CBCnews.ca on raw milk movie award

This story appeared Monday Oct. 27 and is titled “Documentary on Raw Milk Crusade wins Award at Planet in Focus“. Here is an excerpt from what they said about it:

Michael Schmidt pours a tall cool one at a picnic at Toronto's " Brickworks". PIF photo

“Filmmaker Norman Loft’s documentary about an Ontario farmer who has led a 20-year crusade for the right to sell unpasteurized milk has won the award for best Canadian feature-length movie at the Planet in Focus Film Festival.

The festival, which is devoted to films about the environment, wrapped up Sunday with presentation of awards in seven categories.

Michael Schmidt: Organic Hero or Bioterrorist chronicles Schmidt’s fight against the powerful milk lobby in Ontario, which wants selling raw milk to remain illegal.

Raw milk movie “best long Canadian film” at Planet in Focus film festival!

Farmer Michael Schmidt and filmmaker Norman Lofts at Planet in Focus. PIF photo by Eddy Perez

Norman Lofts’ 47 minute prize-winning documentary on raw milk farmer Michael Schmidt will be broadcast in its entirety tomorrow Oct. 28th 10 pm on CBC Newsworld! After the broadcast there will be a discusion room open for comments.  Get in there! http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/thelens/2008/michaelschmidt/

Watch a promotional trailer about the cbc broadcast of the raw milk documentary here

Here are more details about the award from the Planet in Focus press release:

Of udder importance — some more great raw milk movie premiere pictures

Raw-milk farmer Michael Schmidt with cow-share members and cow lovers outside the ROM prior to movie screening last Thursday. Photo: Sean Bennell.

Just because newspapers and TV journalists didn’t show up for the screening, it doesn’t mean there were no media in attendance. Here are some great pictures and commentary by Sean Bennell (aka Scorchez) via Flickr.

Michael Schmidt (right) stands with his cow-share members in a demonstration outside the ROM. The ‘right to choose’ demonstration took place before the screening of the documentary ‘Michael Schmidt: Organic Hero or Bioterrorist’. The film is part of the Planet in Focus film festival. ROM security wasn’t too pleased with what was going on and asked the herd to moo-ve on (sorry, couldn’t resist!). The cow headdresses were eye-catching and drew a large crowd of bewildered onlookers.”

Government warnings about melamine contamination of powdered milk boost demand for raw milk in Bangladesh

Here’s a raw milk story from the other side of the globe. The same story was carried last Saturday on both the “Banglash News Network” and the “Asianews.com” websites. The story talks of “high demand for raw milk”, but one wonders whether in Bangladesh they have only raw milk, or whether pasteurized milk is commonly available there as well. If anyone out there knows, please comment.

This story is by Shaheen Mollah and Najmul Alam Nobin. It’s titled: “Sale of powder milk down, price of raw milk up“, and is subtitled “mothers worried”. This is from the “Bangladesh News Network” edition:

Holy cow! Raw Milk "big" in Bangladesh. Photo: Star

Original photo caption: High demand for raw milk after the government advised people to refrain from consuming eight brands of powdered milk hiked its price in the city. The photo of sellers bringing in liquid milk to a market was taken at Nawabpur yesterday.

Main Story: The sale of all brands of powdered milk dropped significantly in the city during the last two days as the government advised people Thursday not to consume eight brands of imported powdered milk. A child and nutrition specialist advised mothers to feed their babies breast milk or cow’s milk, if the situation required. During the last two days the price of raw milk increased due to high demand. Market sources said the demand for cow’s milk has started increasing from the day melamine in powdered milk was first detected in China….”

Read the whole story here on the Bangladesh News Network.

Here’s the Asianews.com version

2,300 hits last week on “the Bovine”

Traffic was up big-time last week on The Bovine. Following all the interest around the announcement of the judge’s verdict on Monday, we had two record breaking days with hit counts well in excess of 500. The graph below plots the number of hits, week by week. By the Sunday before last we had clocked 5,000 hits but by yesterday (Sunday) that total was pushing 7,400.

Week by week traffic stats for the Bovine. Source: wordpress stat counter

Raw milk movie to air Tuesday Oct. 28th at 10:00 pm on CBC Newsworld

Norman Loft’s 47-minute documentary, “Michael Schmidt: Bioterrorist or Organic Hero” will be broadcast this Tuesday October 28th at 10 pm on a program called “The Lens”, on the CBC Newsworld channel. Tell your friends. The film debuted last Thursday at the Planet in Focus ecological film festival in Toronto.

This movie is well worth watching and tries to provide a balance of voices for and against the consumption of raw milk dairy products. Norman’s film provides critical and empathic insight into what the Reuters news agency calls the biggest health story of 2008.

Here’s a link to the relevant page of the CBC Newsworld program schedule. Note that this is not the regular CBC TV. I believe it’s a specialty channel that you have to subscribe to in order to receive. The text below is from the CBC program listings:

10:00 pm The Lens – Raw Milk Crusader: Michael Schmidt
Activist dairy farmer defies Canadian law to supply raw, organic milk to consumers who demand the right to choose what they eat. But is it safe for everyone?