereignty. That’s ignorant chaos. It’s unfair to those that care and invest. That’s why good standards matter. Good standards protect the farmer from undercutting dirty milk cheaters and the unknowing consumer.
SB199 is not utopian or freedom or sovereignty. It’s a mess.
So we got lots done today. RAWMI contacted the director of food safety for the state of Montana and had long and very productive chat. He wanted to know about RAWMI and he was very interested in seeing our two Pubmed journal peer reviewed articles show that good standards, good training and frequent testing results in very low risk raw milk. He then sent me to the people at Aero Montana. The grass roots ag organization that is helping farmers address the vacuum created by SB199. The director called me back immediately and was overjoyed to have raw milk food safety experts calling her. She was not only grateful but feeling very overwhelmed with concern about no testing no standards and testing. She has invited RAWMI to provide training in concert with their program starting as soon as possible.
Emails flying all over and everyone is very excited to have a plan in the SB199 vacuum.
This could be a very good model. Sovereignty and freedom matched up with excellence in production, training, standards and testing.
A win win for everyone. And no black eyes for raw milk. Amazing what one good day can bring. It is my hope that everyone takes this seriously.
https://www.montanamilk.com/
You folks in the States might want to start being concerned about your continued freedom to consume raw milk in light of the current ongoing tyranny that has taken root using the public’s fear of microbes and so-called related safety as an excuse to attain absolute control… Indeed, “Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive”. C. S. Lewis
And as Raoul Bedi states correctly in regards to a letter written by Michael Schmidt, “It definitely started as a tussle with the corporate lobby but now it has morphed into something much bigger and uglier and different. A toxic and blind obsession with state and bureaucratic control of everything not just raw milk. One globalized size shoe fits all is the current mantra.. They must do everything now to crush the spirit that pervades Michael Schmidts farm to serve as an example to others to not even think of ever stepping out of line again. It is not a coincidence that Glencolton farms raw milk coop was abruptly shut down a couple of years ago after 25 years of somehow surviving. Just look at Australia now to see what happens to those who do not show blind obedience and servitude to the current dogma of the government”.
Open Letter
Dear West Grey Police Chief Robert Martin
Last Tuesday October 27th you dispatched at least 5 police cruisers and about 9 officers “to assist” a retired Hamilton cop and now “double dipping” Agricultural investigator with the name Glen Jarvie and his 8 support staff. At 5 am you participated and supported how our farm was once again raided. You did NOT come as peace officers.
This is the fourth time that your police force willingly became complicit in the unreasonable enforcement of regulatory policies to protect those who are completely obsessed to interfere in our peaceful food production for our members.
Your motto is to be a ” Community Partner” with a mandate to protect and serve our community. However, it appears that you rather protect and serve out of control bureaucrats, like Glen Jarvie, who’s agenda appears to be to make life hell for small farms which are trying to feed people in need.
Where is your integrity in standing tall for justice instead falling for cheap enforcement gigs for the Government, which has nothing to do with safety or criminal activities.
You always have a choice to say NO to these cowards. They have their own guns. And if there is a conflict they still can phone 911 for back-up. But to witness over and over again your willingness to actively support actions against our community is a disgrace to say the least. There are real criminals out there who are endangering our community which should be your focus. We the community are spending millions of dollars for police services and you wasting 9 or 10 officers on a raid which has nothing to do with your mandate.
How can we have an open and personal dialogue when you then turn around and blindly dispatch officers into your community to help those who in fact attack and harass our community. Shame on you for your lack of courage to stand on principles.
Michael Schmidt
What’s happening to Michael Schmidt continues to confound and sicken. It’s pathetic. I have to think that part of the reason it goes on and on (aside from the sadism of the public health and police communities in that part of Ontario) is that those who are outraged have failed to organize effectively to convince the pols to put a stop to it. While we have our outrages against farmers in the U.S., the reality is that they have reduced in intensity, in part because the food and farm communities have organized against it. The food rights movement in Maine, which I just wrote about, is a case in point. That movement began a decade ago in direct response to attacks on small farms; for some background, search out “Farmer Brown” on my blog. But concerned citizens organized tenaciously, and they are about to succeed via a constitutional amendment that will make such attacks much more difficult in the future.
Good news from Maine on the food rights amendment. Some of the organizers in Maine were nervous about the vote, but I never had any doubt, because this is one group of farmers that is focused and organized. Congrats to them!
https://apnews.com/article/election-2021-maine-right-to-food-605019e60df5b3e32bc70c86dcf957b3?fbclid=IwAR2Xs_im600bXLh39hbnhvXKcrV4HgkfhGLYIKUao9KtwfBqY_XqoFDoIwA
That is wonderful news, David! Thank you for sharing this heartening update.
I agree . Centralized control has become ingrained in the thinking and governance and in the populace in Ontario for 5 or 6 decades. The people that do not like it generally leave and move out West to Alberta or BC, or out of the country altogether. The massive influx of immigrants to Ontario go to the big cities and have no connection to the land or its history. So the values they develop are largely city values not farm or country values or values respecting the symbiosis between country living and city life.
I am not joking when i say that most people in Toronto believe that food comes from a grocery store or a factory and don’t even think it comes from a farm where a farmer toils 12 hours and invests his personal blood , sweat and tears. It would take a massive education effort in the schools to reeducate children about local and organic food, sustainability , and other ways to reconnect children to the earth.
Instead the focus is more on sexualizing children at an early age, junk food , and getting then on a computer by the age of 5 and now even injecting them with experimental vaxxinations every 6 months. We won’t even talk about what making children wear face masks now in school 7 hours per day or 2 meter social distancing does to their social development.
On the positive side however, In BC, I am seeing many schools, teach children the importance of local food and incorporating school food gardens and local food projects into the education curricula.
David, about what happened to Michael Schmidt, Ontario laws governing raw milk are very explicit about how raw milk distribution is illegal:
The Health Protection and Promotion Act states:
“Unpasteurized or unsterilized milk /
18. (1) No person shall sell, offer for sale, deliver or distribute milk or cream that has not been pasteurized or sterilized in a plant that is licensed under the Milk Act or in a plant outside Ontario that meets the standards for plants licensed under the Milk Act.
(2) No person shall sell, offer for sale, deliver or distribute a milk product processed or derived from milk that has not been pasteurized or sterilized in a plant that is licensed under the Milk Actor in a plant outside Ontario that meets the standards for plants licensed under the Milk Act.
(3) Subsection (1) does not apply in respect of milk or cream that is sold, offered for sale, delivered or distributed to a plant licensed under the Milk Act.”
The Milk Act states:
” Definitions /
‘plant’ means a cream transfer station, a milk transfer station or premises in which milk or cream or milk products are processed;
‘processing’ means heating, pasteurizing, evaporating, drying, churning, freezing, packaging, packing, separating into component parts, combining with other substances by any process or otherwise treating milk or cream or milk products in the manufacture or preparation of milk products or fluid milk products” …
“Licence to operate plant / 15 (1) No person shall operate a plant without a licence therefor from the Director.”
The health and agriculture inspectors had no choice but to enforce the law. The law is as it’s written. They don’t have the discretion not to enforce these laws, even if they wanted to.
One big difference between Canada and the U.S. is that the U.S. has no federal law banning all raw milk sales and distribution. Hence, each U.S. state can make their own laws governing raw milk access. This isn’t the case in Canada, where the federal Food and Drugs Act, Food and Drug Regulations, bans the sale and distribution of raw milk (and “sale” is defined as including both barter and giving it away). “Distribution” means it leaves the farm. Other than Quebec which operates as its own country in many respects, provinces can’t pass laws which conflict with Federal law. I recently learned that two provinces plus a respected lawyer have told raw milk advocates this — the federal law must first be changed. So, we’re stuck until this federal ban, under the auspices of the federal Health Minister, has been removed. And we’ve all seen how incompetent Health Canada is.
My understanding is that in a couple of western provinces, herd shares to distribute raw milk are tolerated. Clearly, the federal prohibition isn’t carried out everywhere. I’ve also seen on some social media that raw milk can be found in Ontario. The whole situation with Michael Schmidt smells bad. I’m not sure if the Ontario authorities just keep monitoring Michael because he has spoken out on behalf of legalizing raw milk or because he once embarrassed regulators at his farm by preventing them from stealing his equipment, or what. But all regulators have some latitude.
David, I don’t know about BC but unfortunately “latitude” doesn’t exist under Ontario’s Health Protection and Promotion Act (HPPA) or Milk Act. The HPPA states:
“Duty to inspect
10 (1) Every medical officer of health shall inspect or cause the inspection of the health unit served by him or her for the purpose of preventing, eliminating and decreasing the effects of health hazards in the health unit.
(2) The duty of every medical officer of health under subsection (1) includes, but is not limited to, the duty to inspect or cause the inspection of the following:
Food premises and any food and equipment thereon or therein.
Premises used or intended for use as a boarding house or lodging house.
Complaint re health hazard related to occupational or environmental health
11 (1) Where a complaint is made to a board of health or a medical officer of health that a health hazard related to occupational or environmental health exists in the health unit served by the board of health or the medical officer of health, the medical officer of health shall notify the ministry of the Government of Ontario that has primary responsibility in the matter and, in consultation with the ministry, the medical officer of health shall investigate the complaint to determine whether the health hazard exists or does not exist.
Report
(2) The medical officer of health shall report the results of the investigation to the complainant, but shall not include in the report personal health information within the meaning of the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 in respect of a person other than the complainant, unless consent to the disclosure is obtained in accordance with that Act.
Conflict
(3) The obligation imposed on the medical officer of health under subsection (2) prevails despite anything to the contrary in the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004.”
The Milk Act states:
“2.5 (1) A designated administrative authority shall carry out the administration and enforcement of designated legislation delegated to it and shall do so in accordance with law, this Act, the designated legislation and the administrative agreement, having regard to the intent and purpose of this Act and the designated legislation.”
Bill : Of course , there is latitude. How then was Michael Schmidt and Glencolton farms able to operate their private coop for over 25 years ? The real question that needs to be asked is “Why now ?” not which laws are on the books. Laws are enforced , at any time, by real live subjective humans, and not otherwise. So why did the real live humans not enforce those laws on the books against operating an ‘unlicensed milk plant” in Ontario for 25 years ? There has to be a combination of factors and not one . Politics and money and a confluence of power and control factors have to be involved.
Sure the authorities were probably also infuriated by the Shropshire sheep saga , where Lawyer Sean Buckley skilfully poked Health Canada in the eye for their incompetence and non-disclosure. If you remember those rare sheep were mysterious ‘sheep-napped’ in the middle of the night in Ontario , the day before Health Canada agents decided to come and confiscate and execute them on the belief they may have scrapie. After killing them all it was determined that none of them had scrapie ! It was never proven in a court of law that Schmidt was involved with that humanitarian gesture, and Lawyer Buckley got all charges scrapped. But from then on the Powers-that-be probably had it in with Schmidt. They were going to shut down his group’s operation on any pretext they could find i.e Milk act or whatever .
I do not dispute that those laws are on the books i.e the HPPA or Ontario Milk. I am simply suggesting or theorizing that a turning point was reached when Mr. Schmidt had embarassed and made fools of Health CAnada once too often .
2. Then there is also the much larger national agenda . The current theory is that PM Trudeau, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford (all the premiers for that matter ) have embraced elements of China style communism and social credit scores . In preparation for all that the screws have been clearly tightened on freedom fighters and dissidents all across Canada for the most trivial and ridiculous reasons . For reference , look at Pastor Art Pawlowki’s recent horrific Alberta trial for opening his church for sunday service and feeding the poor and homeless in Calgary. He received $50 000 in fines and the most peculiar of gag orders never seen in the history of CAnada . https://www.rebelnews.com/christian_pastor_artur_pawlowski_compelled_by_judge_to_recite_government-approved_covid_warning
Raoul, given the battles that Michael has faced since the mid-1990s, I don’t call it latitude or not enforcing the laws on the books. More like escallating enforcement actions. There have been raids, surveillance, court cases, etc. The documentary “Milk War” doesn’t look like a farm being left alone.
Michael finally lost his legal fight in 2014 with the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal to uphold the 2011 ruling, and then after the 2016 raid he was charged and convicted of obstruction of justice, which is a Criminal Code offence. The other 50 people who gathered at the farm to obstruct the officers could also have been charged, but the justice system decided to go after him as they labelled him the organizer.
Escalation of charges from a civil offence to a criminal offence brought on an entirely new level of problems for raw milk farms. Major enforcement was likely put on hold while the “Affleck vs. AG of Ontario and AG of Canada” case was ongoing, but once that case was decided earlier this year, it has since been “open season” on raw milk farms and three Ontario farms have been raided this year. As the dairy inspectors couldn’t be certain that there wouldn’t be an additional 50 people blocking the inspections at each farm, they brought small herds of police cars along, even to the two farms which hadn’t seen a prior enforcement action.
And no, I don’t believe in anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories regarding COVID and communism. Premier Ford is a business man who believes in the free market, not a Communist. And Pastor Pawlowki (https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/just-refuses-to-make-anti-vaxxer-pastor-artur-pawlowski-a-martyr-by-jailing-him-hands-him-large-fine-instead) was violating legally-issued public health orders and then two court orders, so his persecution was to be expected. Disobeying a court order in Canada is the offence of contempt-of-court, and that’s also a Criminal Code offence, but sometimes a sympathetic judge might downgrade it to a civil offence. This doesn’t require a conspiracy theory to explain it.
Bill :
Regrettably, I am not an expert on Common law interpretations and so refer you to Christopher James (Warrior Calls ) and others . But in short, in the case of Michael Schmidt ( or perhaps Pastor Art in Calgary) , who is the victim that either of these 2 great gentleman trespassed against.? Who was harmed ? Whose property was harmed , trespassed or taken away ?
So all your arguments having nothing to do with ‘right or wrong’ , or harm or trespass . All your arguments are about regulations and control . Not following judicial ORDERS . Not an iota of your arguments look at ”Does it make sense to spend millions of dollars harassing an innovative organic farmer Michael Schmidt and his private group of friends ? ”
Is the products Schmidt was producting , in fact, highly benefical and healing , good for the humans and environment ?
All your arguments lack compassion, kindness and humanity. They strike me as cold and machine-like .
And that my friend is COMMUNISM. That is my definition of COMMUNISM,MARXISM, TOTALITARIANISM. It may not be the textbook definition but so what ?
It is not the kind of society I wish to cocreate right now or pass onto our children.
I already know what your reply will be . Your fingers right now are working at a thousand miles per hours looking up Christopher James on Snopes. No doubt you will find some dirt or some dirty laundry to prove your point that you are right and I am wrong.
You will miss the big picture of what needs to be communicated right now. Our society is failing on numerous fronts and what happened to Schmidt and pastor ARt are symptoms of this disease.
I also agree with respected MPP Randy Hillier (Kingston ) that we are now in ,”a war of Collectivism versus Individualism.”
I am not interested in splitting hairs about is this the textbook definition of communism or not.
Because whatever it is , it is ugly , it stinks and it has got to stop. That is more important to me , than splitting hairs over textbook definitions of words.
So that is the context I am coming from . I know your response again will be to type at a thousand miles per hour on your keyboard looking up dirt on MPP Randy Hillier.
I wish you good luck getting your 8th Kovid19 booster shot which Trudeau has pre-ordered and preplanned for you ! Or maybe that is a conspiracy as well ? The trouble is that Ontario police officers have posted the actual documents.
That is your prerogative. Go for it ! Our country is burning right now from the inside out.
And things are very polarized. I did not invent this viewpoint. I am just observing it .
I know which side of it I am on . Sadly , I feel the time has come to choose sides. This is not a time to be two-faced .
I agree with Raoul, I would add however that there is a common thread that exists between both Michael Schmidt and Pastor Art in Calgary, or if you will, a common excuse that officials use to justify their so-called law based relentless harassment… Namely, the assertion of “safety” as it pertains to protecting the public from perceived dangerous microbes. In so doing tyrannical measure/laws are implemented at the expense of common sense and human rights.
The black-market sale of raw milk in Ontario is extensive and there is little the marketing boards and government health bureaucrats can do about that apart from addressing the problem at its source by encouraging the government to establish policies/laws that undermine and restrict the viability of small family farms, hence the ongoing systematic attempts to establish a collective system in agriculture that promotes large farming operations. It is unlikely that large dairy enterprises such as CAFO’s will accommodate people who want to consume raw milk and it is unlikely that people who want to consume raw milk are going to approach such enterprises to do so. What not a better way to exert control over the dairy industry, or any agricultural industry for that matter.
during the 3rd Reich, the Central Party line was =
“Fur euer sischerheit”… ie “it’s for your safety”
history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
so far, over 90% of the babies who died / miscarriages/ stillbirths as reported on the VAERs website, were > in women who had just been injected with the gene therapy experimental substance
how ironic that the webmaster of this forum = which started out as The Complete Patient, scrutinizing the medical racketeers = is now wilfully blind to the biggest medical mal-practice in history.
And that statement isn’t this cranky old eccentric, moi : no, it’s the considered opinion of Dr Roger Hodkinson, an expert witness in Canadian and US Courts, in medical mal-practice cases.
At RAWMI we take down walls when we can. We build good where ever we can.
The Montana raw milk producer we are working closely with is now building a brand nee raw dairy barn with milk room and store. She even invited the local health department director to come visit to see it all. The milk producer said that when the health department rep was told that RAWMI would be visiting and helping to install an on farm lab…the health dep rep became very excited. He wanted to meet with RAWMI. She told him we were flying into the local airport in our private jet!
Boy… how things can get a little grand with an imagination. There will be a grand opening in the spring and the governor has said he will come. I will be there for sure to tell the story of the little producer that did not give up when campy hit…. But instead stood up and embraced world class standards, built a new facility with a milk lab and pursued excellence!
I am forever disheartened about Mike Schmidt in Canada ??.
In my experience, I have never seen success when a producer directly challenges government. The win nearly always comes through a back door or side door. Straight up the middle pisses off the proud Superman. That Superman doesn’t like to lose or be embarrassed.
Being super creative or even super quiet to avoid being the target or becoming a target with consumers as the advocate is perhaps the better path.
I know Michael. He tried his very best to play Gandhi. It did not work. Being Gandhi pissed them off even more.
The milk boards run the show in Canada. Politically this is where raw milk must win over the power. It’s the money and the threat of its loss by market competition. I have spoken to the milk boards many times in
Public and private. That’s the Holly grail.
For now in Canada ??. Stay quiet, Stay Deep underground and produce super clean safe raw milk. Canada is a mooo-shine country.
RAWMI is visiting Montana next week and installing an on farm lab for testing raw milk samples in farm. We meet with health department officials and review on going building of a model raw milk dairy.
Lots of awesome progress to go along with all that newly gained freedom.
Today I got a phone call from an Amish raw dairy friend of this blog. He wanted to know about Standard Plate Counts and how to manage them.
I was impressed for two reasons. He wanted to know more and learn. He wanted to start testing more intensively to increase quality and regulatory compliance.
I am so happy he called. I am Impressed.
He also wanted to know if the interstate commerce of raw milk would ever been allowed by the FDA. I shared with him the battle for raw butter as a first step to address the big raw milk wall.
It was a great call.
In my experience with Amish farmers, they are pretty open to learning from a variety of sources. It doesn’t mean they’ll use all the lessons. All the Amish farmers I’ve spoken to over the years have expressed respect for you, Mark, and sometimes been puzzled as to your perceived hostility. I’m glad to learn you’re making some direct connections.
I spent the last two days up here in Montana near Bozeman. I spent most of the time with a local raw milk dairy developing their RAMP plan and setting up their on farm raw milk bacteria analysis
laboratory. RAWMI has sponsored the establishment of a growing number of on farm labs to test raw milk.
I also met with representatives of AERO Montana the grass roots Cottage Industry non profit that trains farmers and others on how to produce and sell farm stead artisanal foods.
I had the great pleasure of also spending over an hour with state health department inspectors that wanted to know all about raw milk. Because they had no idea about it’s standards or production systems.
I visited two conventional dairies and watched them milk cows under the standards for pasteurization. It is no wonder the health inspectors are concerned about raw milk safety. The udders at the conventional dairies were filthy. The prep was ugly. Wet and manure covered teats more often than not.
With no knowledge of strong standards for raw milk production, ignorance prevails.
We went about fixing that real problem. We started to educate the regulatory agencies and took our first baby steps.
A road show is planned for next year to provide training to all raw dairies that are interested in extending shelf life, improving flavor and reducing risk associated with raw milk production.
Our problem is this. Under the Montana Sovereignty and Freedom laws just passed, ( SB199) anything goes. There are no requirements for training or risk management. We will have quite a challenge contacting the raw milk producers. They have operated underground for so long. There are no lists or public knowledge of them now that raw milk is legal.
RAWMI is not the raw milk police. But, if Montana wants to become a model for Freedom matched with excellence in quality BOS is the time to come out of the woodwork and attend intensive training. This training will become a powerful tool for farm success and build a market and sustainable production systems. Happy healthy customers that love and trust their farmer.
I sure hope we can get the underground to out and attend these risk management and market building conferences.
Freedom is truly free when farmers can serve their happy customers and everyone can sleep well at night fully knowing that their raw milk is very high quality.
I am really happy to hear about your work, Mark. I know others who do underground food and there is a real problem with access to appropriate food safety information. Plus most consumers have zero idea of what they are looking at if they do go visit the farm.
This is a very enlightening interview… What is happening with respect to this so-called pandemic will have far reaching implications… including the freedom to consume the foods of our choice.
RFK Jr. Tells Carlson How Bill of Rights Have Been Violated During Pandemic
When watching the following short video, “From Citizens to Outcasts, 1933–1938”, think about the current draconian measures directed at the unvaccinated in Austria and around the world. Indeed, “How did Nazi Germany gradually isolate, segregate, impoverish, and incarcerate Jews and persecute other perceived enemies of the state between 1933 and 1939?”
https://www.ushmm.org/learn/holocaust/path-to-nazi-genocide/chapter-3/from-citizens-to-outcasts-1933-1938
The answer to the above question is complex yet as Gordon correctly pointed out, “during the 3rd Reich, the Central Party line was “Fur euer sischerheit”… ie “it’s for your safety””. Hence, the reason why the Jewish people were “labeled disease carriers and a public health risk to justify the creation of ghettos” according to an NCBI article titled, “Murderous medicine: Nazi doctors, human experimentation, and Typhus”, As such, the Jewish people were demonized as “unclean” and therefore categorized as Untermenschen (socially inferior) or Unterschicht (underclass).
Ken, you should have sent a photo of yourself in the pretzel shape you had to contort yourself into to come up with this comment. There’s lot of effort on FB and elsewhere to somehow compare Nazi tactics to current vaccine mandates, and all I can tell you is that dog won’t hunt. The Nazis demonized Jews on many more counts than disease and safety. Jews were the catch-all scapegoats, accused as thieves of German treasure, fraudulent business owners, communists, genetically inferior, the reason Germany lost WWI, etc., etc., etc. Each day, practically, a different accusation. Your vaccine obsession is just so tired, especially when you make foolish historical assessments like this (or quote from foolish historical assessments).
Unfortunately David, I have no picture since there was no need to contort myself into a pretzel… The tactics currently being used to force this experimental injection on the public made it quite easy to draw a parallel between the two. As Ezra Levant pointed out in his broadcast with respect to governments around the world, such as Austria and Australia, who are using extreme measures to force these so-called vaccines on the public, “Of all the countries in the world to bring in police searches for “your papers”, I think Austria feels just a bit too cliche, doesn’t it? I’m here to tell you that when Germany and Austria went Nazi, it happened in stages; in steps. And no-one believed it would go all the way, did they? They just slowly conditioned themselves. Year by year the emergency was made permanent; year by year the extreme solutions were ratcheted up — from banning Jews from public life, to banning them from life at all. From a temporary solution to a final solution.”
I agree with Ezra, although it is easier said than done, “Don’t get caught up on the Nazi part. Just think about the ratchet effect; of what you already take as normal; as the losses of civil liberties you have already accepted and even adopted… Think about that”.
the article at this URL is 9 years old … yet fun to read. About raw milk / James Stewart/ the Rawsome 3 in Venice. Where are they now, eh?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/04/30/raw-deal
URL to Mike Wallace exposing the socalled Swine Flu of 1976 as a HOAX
note for note = what’s happening today before your eyes.
The Swine Flu thing was just a dress rehearsal for the SARS2Covid19 Scam-demic
Quote from Chris Masterjohn’s book review of The Real Anthony Fauci: “In fact, this book even puts into much sharper relief the relation between the COVID response and the militaristic attack on raw milk and “private food” that occurred during the Obama administration. I knew these were connected somehow, but I had no idea how systematic the scenario planning of the rising biosecurity state had been. The fact that the scenario planning spanned the George W. Bush, Obama, and Trump years with a coherent and consistent appoach to using militaristic authoritarianism as a general response to the threat of microbes suddenly made it all make sense.”
https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/covid-19/2021/12/04/fauci-gates-and-the-biosecurity-state-as-told-by-rfk-jr?fbclid=IwAR3GeIVKWiE0Q-URBGcGZhwvqsVOLMfOXs0X8BZgJL6ScvONRFxFw5hlfJc