Se non è vero, è bene trovato

a href="http://business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/ontario-keeps-spending-a-fortune-prosecuting-a-farmer-whos-hurt-no-one-and-keeps-selling-his-milk">Ontario keeps spending a fortune prosecuting a farmer who’s hurt no one and who keeps selling his milk

Karen Selick, Special to Financial Post | March 6, 2017


Ontario is planning to waste more money this week prosecuting raw-milk advocate Michael Schmidt.

For 23 years, the province and some of its municipalities have waged war against Schmidt and Glencolton Farm, where he and others produce the unpasteurized milk that buyers want. Officials have repeatedly raided the farm, seized equipment, dragged Schmidt and others into court, fined him, spied on him and otherwise attempted to intimidate him.

This week, a five-day trial is occurring for Schmidt and two others, for allegedly obstructing a peace officer on Oct. 2, 2015. That day, when authorities attempted to execute yet another raid on the farm, approximately 50 people — co-owners of the farm co-operative — gathered to oppose police, in part by parking a tractor across the driveway, preventing the removal of equipment.

Still other legal action is pending against Schmidt and other members of his co-op: an injunction application seeking, once again, to shut down the raw-dairy operation. Two days are scheduled for that hearing at the end of May.

How much money has Ontario spent going after this raw-milk co-op for 23 years?

It has all been to no avail: The farm continues to produce fresh, unpasteurized milk daily, and co-op members continue to consume raw dairy products — knowingly, happily, and eagerly.

It’s time for Ontario to do a cost-benefit analysis on these prosecutions.

How much money has the province spent on courts and cops going after this raw-milk operation these 23 years? And what has it got to show for it?

Full disclosure: from 2010 to 2013, I was Schmidt’s lawyer. I remain his friend. A few years ago, I tried to unearth via freedom of information requests how much the various governments had spent on legal fees. One municipality admitted having spent $138,000 on outside lawyers. The province itself, which used in-house lawyers (and plenty of them) to prosecute Schmidt, claimed it couldn’t tell me what the cost had been, supposedly because the lawyers didn’t keep time dockets on criminal or regulatory cases where they never expected to receive court costs. Hmm… sounds fishy. But I wouldn’t waste my own scarce resources challenging it.

The truth is, they probably don’t know. It’s highly unlikely that anyone in the Ontario government has ever attempted to tease out and compile the necessary information from the Ministry of Natural Resources, the constitutional law branch of the attorney general’s office, the Ontario Court of Justice, the Superior Court, the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court of Canada, the Ontario Provincial Police, four separate municipalities, and sundry other bureaucracies. Each agency itself probably has no idea what amount it has spent prosecuting Schmidt because that’s not how they organize their financial records.

My guess, however — having observed first-hand the many lawyers, judges, tribunals, court reporters, court clerks, expert witnesses, police officers and civil servants involved during my years on the case, and extrapolating from there — is that the province’s costs have got to be well over $2 million by now. And the main thing that’s achieved is giving Michael Schmidt extra publicity. With news of every prosecution, more and more people wonder what’s so great about unpasteurized milk, and whether they should try to get some.

In Europe, authorities have taken a different approach. Over the past decade, three major studies involving approximately 24,000 children have demonstrated that drinking unpasteurized milk in childhood results in a 41-per-cent lower risk of asthma, a 49-per-cent lower risk of hay fever and a 30-per-cent lower risk of respiratory infections and fever.

Canadian authorities allege that drinking raw milk can be dangerous, even fatal — but so can asthma and respiratory infections. The Asthma Society of Canada estimates that 20 Canadian children and 500 adults die from asthma attacks every year. In 25 years, no-one has ever died from, or even gotten sick from raw milk produced by Glencolton Farm.

Ontario outlawed unpasteurized milk almost 80 years ago. The ensuing years have witnessed enormous advances in food-safety science, microbial testing, hygiene, refrigeration and transportation — all of which make raw milk much safer than it was in 1939.

I’m not ordinarily one to advocate government regulation, but legalizing raw milk would allow the money currently being squandered on police action and legal prosecutions to be spent instead ensuring that standards of food safety were being met for those consumers who insist on having raw milk. The choice is clear.

Karen Selick is a lawyer and commentator.

interview with Michael Schmidt




M:

It was hard to track you down and convince you to sit down for a one on one interview with yourself, why?

Michael:

There are several reasons for the withdrawal from the public view.

The last 8 years have been very intense and dominated by the legal battles in Ontario, BC and Alberta regarding raw milk.

Besides all the legal challenges I had a lot of speaking engagements in the US, Europe and here in Canada.

This was necessary in order to raise the awareness in regards to the loss of our fundamental right to make an informed and educated choice.

I am sure I made my point.

Others have now stepped forward wanting to carry the flag of food freedom.

M:

The Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear your appeal, which ended your 8 year battle with the Province of Ontario. Are you disappointed about the outcome?

Michael:

Why should I be disappointed? Look what we have achieved in all these years. There are more people drinking raw milk than before.

We have trained outstanding farmers each supported by very passionate cow share members who are eager to defend their farmers and their right to the food of their choice.

It has become a public debate.

Every public survey I have seen which has been undertaken by the news media in the last 8 years supported our position. A minimum of 75% of the respondents voted that everyone should have the right to make a choice to either drink pasteurized or raw milk.

The Government is very well aware of that.
( Read more... )

http://babusyatanya.blogspot.ca/2013/02/michael-schmidt-little-chilliwack-dairy.html

Part two

I returned home to Ontario on a West Jet red eye flight. I was relieved that Nobody around me noticed, that I was out on bail for conspiracy to kidnap sheep.
Lawyers worked frantically to make sure that I can continue to play my role in the six act drama of our "little Chilliwack dairy". No doubt it would be the best scenario in the "Hunt for Michael Schmidt" if I would be punished and locked up for 45 days as Susan Beach demanded before the "Sheep Heist Trial" even starts.

What an honor to travel 13500 km in less than 12 days to be on the BC stage of justice.

Act 4

This will be the ultimate scene and climax to feature Susan Beach acting for Fraser Health in her role.
I had the best place because I stood at the witness podium and below me Susan Beach ready to jump.

The Curtain rose our wise judge entered, respectfully the entire theater paid respect and then sat down.
Susan Beach started with her cross examination.
A few days prior she told me face to face I can be finished with you in 35 minutes.
Without getting into details, it was remarkable how desperate she was to put the final nail into the coffin.
Splitting hairs, her voice dripping with sarcasm, she despised every answer I gave her.
By now all milk would have curdled on it's own without any added culture.
Her voice almost hysterical, she made fun of my German accent, sometimes her voice was condescending sometimes like a feisty dog barking up a tree.
She turned the pages so violently on her desk i guess wanting to demonstrate her power and utmost despair.
She was after all the "CHOSEN" one to bring down OUR COWS "little Chilliwack dairy. She was the one dreaming to end the battle for raw milk in Canada. She was the hope of the entire dairy industry to put an end to an almost 20 year old milk war.
And all she was, was a roaring paper tiger with no desire trying to understand the needs of others. No desire to admit the failings of her clients, no desire to recognize her own misery of having to be miserable.
But at the same time I admired her determination, her smartness and her ability to remember many details.
It was over. She suddenly said that's all. I was surprised, because I had many more suggestions for her what to ask me to get to the bottom of the milk-can.
Gordon Watson rose to continue my cross examination.
Every time he walked calmly to the lawyers desk Susan Beaches eyes rolled and her body language expressed her distaste for this unlearned lawyer.
Gordon Watson impressed me. Yes he has his moments, but he has wit and a memory of a genius. He asked the questions which in fact mattered in this act 4 of this drama...........
The judge rose, everybody bowed their head and the curtain came down.
My desire to connect with Susan Beach on a more personal level has vanished, at least for today. I hoped that she will have a good sleep.

Act 5

We are full of anticipation of the grand finale.
Everybody is ready to deliver the final plea for justice. Lots of questions remain........will the judge rule today?
does the judge like us?
What will the penalty be?
No milk bath tomorrow?
A lot of questions swirling around before the final round, so we thought.

The curtain rose the learned judge gracefully entered the chamber and nodded his head towards Susan to begin her deliberations.
It was stunningly disappointing. It seemed hours and hours of monologue, reciting case law about a barking dog, no passionate appeal to the judge to save the world from raw milk.
Where was her heart?
Did she not believe in the cause of saving us from ourselves?
I was confused. The longer she kept going in her monologue the more people dozed off dreaming of a refreshing milk bath.
Eventually she wrapped up and stepped to the side.
Jason Gratl our low key lawyer laid out the rather un-complicated matter how cows can indeed make milk for drinking, but if the courts orders so, will produce the most wonderful milk bath. Versatile beyond comprehension. Even Health Canada agrees on that.

The last dissertation is from Gordon Watson. Laying the ground work for a broader understanding about the milk politics in BC, about his search for answers, his search for the truth, his search for due process, his search for milk, his search for justice in the face of Government corruption.

The judge awakens to Gordon and with a sense of grace engages in the final review of history. Like old friends they engage in conversations about great legal cases.
The judge seems thoroughly enjoying this trial. He shows no intention to finish this drama in five acts. He wants another act to follow.
The curtain falls we are all stunt. Susan visibly irritated had packed her suitcase already, makes arrangements on her phone for another dark night in New Westminster.

Act 6

No audience waiting like the other days. This drama is so emotional draining that we begin to see the toll.
Would they have known that the real highlight was yet to come.

The curtain rose. We bowed our head as the judge entered. I was stunned the judge appeared different. His suit was of much lighter colour. His tie was different. There was more light so it seemed.

Gordon rose, Susan rolled her eyes, Jason folded his hands and the judge gave Gordon respectfully his powerful but almost invisible nod.

This was Gordon's moment.
I was mesmerized , I was elated, I was surprised, I was moved, I was in the middle of the battle of human minds where history came alive with battling soldiers, playing hockey in Korea and Gordons father dropping the puck. Only to be killed shortly after.
The Magna Charta came alive in the courtroom through Gordons ancestors. Yes, Gordon was fighting the evil of communism in the country which battled communism in other parts of the world.
Gordon was finished. The court was silent....................until Susan jumped up with a last attempt to highlight the reality that a milk bath is more dangerous than our corrupted agencies. Susan did what she had to do.
She could have been my Valentine for a few days, but she threw my rose into a card board box.

The final curtain falls.

The books are closed everybody is hanging on the lips of the judge to catch the final words.

No ruling............ not for a while.......... may be after the election.

Our cue....we have a job to do.

http://babusyatanya.blogspot.ca/2012/09/blog-post_6750.html

насобирать шишки от red cedar (дерево туя), их сейчас белки с верхушек деревьев отгрызают и много роняют... с веточками они пахнут ореховой свежестью и смолой... залить шишки какой-нибудь самой противной на вкус водкой, например называемой Русский Стандард, или Столичная, оставить постоять так дня два - три и невкусная водка приобретает красивый коньячный цвет и терпкий смолистый вкус

http://babusyatanya.blogspot.ca/2012/05/one-more-court.html

court date is June 7 and 8 in New West Supreme Court

We will be meeting on the steps at 9:00 am. The theme for the day will be 'People's Choice'. Do we have the right to choose, do we have the right to risk? ...............We have a right to own a cow, feed our cow, have someone else feed our cow, milk our cow, have someone else milk our cow, but we do not have the right to put the milk from the cow in a jar with the intent to consume it???? The right to choose what we eat has been taken away, and we need to fight to get it back. Health Canada has said that it is ok to milk our cow and put it in a jar as long as it is labeled as a cosmetic, and as long as it is not sold. Fraser Health (provincial) apparently does not appreciate the position of Health Canada (Federal) and insists it really doesn't matter, they just want to shut the farm down.

Michael Schmidt and Gordon Watson will both be in attendance, and on trial for contempt of court, for allegedly contravening the order against Alice Jongerden, by packaging and producing raw milk for human consumption, even though there is no evidence of such.

Will Fraser Health really sell your cows without your permission? They have threatened to do so, giving a 60 day notice (52 have already gone by), and have said any expenses in doing so will be charged to the owner of the farm property. The owner has had to seek out their own legal council, and have responded to Fraser Health. They have yet to get a returned response.

http://babusyatanya.blogspot.com/2011/11/raw-milk-advocates-to-rally-nationwide.html


Raw Milk Advocates to Rally Nationwide for Food Freedom, November 23, 2011

Members of the Public will gather outside the Olympic Cauldron, Canada Place at 11.am to assert their right to choose what they eat.

Demonstration: Paneer making by Meeru Dhalwala, co-owner of Vij's and Rangoli's Restaurant made with Raw milk.

Serving Hot Chocolate and Cookies

VANCOUVER B.C. - Five years after the November 23 armed raid of an organic raw dairy farm in Ontario, food freedom advocates across Canada are rallying to gain public support for legislative changes to allow limited distribution of safe, carefully produced raw dairy products.

“The glass of raw milk has become the symbol of the food rights movement,” said Michael Schmidt, the target of the 2006 pre-dawn raid involving nearly two dozen armed law enforcement officers. “Our message and our method is to bring down barriers in order to open dialogue,” Schmidt said in a speech at the Wise Traditions conference recently held in Dallas, Texas.

Schmidt recently ended a 37-day hunger strike when Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty agreed to meet with him to begin dialogue to change raw milk laws. Schmidt and thousands of his supporters identify current dairy laws as limiting Canadians’ freedom of food choice.

Canada is the only G8 nation that universally bans the sale and distribution of unpasteurized milk. Government health officials cite the low probability of possible contamination with pathogenic bacteria as justification.

However, in an analysis of U.S. Center for Disease Control (C.D.C.) data, Dr. Ted Beals notes that there is an average of only 42 cases of illness per year attributed to raw milk in the U.S., compared to an estimated 48-million food-borne illness from all causes. In government actions against raw milk, more than 90 per cent result in no harmful pathogens found, according to the Weston A. Price Foundation, a food-rights advocacy group.

Dr. Beals notes that U.S. C.D.C. data studying the American population show that, “3.04 per cent of the population consumes raw milk, or about 9.4 million people.” Beals concludes that consumers are 35,000 times more likely to become ill from other food products than from the raw milk that they drink.

Says Alice Jongerden, the previous agister of Home on the Range B.C. herdshare, "With nearly 33,000 traffic fatalities in the U.S. each year, a U.S. raw milk drinker is about 780 times more likely to die in an accident on the way to pick up their milk than they are to be sickened from drinking it.”

Advocates like Jongerden identify countless health and environmental benefits to regulating herdshares ensuring safe raw milk.

“Revised laws, both federally and provincially, could succeed in supporting local sustainable milk sources, minimizing antibiotic usage, reducing carbon emissions, and improving animal management practices,” she says.

And, although the health benefits of raw dairy are generally downplayed by government health officials, the peer-reviewed research at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute show that children who drink raw milk have a 41 per cent lower risk of asthma and a 50 per cent lower risk of allergies, compared to children who drank pasteurized milk, as reported in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

November 23rd rallies are being held in: Victoria and Vancouver in B.C.; Toronto, Kemptville, and Ottawa in Ontario; Saskatoon and Regina in Saskatchewan; Montreal in Quebec; Wolfville in Nova Scotia; and St. John, Newfoundland.
Alice Jongerden

http://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

http://babusyatanya.blogspot.com/2011/10/dear-minister-michael-de-jong-c.html

Dear Minister Michael de Jong.

I’m writing to you to ask a simple question. What’s more dangerous
for your health? Smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol or drinking
unpasteurized milk?

According to Health Canada, it’s drinking unpasteurized milk.

Canada is the only G8 country where the sale of raw milk is illegal. The
country outlawed its sale in 1991. However, drinking raw milk is legal.
I believe in food freedom and I believe the provincial government
should too. Clearly raw milk is not a health issue as thousands of
people drink it with great benefits, including myself. More people will
die from interactions with prescription drugs this year in North America
than all the cases of raw milk drinkers getting sick in the world in the
last two decades!

I guess what I am looking for is a honest answer why to why the
provincial government is not doing more to ensure the rights of British
Columbians to choose to eat whole unprocessed foods, directly
from the farmer, if they so choose? When tainted spinach is sold and
people get E-coli poisoning or tainted deli meat is recalled, why don't
you make spinach or deli meat illegal to sell?

It's very disappointing to see your government not making this basic
freedom more important when I believe we have much bigger issues
to allocate resources to than punishing a small raw dairy. It seems
every day average Canadians are assaulted by their own government
under the guise of looking out for our welfare. Whether it’s raw milk
or natural supplements coming under attack, we seem to be losing the
choice to be responsible for our own health.

We are an overmedicated culture living on too many processed foods,
and we don’t have to look very far to see that health care requires a
new paradigm to become effective. If I wish to purchase whole healthy
raw milk direct from a farmer, is that not my constitutional right? In
fact why don’t we make raw milk dairy's legal so they can be properly
regulated. Does the little guy not get help from the government, or is
it only the powerful that get the ear of the policy makers?

I can assure you I take my health very seriously, because I don’t want
to get ill or be a burden to the system, and raw dairy is a large part of
my health protocol.

There is a growing desire and movement for fresh whole unprocessed

foods, that are not boiled irradiated and processed in factories, where
animals are treated humanely, the way nature intended.

Food freedom is becoming more important to ordinary Canadians
each and every day and this is not an issue that is going away, so I’m
asking for your support to bring some common sense back into the
equation. I stand for local sustainable unprocessed whole foods and
the freedom to purchase and eat them.

I hope you will take a leading role to make your government more
progressive by making food freedom a top priority.

I feel strongly about this issue, as do many of the folks I’m talking to,
so this is a major election issue for me.

I appreciate the opportunity to express my thoughts on this subject.

Kind thanks

David Frank Gomes

+ many more people standing for their rights

http://babusyatanya.blogspot.com/2011/10/demand-food-rights-at-occupy-vancouver.html

On Mon, Oct 10, 2011 at 5:05 PM, Heather Passmore <...> wrote:
Hello friendly cow-share members,
...just spoke to Jackie at the depot and we're encouraging everyone to come out and demand FOOD RIGHTS at Occupy Vancouver. Saturday Oct 15th, Vancouver Art Gallery, 10am!

Michael Schmidt is on a hunger strike and this movement is an opportunity to bring much needed attention to the erasure of our BASIC FREEDOMS by government and corporate control.

Occupy Vancouver is part of a global movement addressing these very issues. The ideas of Occupy Wall street are posted below and broadcast here by political commentator Keith Olbermann of Current TV. Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8o3peQq79Q&feature=player_embedded


What follows is the first official, collective statement of the protesters in Zuccotti Park:

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government ontracts.*

To the people of the world, We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

occupy vancouver dot com
facebook group
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Heather Passmore
B.F.A., M.F.A. (U.of Brit.Col.)
heatherpassmore dot com