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babusyatanyahttp://babusyatanya.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-post_24.html
It doesn’t matter if you believe the science that says raw milk is healthier. It doesn’t matter if you believe the science that says that raw milk is safe. It doesn’t matter if you believe in an economic model that supports a decent life for farmers. It doesn’t matter if you believe in buying locally. It doesn’t matter if you believe in eating organic.
But in a world where it is acceptable to buy raw spinach, raw eggs, sushi, carpaccio, processed meats, raw beef, raw chicken, raw pork, raw cheeses, cooked cheeses, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and over the counter drugs, it must also be acceptable for people to drink milk from their own cow share
Please feel free to share what I have written but understand that your greatest power is your own voice. You count and you matter. Write today and write again tomorrow. We do have the power to change our circumstances, to transform our country for the better. Accept it and make it work for you.
It has come to my attention that we have a recent legal precedent indicating that no Canadian can include their right to drink milk, however produced, in their assumption of Liberty as quoted in the Canadian Charter of Rights. I’m personally interested in our liberty to own a cow and have the fresh milk from that cow, in the same way that I have liberty to buy carrots, mushrooms and potatoes from local farmers; I would like to safely be able to purchase milk from smaller family farms. I firmly believe that it would be the safest and healthiest choice.
Fresh milk is superior to cooked, or pasteurized, milk. As long as it is produced properly there are no health concerns. No tuberculosis. No bacterial infestations. No virulent strains. Pasteurization destroys the enzymes and vitamins that make milk such a wonderful food. Just as fresh carrots have higher nutrient content so does unprocessed milk. The “Vitamin A and D Added” to the carton of conventional milk is not nearly as beneficial as it is not an original nor integral part of the whole food. It’s processed from an unknown source and added after the fact. Our body does not digest it very well. In fact, many people who cannot digest cooked milk have no problem with fresh milk. The problems that come from raw, unprocessed milk are from when it is produced improperly or cared for improperly. Just like pasteurized milk. Just like meat. Just like spinach. Before we had pasteurization we had small farms. And then for a short while we had larger factory dairy farms with major health problems coming from their milk products. With these larger farms came the need for pasteurization because we stopped taking care of the cows and we stopped taking care of the milk. For an easy read on the effects of pasteurization on milk one could refer to the following website: http://www.modern-diets-and-nutritional-diseases.com/raw-milk.html
A safe scenario for the production of raw milk is a very different picture than the factory farms that produce conventional milk. Fresh milk cows are bred to be organic. In North America, this is a dying breed. Not all cows are resilient enough to be organic. Fresh milk cows belong to families who know the animals intimately. They can do this because they have a small enough herd to do so. They know the cows so well that they remove the cow’s milk before larger symptoms of illness occur.
Fresh milk cows have a very green diet. Literally. They eat grasses and native plants, supplemented by a little bit of hay and some grain for extra calories. There are never any growth hormones hidden in the process because the farmers are well taken care of and there is no incentive to keep with the quota. The cows have a very healthy digestive process. They are highly nutrient rich animals and that comes through in the milk. Cows are ruminants, their digestive tract is designed for a large component of fresh green feed, some hay and a lesser amount of grain. Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivores Dilemma details how cattle fed a large amount of grain become sickly and how that effects the end product. Compare this to the conventional cow that is bred to produce a huge amount of milk, but becomes by degree, malnourished in the process as they are fed an exponentially larger amount of grain and have a correspondingly small yardage of nutrient rich green pasture per animal.
This green diet is important because although humans require a lot of nutrients available from greens, we cannot digest all the things that bovines can. Ergo, we can happily task them with the heavy digesting and reap the beautiful yellow cream knowing that they are likely the happiest cows on earth.
Generally all milk from the grocer is homogenized. Homogenization is the process where the fat globules in the milk are broken up into particles so tiny that they mix evenly with the rest of the milk and no longer separate to rise to the top. (This process became standardized because it allowed lower grade milk to be sold invisibly to the consumer.) There is no known health advantage to the homogenization process but quite a lot of science proving its harm as detailed in The Milk Book by William Campbell Douglass II MD.
What’s currently interesting is that Canada is the only G8 country that has not legalized milk. What’s even more interesting is that they declined the opportunity to do so. Michael Schmidt has been peacefully trying to open a dialogue with our governing representatives for years. In fact, he’s now well beyond day 20 of a hunger strike because the situation has become so dire. It’s been courtrooms that lack logic, openness to science based farming traditions and the assumption of liberty. The milk from my vibrantly healthy cow has had to be recently designated a hazardous material so that the authorities could interfere with the people I pay to bottle and transport my share. (Which is a little bit goofy because conventional milk is transported raw also then pasteurized at a centralized facility.) But it hasn’t stopped with that. In court the authorities promised that they would not interfere with fresh milk production but they are breaking their promise harassing agisters before the upcoming supreme court decision on Nov 2. Nutrition and food pathology specialist Ted Beale MD lays it out clearly his affidavit here: http://www.gratlandcompany.com/cases.php?caseid=case7680939
The Fraser Health Authority repeats two major arguments. First of all that in the milk they tested they found e-coli and coliform. What they did not mention is that they tested it after leaving it for days at an elevated temperature which violates testing procedure. The milk would have certainly soured and elevated levels of bacteria would be inevitable. To compare raw vs. pasteurized milk using appropriate testing methods, or even using the inappropriate testing methods that Fraser Health Authority employs, often the raw milk (on account of the bacteria fighting enzymes) has a lower bacteria count. What the Fraser Health Authority also did not mention is that these bacteria are always found, even on human hands, and that the e-coli strain was not one to be concerned about. The deadly strain is e-coli 01:57 and that has never been found in fresh milk.
Secondly, the Fraser Health Authority reports that there have been “many, many, many” complaints of fresh milk poisoning (This is unlikely as it’s a pretty tiny enterprise. For that matter, my grandparents report never having a problem with their cows and they didn’t have the technology available now.) but on their own website they list only one. The family involved in this particular case has said that they thought their illness was from a petting zoo and that the milk was not the source as no one else had a problem with it. The doctor closed the appointment upon mention of raw milk.
But I know it’s safe to package raw milk. I’m a mom. I breastfed and pumped and ‘fridged and froze and sterilized and dated and so do millions of other North American women. And while we, as a family, do focus on nutrition and health, I don’t eat nearly as green a diet as my cow does. That’s why I want the cow. She’s working for my health and in return I want her taken care of *very* well.
When I was a girl, I grew up amongst dairy farms. Many of them had their quota to fulfill for the dairy board and were glad to have it. Sometimes there was a lot of pressure not only on the farmers but also on the animals to fulfill that quota. Our North American attitude toward thriftiness and food has kept food prices low, but as a result the farms have increased in efficiency by reducing the number of small family farms and increasing the number of large factory farms. While this has been a good move for quantity and efficiency, it has not been a good move for healthy animals, healthy surrounding ecology (farmers and neighbour farmers, or, our national property, if you will) and therefore is lowering the quality of not only the general population, but also the food product we desire. Ted Beals, a specialist in food born illnesses in dairy wrote an affidavit in support of the consumption of raw milk. It’s a scan but an easy read with a strong science base. http://www.gratlandcompany.com/images_editor/Affidavit%20of%20Dr.%20Theodore%20Beals%20%231%2C%20affirmed%20January%204%2C%202011.pdf
Back to the Charter. Liberty includes my freedom to source my food from a farm instead of from a factory. Conventional milk largely comes from a factory. The cows do not fare well in our increasingly mechanized process. Other than ethics, the ramifications from this includes that the products of this process do not come from healthy cows, and are therefore not healthy products to consume. I see no reason to assume otherwise.
Rather than “regulating raw milk”, I would like to see cowshares regulated. I own my own cow. I know where it lives. I know how it’s taken care of. I love the family that does the work and I care for their well being. I accept the qualities inherent to my particular situation and that is a freedom I value. Some cabbages are grown more nutritiously than others, and so are some cheeses. I desire the right to choose that in my life. It’s my cow and it’s my milk.
Another advantage to promoting cow shares is easy traceability. If there were ever a contamination issue a Boil Milk Advisory could be sent to shareholders immediately. In fact, testing technology is available so that even before consumers receive their milk it could be tested. Cow shares are the best way to protect public health. This whole decision is about health: mine. Our bodies, our food and our land. If good food is important for good health, losing fresh milk is bad for our health, and in this case also, our definition of liberty.
To conclude my arguments, I desire the liberty to choose my food for my own health. If I can drink, smoke, and eat pop, chips, and chocolate even in a home with children, I can certainly spend my hard made money on an entity as forward thinking as a cow share. Anything else is inconsistent with our generally accepted Canadian freedoms.
Where this affects you is that it’s an injustice perpetrated against the Canadian population in its entirety. The previous ruling on Michael Schmidt was overturned by two logics:
1. That the previous judge was not born in Canada and was thereby not culturally qualified to make the appropriate ruling.
2. That consuming milk was not a freedom afforded to Canadians in our charter of rights.
Currently, legally, you have no right to drink milk: raw, conventional or otherwise. As a country, this is suddenly not included in our definition of liberty as found in our Constitution. Not only is interference in our age-old farm economy wrongful and harmful, but blocking a freedom as inferred in our Canadian Charter is a huge step backwards for our country. You need to take action now because our liberty is at stake.
The battle is on and the battle is now.
Brenda Blakely
It doesn’t matter if you believe the science that says raw milk is healthier. It doesn’t matter if you believe the science that says that raw milk is safe. It doesn’t matter if you believe in an economic model that supports a decent life for farmers. It doesn’t matter if you believe in buying locally. It doesn’t matter if you believe in eating organic.
But in a world where it is acceptable to buy raw spinach, raw eggs, sushi, carpaccio, processed meats, raw beef, raw chicken, raw pork, raw cheeses, cooked cheeses, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and over the counter drugs, it must also be acceptable for people to drink milk from their own cow share
Please feel free to share what I have written but understand that your greatest power is your own voice. You count and you matter. Write today and write again tomorrow. We do have the power to change our circumstances, to transform our country for the better. Accept it and make it work for you.
It has come to my attention that we have a recent legal precedent indicating that no Canadian can include their right to drink milk, however produced, in their assumption of Liberty as quoted in the Canadian Charter of Rights. I’m personally interested in our liberty to own a cow and have the fresh milk from that cow, in the same way that I have liberty to buy carrots, mushrooms and potatoes from local farmers; I would like to safely be able to purchase milk from smaller family farms. I firmly believe that it would be the safest and healthiest choice.
Fresh milk is superior to cooked, or pasteurized, milk. As long as it is produced properly there are no health concerns. No tuberculosis. No bacterial infestations. No virulent strains. Pasteurization destroys the enzymes and vitamins that make milk such a wonderful food. Just as fresh carrots have higher nutrient content so does unprocessed milk. The “Vitamin A and D Added” to the carton of conventional milk is not nearly as beneficial as it is not an original nor integral part of the whole food. It’s processed from an unknown source and added after the fact. Our body does not digest it very well. In fact, many people who cannot digest cooked milk have no problem with fresh milk. The problems that come from raw, unprocessed milk are from when it is produced improperly or cared for improperly. Just like pasteurized milk. Just like meat. Just like spinach. Before we had pasteurization we had small farms. And then for a short while we had larger factory dairy farms with major health problems coming from their milk products. With these larger farms came the need for pasteurization because we stopped taking care of the cows and we stopped taking care of the milk. For an easy read on the effects of pasteurization on milk one could refer to the following website: http://www.modern-diets-and-nutritional-diseases.com/raw-milk.html
A safe scenario for the production of raw milk is a very different picture than the factory farms that produce conventional milk. Fresh milk cows are bred to be organic. In North America, this is a dying breed. Not all cows are resilient enough to be organic. Fresh milk cows belong to families who know the animals intimately. They can do this because they have a small enough herd to do so. They know the cows so well that they remove the cow’s milk before larger symptoms of illness occur.
Fresh milk cows have a very green diet. Literally. They eat grasses and native plants, supplemented by a little bit of hay and some grain for extra calories. There are never any growth hormones hidden in the process because the farmers are well taken care of and there is no incentive to keep with the quota. The cows have a very healthy digestive process. They are highly nutrient rich animals and that comes through in the milk. Cows are ruminants, their digestive tract is designed for a large component of fresh green feed, some hay and a lesser amount of grain. Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivores Dilemma details how cattle fed a large amount of grain become sickly and how that effects the end product. Compare this to the conventional cow that is bred to produce a huge amount of milk, but becomes by degree, malnourished in the process as they are fed an exponentially larger amount of grain and have a correspondingly small yardage of nutrient rich green pasture per animal.
This green diet is important because although humans require a lot of nutrients available from greens, we cannot digest all the things that bovines can. Ergo, we can happily task them with the heavy digesting and reap the beautiful yellow cream knowing that they are likely the happiest cows on earth.
Generally all milk from the grocer is homogenized. Homogenization is the process where the fat globules in the milk are broken up into particles so tiny that they mix evenly with the rest of the milk and no longer separate to rise to the top. (This process became standardized because it allowed lower grade milk to be sold invisibly to the consumer.) There is no known health advantage to the homogenization process but quite a lot of science proving its harm as detailed in The Milk Book by William Campbell Douglass II MD.
What’s currently interesting is that Canada is the only G8 country that has not legalized milk. What’s even more interesting is that they declined the opportunity to do so. Michael Schmidt has been peacefully trying to open a dialogue with our governing representatives for years. In fact, he’s now well beyond day 20 of a hunger strike because the situation has become so dire. It’s been courtrooms that lack logic, openness to science based farming traditions and the assumption of liberty. The milk from my vibrantly healthy cow has had to be recently designated a hazardous material so that the authorities could interfere with the people I pay to bottle and transport my share. (Which is a little bit goofy because conventional milk is transported raw also then pasteurized at a centralized facility.) But it hasn’t stopped with that. In court the authorities promised that they would not interfere with fresh milk production but they are breaking their promise harassing agisters before the upcoming supreme court decision on Nov 2. Nutrition and food pathology specialist Ted Beale MD lays it out clearly his affidavit here: http://www.gratlandcompany.com/cases.php?caseid=case7680939
The Fraser Health Authority repeats two major arguments. First of all that in the milk they tested they found e-coli and coliform. What they did not mention is that they tested it after leaving it for days at an elevated temperature which violates testing procedure. The milk would have certainly soured and elevated levels of bacteria would be inevitable. To compare raw vs. pasteurized milk using appropriate testing methods, or even using the inappropriate testing methods that Fraser Health Authority employs, often the raw milk (on account of the bacteria fighting enzymes) has a lower bacteria count. What the Fraser Health Authority also did not mention is that these bacteria are always found, even on human hands, and that the e-coli strain was not one to be concerned about. The deadly strain is e-coli 01:57 and that has never been found in fresh milk.
Secondly, the Fraser Health Authority reports that there have been “many, many, many” complaints of fresh milk poisoning (This is unlikely as it’s a pretty tiny enterprise. For that matter, my grandparents report never having a problem with their cows and they didn’t have the technology available now.) but on their own website they list only one. The family involved in this particular case has said that they thought their illness was from a petting zoo and that the milk was not the source as no one else had a problem with it. The doctor closed the appointment upon mention of raw milk.
But I know it’s safe to package raw milk. I’m a mom. I breastfed and pumped and ‘fridged and froze and sterilized and dated and so do millions of other North American women. And while we, as a family, do focus on nutrition and health, I don’t eat nearly as green a diet as my cow does. That’s why I want the cow. She’s working for my health and in return I want her taken care of *very* well.
When I was a girl, I grew up amongst dairy farms. Many of them had their quota to fulfill for the dairy board and were glad to have it. Sometimes there was a lot of pressure not only on the farmers but also on the animals to fulfill that quota. Our North American attitude toward thriftiness and food has kept food prices low, but as a result the farms have increased in efficiency by reducing the number of small family farms and increasing the number of large factory farms. While this has been a good move for quantity and efficiency, it has not been a good move for healthy animals, healthy surrounding ecology (farmers and neighbour farmers, or, our national property, if you will) and therefore is lowering the quality of not only the general population, but also the food product we desire. Ted Beals, a specialist in food born illnesses in dairy wrote an affidavit in support of the consumption of raw milk. It’s a scan but an easy read with a strong science base. http://www.gratlandcompany.com/images_editor/Affidavit%20of%20Dr.%20Theodore%20Beals%20%231%2C%20affirmed%20January%204%2C%202011.pdf
Back to the Charter. Liberty includes my freedom to source my food from a farm instead of from a factory. Conventional milk largely comes from a factory. The cows do not fare well in our increasingly mechanized process. Other than ethics, the ramifications from this includes that the products of this process do not come from healthy cows, and are therefore not healthy products to consume. I see no reason to assume otherwise.
Rather than “regulating raw milk”, I would like to see cowshares regulated. I own my own cow. I know where it lives. I know how it’s taken care of. I love the family that does the work and I care for their well being. I accept the qualities inherent to my particular situation and that is a freedom I value. Some cabbages are grown more nutritiously than others, and so are some cheeses. I desire the right to choose that in my life. It’s my cow and it’s my milk.
Another advantage to promoting cow shares is easy traceability. If there were ever a contamination issue a Boil Milk Advisory could be sent to shareholders immediately. In fact, testing technology is available so that even before consumers receive their milk it could be tested. Cow shares are the best way to protect public health. This whole decision is about health: mine. Our bodies, our food and our land. If good food is important for good health, losing fresh milk is bad for our health, and in this case also, our definition of liberty.
To conclude my arguments, I desire the liberty to choose my food for my own health. If I can drink, smoke, and eat pop, chips, and chocolate even in a home with children, I can certainly spend my hard made money on an entity as forward thinking as a cow share. Anything else is inconsistent with our generally accepted Canadian freedoms.
Where this affects you is that it’s an injustice perpetrated against the Canadian population in its entirety. The previous ruling on Michael Schmidt was overturned by two logics:
1. That the previous judge was not born in Canada and was thereby not culturally qualified to make the appropriate ruling.
2. That consuming milk was not a freedom afforded to Canadians in our charter of rights.
Currently, legally, you have no right to drink milk: raw, conventional or otherwise. As a country, this is suddenly not included in our definition of liberty as found in our Constitution. Not only is interference in our age-old farm economy wrongful and harmful, but blocking a freedom as inferred in our Canadian Charter is a huge step backwards for our country. You need to take action now because our liberty is at stake.
The battle is on and the battle is now.
Brenda Blakely