Let the media circus begin — local B.C. raw milk action planned for later today

Here’s Jeff Nagel, of BC Local News, with an excerpt from a story that appears on the Agassiz HarrisonObserver.com website

Shared cows in Chilliwack at OurCows (formerly Home On The Range dairy) near Chilliwack, in British Columbia, about an hour east of Vancouver. Photo via Agassiz Harrison Observer

“A cow-sharing co-op will serve up unpasteurized raw milk to supporters in Chilliwack Tuesday in defiance of public health officials’ repeated efforts to shut them down.

They’re now being led by Michael Schmidt, an Ontario dairy farmer and raw milk advocate who this year succeeded in overturning the ban on raw milk cow-shares in that province.

Schmidt has taken over management of the former Home On The Range dairy from Chilliwack farmer Alice Jongerden and renamed the operation OurCows.

Not only will milk continue to flow to the 450 members, he vows, they’ll hand out raw milk in front of Fraser Health’s Chilliwack offices at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

“I demand a proper trial where the guilt will be properly determined rather than just trying to shut us down,” Schmidt said.

Jongerden had planned to leave cow-share members to milk their own cows, but Schmidt’s stance is a direct challenge to the authority.

The action comes despite the tightening of legal screws on the operation.

Jongerden is back in court Oct. 14 on contempt of court charges after she continued to distribute milk – labeled “not for human consumption” – despite a B.C. Supreme Court injunction issued in March.

It’s not yet clear what effect the change of agister (the manager of a cow-share) will have on the legal proceedings.

“I’m now managing and running the entire operation,” Schmidt said. “So it will be interesting to see how they want to deal with that now.”

He argues Fraser Health’s prosecution so far has been without due process.

“I am open to any dialogue to resolve the issue,” Schmidt said. “But we will not back down.”

The health authority has relied on B.C.’s Public Health Act, which defines raw milk as a health hazard and bans its sale.

The cow-sharers claim they don’t buy the milk – they jointly own the cows and merely collect liquid dividends.

Schmidt said it was a long battle to victory in Ontario, where he was charged in 2006 and fined $55,000 for contempt of court before being acquitted on all counts in early January.

“It basically legalized the cow-share model in Ontario,” he said.

The Ontario government is still appealing and success there doesn’t necessarily translate to B.C., because the laws requiring milk pasteurization in the two provinces differ….”

Read it all on the AgassizHarrisonObserver.com