I inquired with Michael Schmidt last week about doing an interview to follow up on the rejection of the latest legal initiative in Canada designed to get some relenting on the government’s long-term ban on raw dairy. I wondered about his state of mind, what he might have done differently in orchestrating the case just dismissed by the Ontario court, what he is mulling for the future.
For the first time since in the more than ten years I’ve been writing about his and the Canadian struggle over raw milk, he didn’t even bother to respond. I can appreciate why. While I don’t know for sure, I presume that after 27 years of battling for raw milk rights, he’s worn out, worn down, and more than a little pissed off. On Facebook, under a link to my blog post about the case’s outcome, he wrote: “No comment. We are doomed.” He added that an appeal has already been filed.
For a man who spent years simply seeking some rational discussion, and possible compromise about raw dairy—who even went on extended hunger strikes to call attention to the perceived injustice of banning raw dairy– it must be unbelievably dispiriting to realize at long last that, in a democratic country based on governing via consensus and compromise, on this issue the official response continues to be rigid and absolute: no discussion and no compromise….with not even the slightest indication that the outcome will ever be any different.
One of the questions I wanted to ask Schmidt is whether he ever has second thoughts about having left a farming life in Germany for farming in Canada in the 1980s. Was it a mistake to leave Germany, which has much greater tolerance of raw dairy than Canada? Or should he have come to the U.S., which has developed much greater tolerance for raw dairy than even Germany during the last dozen years, when Schmidt has been banging his head against the brick wall that is Canada’s legal and regulatory systems?
I’m not usually a big fan of coulda, woulda, shoulda exercises, but the Canadian conundrum on raw dairy is an exception. I think it’s worth assessing why Canada, which appears so much more progressive than the U.S. on a variety of matters, ranging from race relations to legalization of marijuana to availability of health care, is so stuck in the dark ages on a matter of food freedom. It’s certainly a complicated subject, one no one can answer with certainty, but to me, the key difference has less to do with rigid public health communities, which at heart are pretty much the same in the Canada and the U.S., and more to do with non-health considerations. Indeed, I’d offer three primary reasons the U.S. has been more flexible on this subject, and they have nothing to do with public health conspiracies:
- America’s capitalist system, which gives so much consideration to the power of the contract. It’s the power of the contract that has smoothed the way for mechanisms like herdshares and cowshares. Canada, with its European orientation, has been less free-market oriented, and thus more receptive to a socialist-type dairy program that guarantees income to dairy producers, even to the extent of penalizing consumers via higher prices. Canadian dairy farmers have made out much better than American dairy farmers economically. But because America isn’t stuck within a similar rigid economic system, its dairy farmers theoretically have more realistic options in a marketplace of declining dairy consumption, which include getting involved in selling raw dairy, switching over to other kinds of farming (like beef farming, which a number have done); or else exiting dairy farming and contemplating new careers.
- Antiregulatory inclinations of the U.S. From the very beginning, when the U.S. Constitution was being conceived in 1787, the emphasis was always on pushing regulation as far down to the local level as possible. That’s why individual states determine whether and how raw dairy should be regulated (with more than 40 now accepting raw milk in some form or another), and a wannabe dairy “czar” like the FDA’s John Sheehan can be pushed to the fringes. Canada, by contrast, essentially turned raw dairy regulation oversight over to its socialist farmers. They, understandably, want to limit competition in the fiefdom the government established for them. So the regulators simply parrot the farmers’ desires–no raw milk to possibly infringe on our sales.
- The jury system. It’s difficult to exaggerate the impact of the Vernon Hershberger 2014 jury victory in a state (Wisconsin) that had pretty much banned raw milk to the same extent as Ontario. American judges are much like Canadian judges—inclined to favor the government/regulation side–and so it would have been for Vernon Hershberger had a judge had the final say. But a jury trial is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution to Americans charged with a felony. And the ordinary Americans who serve on juries are much more inclined to back the small guy, the rebel who is clearly being set upon by arrogant government regulators or police. That’s how the former football star O.J. Simpson got off in 1995 from the murder he clearly committed—black jurors couldn’t forget about all the times black defendants have been railroaded into prison, or hangman’s nooses, for crimes they didn’t commit. Similarly, Vernon Hershberger was let off by jurors who’d seen enough examples of farmers screwed by a corporate system friendly to Big Ag.
I can appreciate that there’s little I can say to ease the despair of injustice felt by Schmidt and his many supporters. I do sense their struggle hasn’t been in vain, but unfortunately it will take further work for victory to be declared. Maybe it will take a Mark McAfee-type end-run to get raw dairy cleared as pet food in Canada. In the meantime, my advice to Schmidt and his supporters would be to resist the temptation to see the raw milk debacle as indicative of a global conspiracy or similar. Instead, it’s the result of an unfortunate confluence of causes and conditions coming together to create a brick wall of resistance to simple human flexibility and compromise.
Great assessment David. After spending so much time and energy in Canada ?? in the last ten years I tend to agree with most of what you have said.
The Canadian Dairy System is the best in the world. Consumer prices match USA retail prices. A study done by Michelson proved that prices are just pennies apart. How can it be that Canadians pay the same retail prices as Americans? Well, it is because of market design. Farmers get twice as much for their milk on the farm and they sit at the table and have power to coordinate production supply with processors. Farmers are empowered and can arm wrestle with processors.
In the USA farmers are mostly powerless. At least they think they are. USA dairy farmers have failed to seize their power but cutting off supply. They just will not cooperate for three days with each other. In Canada they did 50 years ago. They now have a system that is Smart and Efficient. Milk to goes to close by processors. Milk supply can be planned. In the USA we dump milk and send in trucks past local processors to states far away. All a very big waste. Consumers win in Canada along with farmers and processors that can contract and plan for milk supplies! It is a profitable yet efficient smart program. Canada invests much more in dairy research and milk promotion than we do in America.
Pet Raw Milk!?? We will see. Those Canadian Cats and Dogs look pretty hungry for real food. In fact it is well known that dogs get bad gas and diarrhea with pasteurized dairy but they thrive on raw!
Sounds like so many people. Open Farm is a Canadian pet food company that already does frozen raw dairy products in Canada ??. I know because we produced products for them two years ago. Then they stopped. Not because of any market fault or failure. But because they lost their nerve.
At Raw Farm we are much more long term oriented and visionary. Time, persistence and tenacity. Our next generations are running our show and Canada is in our sights. My grand kids are already spoiling up to carry this ball. M
It’s the multiple generation long game.
Meanwhile, RAWMI is training more and more Canadian micro dairies. We are listing a veterinarian in western Canada right now.
It’s a shame that the Canadian dairy system doesn’t see raw milk as an opportunity instead of a threat.
In my experiences visiting Canada over the years, prices for food and clothing always seemed a good deal higher than U.S. I understood part of the difference was taxes–Canada, like much of Europe, has a value added tax (VAT) for consumer goods, kind of like a national sales tax. But it could be that if you take that away, dairy prices aren’t much different between Canada and the U.S. My larger point about Canadian dairy farmers is that the supply-based system, while great for the farmers, comes at a cost to others outside the system, like raw-dairy farmers. My understanding is that Canadian dairy farmers essentially buy into the system–they pay top dollar for a member farm and its dairy cows, and in exchange are guaranteed not only set prices for their milk, but that outsiders won’t be allowed into the closed system to undercut prices. Like any closed economic system, or syndicate, life is great for those on the inside, but not so great for those on the outside. The mafia rubs out potential competitors. The Dairy Farmers of Canada do much the same to people like Michael Schmidt–the DFC was a late defendant in his most recent case, successfully petitioning the court to be part of the case, and then was able to call witnesses to trash raw dairy, and have its attorney argue the point in court.
As you say, American dairy farmers are at the opposite end of the organizing chain. They are hopelessly disorganized, even self defeating. I’ve heard numerous stories from raw dairy farmers about neighboring conventional farmers trashing the raw dairy farmers to regulators, trying to create legal, and financial problems.
Too bad there’s not some in-between system that can benefit everyone.
I don’t see how this explains how a judge ,, after listening for hours on the merits of raw milk can make a decision that totally ignores the health benefits of raw milk … I believe that this judge O’Neil , I think was her name , funny her name is not even mentioned on this page ,, as though she had nothing to do with this decision ,,, is subject to orders from behind closed doors …. In the US the judges and politicians and also even the small media outlets like radio stations are much more accountable to the people that they are in close proximity to… Recent Covid events show clearly that government in Canada is not accountable to the people at all … If they were then judges like this female O’Neil would be more inclined to make reasonable decisions … Until then ,, like Mr Schmidt says ,, “We are doomed”
Taking my daily supplements with a large glass of raw milk while I read this post, I recognise how lucky I am to live a comparitively free country.
Thank you David for keeping us up to date; couldn’t do without your blog now.
“It’s always cheaper if you steal it” comes to mind.
Is it a just society that requires farmers to lose money and lose their farms just to be able to have super cheap food and exports that undercut farmers in other countries?
This is part of the Earl Butz ( Sec of Ag under Nixon ) philosophy of “Get Big or Get Out!”
He advocated over supply and feeding the world. This concept is horrible for farmers. Farmers starve as they continually over supply and put huge downward pressure on prices.
Interesting idea. Feed the world but starve your own Farm family? This idea is not sustainable at all. It causes consolidation and is the reason that Mega Dairies with 25,000 cow exist today. Horrible for the environment, the workers, the cows, the water shed, air quality… everything about huge CAFOS suck.
In 1969 the Ford pickup cost $3,900 dollars and dairies got about $9 per hundred pines of milk or about 80 cents per gallon on the farm.
Today that Ford Truck costs $50,000 dollars and milk is $14 per hundred pounds or about $1.27 per gallon.
David…. the cheap food policy’s in America cheat farmers and causes economic harm to rural communities. When farms fail they take down part of our society.
In Canada ?? where ever there are dairies there are thriving communities and farmers pay their bills.
I met three young dairy farmers two years ago at the Tulare Farm show. None of them came from farm families. They had degrees in dairy management and had started their dairies under the young farmer program. They were thriving. In America no one would want to become a dairy farmer. It is economic suicide. It’s not Economically possible. You lose money from day one.
The only dairy you can start in America is a raw dairy.
At least Raw dairy prices have kept up with the cost of that Ford Truck. Cheap foods are the most expensive thing in our society. Highly processed junk is killing us all. At RAWMI we poll our producers. The range per gallon across America for raw milk is $8 per gallon to $45 per gallon and selling fast. That’s $88 per hundred pounds up to $440 per hundred pounds for raw milk.
On the 1969 Ford Truck- and Milk parity scale…milk should be about $120 per hundred weight. Instead it’s about 1/10 that much and dairy farmers are dying at 7 per day in America right now.
It’s a tragic debacle. How about American farmers feed themselves and their communities and we allow farmers in other countries to do the same instead of fighting our super cheap imports that kill them off also.
Processors are the only winners in this economic battle. They win because they buy milk super cheap and receive a “make allowance” for throughput. Not sales. “Throughput” They don’t care how much they sell… they are paid more when they put more milk down their processing lines.
The system could change in three days if all dairies dumped their milk and collectively demanded a fair price… they would get it. But, those dairies will not cooperate. Some big guy will break the embargo and ship milk. It’s the classic herd mentality. No one wants to lead or stand out.
Mark,
Your statement suggesting that “In Canada where ever there are dairies there are thriving communities and farmers pay their bills”, although basically true with respect to the value of dairy farms to thriving rural communities, that overall statement as it pertains to Canada and the marketing boards protecting such a scenario is astoundingly misleading. As I clearly pointed out to you on previous occasions, dairy farms in Canada are disappearing at a rate not far below what is happening in the United States with the exception of dairy farms in the US that have the clear advantage of selling raw milk, whereas in Canada they are forbidden to do so.
Despite the marketing board system and its rigid controls on milk production dairy farmers in Canada have been disappearing from rural communities for close to forty years. The collective control of milk production in Canada has not protected dairy farmers from the declining demand for fluid milk, government cheap food policies, economy of scale marketing practices and top-down burdensome regulations, which have all clearly favored the larger dairy farms at the expense of small family dairy farms.
The following article published on October 29, 2020 and titled, “Dairy sector given dire warning about future” states that “if supply management is not fundamentally changed, Canada could see half of its current dairy farms disappear by 2030”, Indeed, and that is on top of the massive numbers of dairy farms that have disappeared from rural communities in Canada in the previous 40 years!!!
https://www.producer.com/news/dairy-sector-given-dire-warning-about-future/
I could not have said it better myself agree with you 100%
But….. Canadian farmers retire rich! Not bankrupt or by suicide.
“Canadian farmers ‘retire rich’ if and only if they find the next sucker to take the operation off their hands, at prices tied to the imaginary “value” of their quota. Without that govt. meddling in the market, the majority of dairy farms are a hair’sbreadth away from insolvency … owing their souls to the Bankxsters. Of course … as that Ponzi scheme comes un=glued, this govt. … which can pull $s out of thin air like nobody’s business … will just throw $$ at the problem. It’s the Canadian way. The hidden corruption, being, absurd taxes hidden all over the economy to pay for the scam
At the URL below, is a good article with answers as to why the people on the front lines of the healthcare system, are not taking the poisoned needle
Most of all =
‘They likely have seen adverse reactions’
The reluctance to vaccinate among healthcare workers isn’t exclusive to the coronavirus vaccine, however. Dozens of studies in the public library of medicine examine the “vaccine hesitancy” among doctors and nurses who traditionally had very low uptakes of influenza vaccine, for example.
During the 2009 “swine flu pandemic” most countries had low vaccine uptake among healthcare workers, under 30% generally, and as low as 7.5% in France.
Being mostly “young healthy people” at low risk from the virus, healthcare workers are not likely to be irrationally afraid of it, said Stuart Fischbein, a Los Angeles-based obstetrician and gynecologist.
“They likely have seen adverse reactions and can calculate and understand the risk/benefit ratio,” he added.
Thirdly, “many are women of reproductive age and are wary of harming a pregnancy or a chance to be pregnant.”
“They are aware that these new vaccines haven’t really had safety testing that means anything,” said Fischbein. “Pretty much everyone getting a vaccine today is a human experimental subject. And experienced rational people like health care workers would rather let someone else be a guinea pig.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/nearly-half-of-healthcare-workers-have-declined-coronavirus-shots
What do frontline health care workers and first responders know about COVID-19 vaccines that politicians and their public health advisers don’t?
According to a January analysis by Gallup, 51 percent of health care workers and first responders polled in December 2020 were unconvinced of the merits of getting vaccinated, even if the vaccine “was free, available, FDA approved and 90% effective.”
Gallup found these results especially concerning since those at highest risk of exposure to COVID-19—the professionals required to meet America’s health, safety, and critical economic needs and whom the National Academies of Engineering, Science and Medicine defines as “Tier 1A workers”—were the likeliest to refuse vaccination (34 percent).
Directly on-point fully-informed consent
https://thevaccinereaction.org/2021/03/the-biggest-covid-19-vaccine-skeptics-frontline-health-care-workers/?fbclid=IwAR3O2Xy8B_UzUtjmyVbLHwSOPWTOlLDMesesLlIfiP1Jnd6Qgzb8YkRF9HU
The decline in demand for milk … you mean pasteurized milk. Dead milk. Allergenic and hard to digest milk. Milk that gives you gas.
The Canadian milk boards are populated by farmers themselves!
Their own stupidity will be there demise. Failure to adapt. Failure to evolve and embrace resiliency. Failure to listen to their consumers?!
The one thing I know is this. If you fail to
Listen to your consumer you are doomed.
Canadian dairy industry spends more on research and promotion than America dairies by at a factor of three.
“Canadian dairy industry spends more on research and promotion than America dairies by at a factor of three.”
Right Mark… and what does the marketing boards promote??? pasteurized milk!!! And who compels and dictates the marketing boards to promote that “dead allergenic and hard to digest milk that gives you gas”??? The germaphobic Canadian and Provincial Food Inspection Agencies!!! Indeed, and a telling aspect of the above scenario is that the farmers and their families for the most part tend to drink the milk that they produce unpasteurized!!!
I am not sure if I previously posted this George Carlin video about the Fear of Germs… If not then people should really take the rime to listen to it because as usual comedians tend to portray many genuine truths in what they say… lol
It is brave to say this but I will.
High quality tested safe raw milk could save the Canadian dairy farmer and reverse the grand decline of milk consumption It would be radical change. But why not. Every doctor in the world promotes breast feeding. That’s mammals raw milk!! The benefits list is nearly identical.
“why not?” …. ie. a radical change in Canadian dairying, asks Mr McAffee
because most dairy farms in Canada are locked-in to the Confined Animal Feedlot Operation model. They cannot produce raw milk to the standards necessary for consistent safety.
one day in 7 they worship at their local ethnic enclave, then the other 6, the quota-holders bow the knee to BAAL at the altar of the central government.
60 years’ worth of brainwashing has locked them in to the usury racket. They are so stupified by the Central Party Line that they framed us up then gloated when we got a prison sentence, for feeding people.
Those 2 guys you met in Tulare, are the greatest of fools … they’ll work their hearts out running as fast as they can on the treadmill … balancing on the razor-edge of financial ruin just to pay the interest on the unspeakable amount they borrowed to get started.
if you were to scratch under the surface so as to determine the true state of the dairy industry here in Canada, you’d find that most farms are in precarious shape… days away from ruin should Force Majeur befall them. And I’m not even going to get started about the fact that most dairy farms are in Quebec, which believes it has the God-given right to milk the Rest of Canada for Equalization payments …. the whole province is on welfare.
the root of the problem with the dairy industry in all of America – not just Canada – is, the money system. Farmers are at the bottom of the hierarchy of currency racket. They get the newly-hypothecated funds 3 years after the bond traders get it… when its purchasing power has been stepped on so badly that they – farmers = are always behind the curve.
when Russell Means spoke to Congress, he said “If you want to see what social-ism looks like, go to an Indian reserve”. the Potemkin village of the Cdn Dairy industry is about to fail, big-time. And the quota holders will be the last to figure it out. After they get crushed, and the value of the land goes to nil, because it’s entwined with the artificial price of the quota, those farms will be derelict. Confer with the Pendray place in North Saanich British Columbia, today. John Pendray had the first permit issued by the Province of BC to sell raw milk. But = After 100 years of producing milk for Victoria, there are no cows there tonight. They were smart. They got out when they could
The predictable result of cheap food policies… I realized for several years that butter texture and milting point was not quite right and why I choose to pay 2-3 times more for a specific organic butter.
“Melting butter hard? Palm oil may be the culprit, says food researcher”
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-monday-edition-1.5923339/melting-butter-hard-palm-oil-may-be-the-culprit-says-food-researcher-1.5924757
“If you have struggled with your pandemic cooking because of unusually firm butter, you’re not alone — dozens of Canadians have recently noticed that it’s hard to melt butter to room temperature. And now, food scientists may have found the reason: palm oil used in livestock feed.
‘”It is really a quick way to increase the level of butterfat in milk,” explained Sylvain Charlebois, a food researcher at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
‘He has spent the last few months investigating the changes in texture of Canadian-made butter. All signs pointed to the increased use of palmitic acid, a palm oil derivative, in cow feed.
“The problem with palmitic acid is that you increase the level of saturated fat, which is why the point of fusion for products like butter is much higher now,” he said.”
“Medical officer of health says ‘we’re doing our very best’ as farmers take tractors to roadways”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/norfolk-county-farmers-protest-1.5959120
There is only one course of action for “medical officers of health” who abide by this fear of microbes’ mentality… ABSOLUTE CONTROL! And if you add the Adolf Trudeau and Benito Ford governments’ exorbitant carbon tax increases into the overall current economic equation, coupled with decreasing farm gate returns then the future doesn’t look promising for small family farms,
I hear a lot of critical bashing going on here.
How about suggesting some serious market reforms that serve farmers and the rest of the food chain.
Any good ideas ??
Different topic: kefir grains.
Where can I find the grains of the type I used to obtain from Organic Pastures?
This was a few years ago now.
Thanks.
As a long-time raw milk consumer, living in Canada, I watched this case with interest, as it impacts me even though I was not a plaintiff.
A friend sent me a copy of the petition a couple of years ago, and I was sad to see that one of the conditions that the plaintiffs were asking for was: “Dairy farmers who hold a licence from the DFO shall not be permitted to sell raw milk.” (para 35(c)). I could see then how this would spell trouble, and it eventually did when the DFO applied for intervenor status.
I don’t think it was politically savvy to give a big middle finger to what is arguably the most powerful lobby group in Canada, the Dairy Farmers of Canada, via their Ontario subsidiary the DFO. So of course the marketing board is going to step in as an intervenor and try to put a stop to someone doing a run-around.
And I cannot understand why this clause was included in the petition — maybe someone involved in the case could tell us?
It is very difficult to use Canadian courts to change the law, and all dairy products in Ontario are regulated under the Farm Products Marketing Act and Milk Act, plus associated Regulations (which are also laws). There is a short summary of relevant sections of these laws at https://rawmilkpolicy.wordpress.com/provinces/ontario-laws/ . And “marketing” isn’t restricted to promotion and advertising. As spelled out in the first of these pieces of legislation: “’Marketing’ includes advertising, assembling, buying, financing, offering for sale, packing, processing, selling, shipping, storing and transporting…” What is defined in the law is that the DFO has jurisdiction over all of these in regards to cow milk. Every drop of cow milk produced in Ontario – even by someone with a “family cow” – is under the control of the provincial milk marketing board, in this case the DFO, but the same system exists in every province.
And milk is not the only food which is regulated. This is what the Farm Products Marketing Act states:
” ‘farm product’ means animals, meats, eggs, poultry, wool, dairy products, grains, seeds, fruit, fruit products, vegetables, vegetable products, maple products, honey, tobacco, wood, or any class or part of any such product, and articles of food or drink manufactured or derived in whole or in part from any such product, and such other natural products of agriculture as are designated in the regulations, and, for the purposes of this Act, fish shall be deemed to be a farm product”
” ‘marketing’ includes advertising, assembling, buying, financing, offering for sale, packing, processing, selling, shipping, storing and transporting …”
” 2 The purpose of this Act is to provide for the control and regulation in any or all aspects of the producing and marketing within Ontario of farm products including the prohibition of such producing or marketing in whole or in part.”
Again, every province has similar laws.
David, the “simple human flexibility and compromise” that you rightly mention in your final sentence could have been met by the willingness of both parties to engage in discussion about raw milk inside the supply management system. If I recall correctly, England did it until its own supply management system was disbanded a number of years back. In the UK (except for Scotland), farmers could get quota for “wholesale milk” (to be sold to processors) or for “raw drinking milk”.
What does concern me is what happens in places where farmers sell raw milk both to processors and to the public. We know what that leads to, as far as pathogen content in the milk. Conventional dairying practices lead to a high risk of contamination – the laboratory evidence is published in a table at https://www.rawmilkinstitute.org/updates/two-types-of-raw-milk. So, the answer is for there to be two types of quota: one type for conventional milk and one for raw milk produced for human consumption, with two sets of standards, training, licensing, etc. And farmers may not hold both types of quota – it has to be one or the other. RAWMI-Listing should be a prerequisite for any farm which wants to sell raw milk to the public. Other licensing requirements could also be negotiated by consumers, farmers, and the DFO board (or a federal agency) sitting down and talking. The board room, not a court room. But it has to be consumers who make the first move, not raw milk farmers who are already thumbing their noses at the law and getting DFO’s panties in a twist.
I hope that a compromise can still be reached.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10157950411188101&set=a.61716128100&cft[0]=AZVzIKy885SF0wPOLSh32M-L6j4FREV5MJo6ffN0ibZlZC_65Ixw3uarYGK6AGc-2f_56IU1LvXpWZUUnrsHdwJxVUsz7ZjgHe11btdV4duI5XqJ6bufHQaIFQBmwJNV266E7z5yxptKZppncfEHlZiNijgzDLl2V8UYelIfpNUhnZAZBC6jfF2F4JG80bkLXlBybC-0WHkY18zVD65HDeFk&tn=EH-y-R
This book above spells out in detail the many attempts to work WITH and not against the dairy board since 1995. The suggested middle finger attitude is a tan attitudwhen not knowing the facts and base for the reasoning to exclude the licensed farmers in raw milk sales. This was put in to not put the burden of regulation on the DFO rather have a clear seperate status as a raw milk producer. The reason the DFO jumped in was as I think the possible success of this application. IF you read clearly the act and its interpretation the spirit of this act was NOT to control ALL milk it was a marketing act to regulate sales to the public. Over the years it morphed into a dictatorial control under the disguise of health concerns, thats all.
“Over the years it morphed into a dictatorial control under the disguise of health concerns, thats all.”
Exactly… “health concerns” is their go to excuse used to achieve and end… it is the only argument they have to fall back on and as long as narrowminded germaphobe driven societies holds to the belief that microbes are primarily responsible for illness then it is an argument that the powers that be will continue to use, absolutely, in order to usurp freedom of choice.
Yes, I’ll read your book, Michael, and let you know what I think.
But regarding the logic of “not to put the burden of regulation on the DFO” as being the reason for seeking legalization outside of provincial marketing board control, the DFO already controls and regulates all raw bovine milk in Ontario. They wouldn’t have seen paragraph 35(c) in the petition as trying to relieve them of a burden — they would have viewed it as an attempt to remove their existing legally-granted authority over this product granted under the Farm Products Marketing Act and regulations.
Separate status for raw milk production could mean a new type of licence issued by the DFO, one to license dedicated grass-fed raw milk farms. It could mean a “small producer exemption” for the tiny micro-dairies and a separate class of quota for larger farms engaging in raw milk production. Vermont has a “two-tiered” licensing system, depending on the volume of milk produced per week, so this isn’t a new concept. And of course, different (higher) safety standards for dedicated raw milk farms — consumers are put at risk by industrial dairying methods which allow the milk to become contaminated by pathogens.
But it will take a large consumer association to approach the DFO and DFC, to ask for meetings, to sit down at the boardroom table with the DFO and DFC directors and negotiate consumer access to raw milk, providing them with a clear and doable proposal for how it could be done. Unless such a group forms to do this, either nation-wide or Ontario-focused, I doubt legalization will go anywhere fast, so I’d like to suggest that it’s time to start the process of organizing such a group, if it hasn’t started already.
don’t waste your breath / time / money / goodwill attempting to deal with the Dairy cartel, logically. The thing is hard-core communism consolidated over half a century.
The peabrains on those dinosaurs know one thing – who issues their paycheque. That’d be the Family Compact… ruling Central Canada for the last 160 years. In which compliance has been bought-off by issuing the majority of quota to Quebec.
as stupid as they are, they have enough of a sense of self-preservation to understand that artisanal dairying to produce REAL MILK will disrupt that Potemkin village of prosperity
Ingvar, I don’t know what type of kefir grains you got from Organic Pastures. But I had kefir grains shipped to me from Cultures for Health about 20 years ago, and the company and my kefir grain descendants are still going strong. Their website is of the same name. The web says Natural Grocers (Vitamin Cottage) also sells Cultures for Health kefir grains.
Thank you, Lynn_M, for the lead. The grains from OPDC were from Russia as I recall and had a good reputation in the Kefir world.
They made spectacular kefir.
I haven’t made kefir in a few years but had some of it stowed away in the icebox. I am bringing them back online but it is a slow process. Impatience drives me here. But I’ll let nature take its course.
I remember to keep metal away from the kefir.
I hit on using my Bosch mixer juicer set up to spin the kefir through the little slots.
Again, thank you.
The Glencolton Farm herd is being sold…
https://www.kijiji.ca/v-buy-sell-other/owen-sound/canadian-homesteader-cows-for-sale/1557844909?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialbuttons&utm_content=vip&fbclid=IwAR2uazZGYOKMULxzgVj_i2DJkjodryZvV_rP5Q38TjUQ88O1c0BY8dQwLY0
The opdc grains were a combination of three sources.
Smuggled in from Australia in an empty toothpaste tube. Some Amish grains that were gifted and some Russian grains we got from friends in Los Angeles.
They were grown and gifted to so many people over the years.
Thank you, Mark.
Is this grain combo still in use, then?
Report:
The grains stored in the ice box for a few years, were brought out to room temp for a few days, then run through a strainer, with just a very small amount to show for it, milk was added and then a few days later (today) I took a look and they had grown at a copious rate. And they smell and taste good. We ate some of them, added milk, and now we wait again.
It has the good old smell we both remember so well.
This is eat-with-spoon kefir for the nonce.
Hooray!
And happy easter to one and all!
Ingvar
It would seem that the white flag of Raw Milk surrender has been raised in Eastern Canada.
Not so fast. It is my impression that raw milk thrives in Canada as long as it is not done publicly. The powers in Canada don’t like to be stood up to or challenged. As long as raw milk is kept low key…. it will do just fine. I am in contact with many raw milk producers all over Canada ??. None are being challenged officially as long as they stay low key.
Would love to see this situation reversed!
The original opdc grains were gifted away years ago. The state of CA had a Standard of Identity for Raw Kefir. It says it can not contain any yeast.
Crazy thing for sure. By definition Kefir is a SCOBY or a symbiotic culture of bacteria and Yeast !
They write the regs. So we had to change our Kefir to be compliant after many years of using Real Kefir Grains to make our kefir
Now we use a starter culture that contains the bacteria portion but not yeast.
Mark,
Thank you so much for your reply!
Yes, the “standards of identity!”
Well I am SO glad I availed myself of these grains way back.
I still have memories of supplying Maurice with tall stacks of handouts for the HFM, week after week. And that was a long time ago.
Have a wonderful Easter everybody!
This Saturday, for Jesus’ disciples must have been one for the ages, a formidable mixture of daunting emotional currents.
I only wonder how they weathered it until he himself explained everything the next day on the road to Emmaus, and AFTER having dressed those two down:
“O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken…”
Again all the best to you all,
Ingvar
Just like the anti-raw milk adherents in Canada are marginalizing raw milk consumers and driving raw milk purchases underground, so to are the Covid-19 vaccine and lockdown adherents in Canada marginalizing the non-vaccinated and driving services that are not deemed “essential” underground…
https://www.rebelnews.com/rebel_news_attends_illegal_gracelife_church_service_at_secret_location?utm_campaign=rb_4_20_21&utm_medium=email&utm_source=therebel