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babusyatanya ([personal profile] babusyatanya) wrote2010-02-04 04:48 pm
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Raw Milk: The Fight for Food Rights and Personal Freedoms.

Mark McAfee (US)



Raw Milk: The Fight for Food Rights and Personal Freedoms



For the last few weeks the issue of Raw Milk has surfaced in headlines all across Canada – some of the articles preach the benefits of a product which has sustained human kind for centuries but most (even with a ‘positive’ message) downplay sound research and hype incorrect statistics and biased research to discredit one of the oldest foods in the World. Most articles I’ve come across have an undertone of how dangerous Raw Milk is and how consumers in Canada should not even be allowed to have the choice to drink Raw Milk regardless if they actively seek out sources after properly researching the product.



I had the honour of attending the Raw Milk protest outside the New Westminster Law Courts on Monday, February 1, 2010 where one hundred members of the Home on the Range cow share program listened to Alice Jongerden, the farmer, Gordon Watson, a Raw Milk advocate, and Michael Schmidt who came from Ontario to participate in the rally after winning his own decade long battle in Ontario a week before. Men, women and children all gathered to listen and stood with signs emblazoned with ‘My World is Not Pasteurized’ and listing all the countries in the G8 which allow the sale of Raw Milk in one form or another (minus Canada). It occurred to me that I was surrounded by dozens of individuals like myself who were struggling against the bad press and attempting to take control of their own lives despite repeated attempts by the Government and affiliated Dairy Boards to halt the flow of Raw Milk.



The small courtroom could not accommodate us all so we were herded into a waiting room to hear bits and pieces of news that was passed on by onlookers who stepped out for a quick break and I had the pleasure of speaking to a few families and individuals who had taken time out of their busy schedules to support their right to choose. The consensus was clear that Raw Milk outweighed Pasteurized on many levels and the current battle for Raw between the shareholders and the Government only made everyone’s resolve stronger. It is not hard to see the tactics the Fraser Health Authority is taking to undermine the legal rights of the people and of the shareholders who are well within their rights to obtain Raw Milk. Not once has a person become ill (with evidence to substantiate the claim) from the Raw Milk from home on the range and the FHA knows it – their desperate bid to diffuse the claim that no evidence was provided to show the Milk’s danger was to state simply that the Government did not need to provide proof as Raw Milk is considered a health hazard in the revised Milk Act.



Many people may read the articles which are springing up across the Internet and disregard their own stake in the situation that is unfolding. The fight for Raw Milk is not about safety – if it had the Supreme Court Justice of the Peace would have shut down operations effective immediately. This court battle effectively gives power of food choice to our Governments – the same government which has allowed for contaminated Maple Leaf meat products to find their way back onto the shelves, sodium filled baby foods to be sold by the thousands, products proven to cause obesity and cancer to be consumed en mass and our food supply to be manipulated by corporate agendas to ensure their responsibility to maximize profits for their shareholders is met. If the Government cannot allow educated individuals to access a food which they know is good for them under the guise of concern for health – we must ask why they allow carcinogens, sugar laden foods, alcohol, heroin injection sites, hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals and additives to exist in our Canadian culture when we all know how damaging they are to our health. Maybe the real concern here is profit, not health. This case seeks to halt the growing popularity of Raw Milk to protect the profits of Big Dairy and the Government. They have much more to lose if the people win their right to choose their food source but not unless we do something to protect our rights and the rights of our future generations.


Kristine Lat


перед началом заседания люди собрались перед входом, с плакатами для прессы, общались, знакомились, обменивались мнениями. Выступил Майкл Шмидт - умный и обстоятельный мужик, подсказал что наш вопрос не сводится к борьбе, наш вопрос должен быть разрешен без злобы и вражды, предложил всем поддерживать в себе положительные эмоции и спокойствие.

После начальных слушаний - выступлений заявителя (юрист из облздравотдела) и ответчика (кто ухаживает за нашим стадом коровок) - стало ясно что положение серьезней, чем думалось. Судья показывала что ее злит, когда ей поясняли очевидные вещи и подсказывали в каком направлении мыслить. Заявитель упирал на то что "непастеризованное молоко - есть угроза здоровью публики" - это сформулировано в законе, а значит нет необходимости приводить доказательства, что кто-то заболел или отравился молоком. Ответ наш состоял в том, что закон мы не нарушали (иметь коров и употреблять их молоко не запрещено), ни кто не заболел ни разу от молока за все время существования кооператива, и что употребление частным образом своей частной собственности ни коим образом не затрагивает публичные интересы. Но юрист облздравотдела высказывался по-видимому более убедительно, во всяком случае его судья выслушивала более охотно, чем другую сторону.

заседание однако затянулось, судью попросили выслушать публику, со скрипом и требованием не повторяться она согласилась. В перерыв обсудили стратегию, кто может сказать и как именно сформулировать. Наша цель доказать что вопрос касается нашей частной собственности. Частным образом ведь любой может купить тормозную жидкость свободно в магазине и взять и выпить ее или выкупаться в ней, ни какой облздравотдел не проконтролирует, да и не входит это в область его контроля. Шмидт подсказал как лучше сформулировать, одновременно успокоил всех, что хотя угроза того, что прямо сейчас мы получим приказ о прекращении работы фермы, очень реальна, все-же выход есть: быстро сделать наклейки на каждую банку с молоком "not for human consumption" - логика та же что с тормозной жидкостью - молоко у нас по прежнему будет, а кто каким образом его использует - личное дело, хочешь для косметических нужд, хочешь для удобрения растений, или как корм для домашних животных.

важным моментом стало то, что мы поняли, необходимо формулировать так, чтобы присутствовало разграничение публичного интереса и частного. Свойства самого молока таким образом ушли на задний план (тогда как у обвинения опасность самого продукта - главный аргумент), нам необходимо было доказать, что вопрос не в свойствах продукта, а в нарушении частных прав. Пять человек смогли выступить перед судъей изложив свои аргументы, а также показав, что решение затронет гораздо больше людей, чем указано у заявителя, и вопрос этот касается гораздо большей области права, нежели соблюдение или несоблюдение Промышленного Акта о Молоке и закона о "смертельно опасных субстанциях".

Корову иметь - законно, самому употреблять молоко от своей коровы - законно, а незаконно - упаковывать молоко, распространять, продавать, доставлять.

В одном из выступлений прозвучала история о том, как ребенок заболел (реакция на вакцинацию, по мнению выступающего), долгий процесс лечение (несколько лет) результатов не давал, ребенок терял в весе и т.д. Начав отпаивать дитя молоком родители заметили что состояние его постепенно налаживается. В заключение было сказано, что от молока они не откажутся по вышеизложенным причинам, а также потому, что это молоко от собственной коровы - частная собственность.

В другом выступлении женщина сформулировала ряд интересных вопросов: если сырое молоко опасно, то почему фермер и семья фермера употребляет этот продукт, и ни какой облздравотдел не интересуется последствиями? Если сырое молоко опасно, значит грудное молоко, которое тоже сырое, тоже надо запретить, а также плотно следить за тем, чтобы мамаши не "упаковывали" грудное молоко, оставляя в бутылочке для своих младенцев, когда приглашают няню присмотреть за ребенком?

В следующем выступлении оратор сообщил что с ним сегодня в зале суда четверо из его шестерых детей, дети сами выразили желание присутствовать, потому что они не хотят лишаться молока от своей коровы.

Я сказала, что будучи недавним гражданином в Канаде, перед тем как купить коровью собственномть, выяснила что иметь корову не является нарушением закона, и иметь свое молоко от коровы также не является нарушением закона. Употребляла я молоко, тем же образом и с той же мыслью, какой я руководствуюсь употребляя овощи которые сама вырастила во дворе. Однако в ходе слушания выяснилось, что именно доставка и упаковка делает мое молоко нелегальным. Я не могу держать корову в городе, мое невыгодное положение городского жителя теперь становится дискриминацией, поскольку мне не позволена транспортировка моей собственности в пределах провинции. В ходе этого слушания я хочу разрешить для себя один вопрос: какое расстояние подразумевается в термине "доставка", когда фермер приносит молоко домой в семью, живя намного ближе к корове чем я, является ли это также доставкой?

Заседание окончилось без вынесения приказа о закрытии фермы - в этом состояла наша победа в тот день. У судьи есть 30 дней для обдумывания и формулирования своего решения.



http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2009/12/getting-past-religion-in-the-raw-milk-war
"...to him who preserves the life of a single individual it is counted that he hath preserved the whole race." From rabbinic commentary on the Torah

I was surprised recently to see a newspaper article out of Montana quoting me as saying I have fewer coughs and colds since I've been drinking raw milk.

I hadn't been interviewed by the paper. But then I remembered that I allude to my health experiences since beginning to drink raw milk, almost as an aside, in my book, The Raw Milk Revolution.

I was caught off-guard by this particular quotation because I try to steer clear of promoting either the health benefits or safety of raw milk. I'm doing a fair number of radio and other media interviews these days in connection with the book, and interviewers will often try to lead me into saying things that fit with their preconceptions--for example, that raw milk is safer than pasteurized milk, or that raw milk is a terrible health hazard.

And therein lies an important explanation for why the debate over raw milk is so acrimonious, with name-calling and much worse among proponents and opponents of raw milk: most everyone involved has taken sides on either the risks or the health benefits of raw milk.

Those who want to make raw milk difficult or impossible to obtain point to the stories of people who have become very sick from consuming raw milk. A good example is a recent article by food poisoning lawyer Bill Marler in Food Safety News about the dangers of raw milk, in which he strings together a series of five videos of individuals, several of them children, who have become quite ill from raw milk. Some of the children have suffered permanent kidney damage from hemolytic uremic syndrome brought on as part of illness from E. coli O157:H7 contained in raw milk.

Those who want to ease or remove restrictions on raw milk have their own set of case examples--the stories of individuals, also including children, who are experiencing health benefits from raw milk. There is research out of Europe (pdf) suggesting strongly that children who regularly consume raw milk are less likely than other children to experience allergies and asthma. And there are endless case-examples of individuals who say their health has improved in important ways after drinking raw milk for extended periods.

Why do discussions about these aspects of raw milk become so emotional? I keep thinking of the phrase from rabbinic commentary on the Torah that I quote at the start of this article.

What it says to me is that those on either side of this issue are so passionate because they see themselves as potentially saving lives. Those who see excessive risk feel that if they prevent one serious illness, they've done a wonderful deed. And those who have seen people benefit from raw milk feel if even one individual who is sick regains his or her health, they have similarly done a wonderful deed.

With such mindsets, it's not a huge leap to see opponents in a harsh light. Those who oppose raw milk availability may come to see proponents as not having a high regard for human life. Same with proponents--they can easily begin to see opponents as callously denying consumers the health-giving properties of raw milk.

My solution is to try to satisfy both sides. The way you do that is to take a reasonable approach. That doesn't mean you suddenly stop pasteurizing all milk any more than it means you ban raw milk.

What it means is you treat raw milk as you would any food that can become contaminated, which is most foods. That is, you seek to ensure the safest possible production and distribution approach. In today's highly charged atmosphere, that is the opposite of what happens in many states. As just one example of what could happen, state agricultural agencies could establish extension courses on safe handling practices for raw milk, instead of obsessively focusing on trying to scare consumers away from buying raw milk, or carrying out undercover sting operations against farmers producing raw milk, as a number have done. Not only have these tactics not worked, they seem to have done the opposite: stimulated ever more consumer interest in raw milk.

I've come to conclude that tending to one's health is a highly personal, and private, matter. Different treatments, and different foods, have differing effects on people.

Raw milk is a prime example. I have heard enough testimonials from people who have benefited to believe that it helps some significant numbers of people. I have also met people who started on raw milk and still have the eczema or Crohn's that they wanted to relieve. And very occasionally, individuals do become seriously ill from raw milk.

To the extent that the government involves itself in trying to regulate our access to foods or alternative treatments that haven't been shown to be untowardly dangerous, it infringes dangerously in our lives.

You could say I'm an agnostic in this religious war in that I don't believe in either side's religion, either about dangers or benefits. My religion, if I might use that term, is a commitment to upholding the political and personal liberties our country's founders so well articulated in the wake of British abuses, and that American soldiers have through the years died defending.

There's another political value, attributed to Voltaire, that is relevant here. "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." We can each have our views about whether raw milk is highly dangerous or a miracle cure-all. Just don't try to forcibly impose either belief on me.

Let's take a positive approach to this situation. Let's make raw milk available to all who want it, and do all we can to educate dairy farmers on how to produce the safest possible product. Let's also carry out serious research on both the risks and health benefits of raw milk to fill in serious voids in our knowledge. Religion is never a good subject for debate.

and a short report
http://thebovine.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/raw-milks-day-in-vancouver-court

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