This just in from Nadine Ijaz in Victoria:
Victoria, B.C., where MLAs not only come to speak at your rally and pet your cows, but they also post pictures of the proceedings on Facebook. This picture was posted by B.C. MLA Nicholas Simons. It shows the cow Shelby, with MLAs Lana Popham and Jenny Kwan outside the Legislature.
A couple of things – media wise, I believe we were on CTV Victoria on the 5 pm news last night, and I was interviewed yesterday morning by CFAX Victoria radio at 6.22 am, and on CBC Radio One Victoria (‘On the Island’) at 8.20 am. We have some coverage in today’s Times Colonist in Victoria, on p. 3 I believe (have yet to see it myself). I am busy with many things today so don’t know how much time I’ll have to try to grab all of these links but thought I’d pass them on.
Also, I am attaching the text of the transcripts from our BC Legislature yesterday, when MLA Nicholas Simons (Sunshine Coast) welcomed our rally to the premises, and when MLA Jenny Kwan (Vancouver – Mount Pleasant) tabled a petition and bag of letters on the issues. We also had Opposition Agriculture Critic Lana Popham and Opposition Health Critic Mike Farnworth out to our rally. Lana Popham has a letter of support up on her facebook page which I will paste below. This is the letter she read out to our rally yesterday.
Dear Raw Milk Advocate
I would like to thank-you for writing and sharing your feelings regarding the consumption of raw milk in British Columbia; I am pleased to respond on behalf of caucus. My colleagues and I have received many, many letters and emails from constituents who share your views.
As the emails arrived, I wanted to ensure that my response to you is a thoughtful one. On the face of it, this is an issue that falls under the Federal jurisdiction. A simple answer would point to the Canada Food and Drug Act and BC’s Food Standards Act which would not support distribution or sale of raw milk.
But upon hearing the concerns that you and many others have shared which reflect a group of people who wish to have the right to consume what they want. I am sympathetic to this argument and understand why this is important to you.
I have had a lengthy conversation with Ryan Conroy, a raw milk advocate that was very informative. Ryan shed light on the situation with regards to a dairy that is having difficulties with the Fraser Health Authority. I am hoping to visit that dairy in the New Year. Having access to raw milk through cow-share programs where devotees buy a share of a dairy herd for personal use and not for resale seems like an innovative and reasonable solution.
My collegue MLA Jenny Kwan recently also met with Jackie Ingram, another raw milk advocate in her constituency. Jenny commented that she understands the issue much better now and wants to help find a solution. She was advised that Quebec has legislation in place that allows them access to raw milk products.
Both MLA Kwan and I would like to work on this issue and we are looking into ways that other jurisdictions have accommodated the right to consume raw milk but at the same time respecting the Federal Legislation. We hope to be able to improve the opportunity here in BC.
Although this is not an issue that can move quickly, please be assured that we understand. We will update you on any progress or news as we move forward.
Yours sincerely,
Lana Popham, MLA Saanich South
Opposition Agriculture Critic
and
Jenny Kwan, MLA Vancouver Mt. Pleasant
Opposition Economic Development Critic
From subsequent discussion in the B.C. legislature:
2011 Legislative Session: Fourth Session, 39th Parliament
HOUSE BLUES
This is a DRAFT TRANSCRIPT ONLY of debate in one sitting of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. This transcript is subject to corrections, and will be replaced by the final, official Hansard report. Use of this transcript, other than in the legislative precinct, is not protected by parliamentary privilege, and public attribution of any of the debate as transcribed here could entail legal liability.
DEBATES OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
(HANSARD)
HOUSE BLUES
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2011
Afternoon Sitting
HSE – 20111123 PM 001/pml/1330
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2011
The House met at 1:34 p.m.
[Mr. Speaker in the chair.]
………………..
N. Simons: Also today…. They were unable to join us in the House because they aren’t allowed cows or goats in here, but there are folks representing the raw milk supporters, and I think that it’s important for us to recognize that their issue is important. Would the House please welcome them at least to the precinct.
……………………….
J. Kwan: I, too, rise to table a petition. I have a petition here that has 1,161 names in the format of letters, e-mails and petition. They’re calling for the legalization of raw milk. They are people who very much believe that they have the right to choose what food they consume. So to that end, they are asking for the right to have what’s called herd-share or cow-share operations in B.C. so that people who want to drink raw milk would be able to access it without doing something that is illegal
The Bovine 
Go Victoria !
To our elected Ontario politicians: please continue the discussion that Michael Schmidt and Premier McGuinty started a couple weeks ago. Quebec already has legislation in place allowing people access to raw milk – go take a look at it. Consult with your fellow politicians in other jurisdictions like Victoria, B.C. Figure out how to make raw milk safe and legal in Ontario. It CAN be done. It takes political will to make the legislative changes necessary. And we raw milk drinkers would be grateful to see you take some steps in the right direction.
http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/raw_milk_map.htm# Weston Price Foundation has this great raw milk accessibility map. There are 4 categories: 1. Retail sales legal 2. Farmgate sales legal 3. Herdshares legal 4. Pet food sales legal 5. Totally Illegal. As far as the Great Lakes states bordering Ontario go almost all states permit it : 1. Minnesota – Farmgate sales legal 2. Michigan – Herdshares legal 3. Ohio – Herdshares legal 4. Pennsylvania – Retail Sales Legal 5. New York – Farmgate sales legal 5. Vermont – Farmgates sales legal . 6. New Hampshire – Retail sales legal. 7. Maine – REtail Sales Legal . 8. Illinois – Farmgate Sales legal 9. Indiana – Herdshares legal or at least tolerated . As far as British Columbia goes : 1. Washington state – full legal retail sales SINCE 1949 (and nobody has died yet !) 2. Idaho – fully legal retail sales. Overall 78% of US states permit as does all of the European Union (27 countries like Germany, France and the UK ) except Ireland and one or two more countries. Come on Canadian politicians ! Wake up and smell the roses !
SA: I spoke with a Raw Cheese distributor L’ANCETRE CHEESE FACTORY from Quebec yesterday while attending the Whole Life Expo in Toronto . She was adamant that raw milk is also NOT permitted in Quebec. Her company has a whole line of raw milk based cheeses. But i believe that they have to conservatively incubate their raw milk cheese products for 60 days like in Ontario . I don’t know of any entity or herdshare in Quebec. If there is one then they are “underground” and out of the public eye.
Correction : The Quebec government now allows raw milk cheeses since 2008 that are aged only 21-30 days . Here is what the Quebec agriculture department had to say about English Canada’s rules just on the limited raw milk cheese availability issue (from the Globe and Mail) :
Quebec has taken a new step toward culinary uniqueness: It will allow its cheese makers to produce the kind of stinky, oozing, unpasteurized bries and camemberts that are illegal in the rest of North America.
The government has modified regulations to allow the production and sale of raw-milk cheeses that have been aged for less than 60 days.
Elsewhere, such young cheeses are verboten due to health concerns. But producers in Quebec, which leads the country in raw-milk cheese consumption, have been lobbying the province for years to change the rules.
They believe such raw-milk cheese is not only healthy, but pasteurization destroys microbes that give their product a deep, palette-pleasing flavour.
Cheese lovers maintain that certain soft cheeses like camembert reach their peak ripening point at 21 to 30 days.
Cheese ripening has proven a sticky matter between Quebec and the federal government, and an Ottawa attempt in 1996 to ban the sale of raw-milk cheese raised a political stink in the province. Gastronomes pointed out that Europeans have been consuming such products with no ill effects.
Quebec’s new initiative appears to place it at odds with those in English Canada, where raw-milk products remain controversial. Quebec Agriculture Minister Laurent Lessard hailed his new regulations as “a veritable revolution” and a North American first. Yet Jean Dalati, a microbiologist at the Quebec agriculture department, says he discussed the changes with counterparts from the rest of Canada and those from the West balked.
“It’s as though it’s taboo,” Mr. Dalati said on Thursday. “I find it bizarre, because this is common in Europe. But when you talk about it [in Canada], they’re afraid.”
(Mr. Dalati said Health Canada was open to Quebec’s initiative when he raised it this year. The federal agency said Thursday it would not comment.)
The province’s change is accompanied by strict new rules to ensure the safety of the raw-milk cheeses, including monthly quality checks of producers’ milk and veterinary inspections of cattle herds.
Until now, regulations required cheese makers using raw milk to ripen the product at least 60 days on evidence it eliminated harmful bacteria in the milk.
Mansel Griffiths, a dairy microbiologist at the University of Guelph, says the 60-day limit has become arbitrary, since it is no longer a guarantee of destroying pathogens. Still, he believes raw-milk cheese continues to expose health-safety issues over potential pathogens.
Thanks for getting that info up so rapidly, Nadine!
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This is such an important issue! Even though I rarely consume dairy products myself, I am strongly “for” the legalization of sale and distribution of raw milk. As mentioned by many others, if you look at the science, it is not a health and safety issue – especially when compared to other things which are considered safe to consume such as meat which causes countless food poisoning cases each year.
“Victoria, B.C., where MLAs not only come to speak at your rally and pet your cows, but they also post pictures of the proceedings on Facebook. This picture was posted by B.C. MLA Nicholas Simons. It shows the cow Shelby, with MLAs Lana Popham and Jenny Kwan outside the Legislature.”
Sounds like paradise on earth to me ? I am moving to Victoria, BC !
There is on-line video of the BC Legislators comments transcribed above, available:
Nicholas Simons
Jenny Kwan