Ontario raw milk farmer Michael Schmidt was keynote speaker at Friday’s Opening Gala for the Canadian Holistic Nutrition conference in Toronto May 22, 2009. According to Orly Dinar who helped organize Michael’s participation in the event, Michael was able to inspire the audience of holistic nutritionists to care about agriculture and the essential role it plays in healthy nutrition.
Farmer Michael Schmidt at the podium.
One example Orly recounted from Michael’s talk was his description of how he could put his hand out and catch some manure as it comes from one of his grass and hay-fed dairy cattle and how he could then turn his hand over and let the manure fall to the ground. Then looking at his hand, you would not be able to see any trace of the manure left. Try this with a conventionally-managed dairy farm and it would be a whole different story. Here are some of the pictures Orly took to share with readers of the Bovine:
Farmer Schmidt shares an organically-grown meal with conference participants.
Some of the great organic food prepared for the conference.
Here’s what they said about Michael in the promotional literature for the event:
Michael Schmidt: Organic Dairy Farmer and Raw Milk Advocate
Scan from the event poster header.
We are very pleased to have Michael Schmidt on our speaker’s roster for the 2009 Holistic Nutrition Conference. Raw milk is a subject that most people do not know enough about. If they did, there would be no controversy. Mr. Schmidt who is a champion of our democratic right to drink raw milk and the science community’s enfant terrible will be our Friday night dinner speaker, giving us the true scientific and nutrition picture. This brave man faces 20 charges related to the sale of unpasteurized milk products in the Ontario courts. With humour and grace, Michael Schmidt will articulate the same issues in the raw milk debate that we find in many other areas of the natural health industry. This is not just the story about personal rights and freedom, this is about how disconnected we have become from our food, its production and what should be called “healthy”. Join us on May 22 for an evening of organic food and wines and a chance to listen to Michael Schmidt’s remarkable journey.
More from the event flyer.
Michael was born in Germany and has worked on farms all his life. He received his Master’s degree in Agriculture with a Master’s thesis on the bio-dynamic farm concept, the earliest form of organic agriculture. Michael has personally trained more than 100 young farmers in the art of farming.
Michael successfully established the lease-a-cow program in 1992 for those who wanted raw milk but did not live on a farm, similar to a program he started in Germany in 1980. For two years he provided raw milk to the leaseholders. During these two years there were no illnesses reported from the consumption of the raw milk provided. It all stems from Michael’s belief in connecting the consumer directly to the producer.
Still fighting for his and our rights to food sources and health choices, Michael’s facts and science are always an interesting listen.
The Bovine 
to the government of Canada, send me a scientific article proving raw milk is harmfull for your health.
Many countries use raw milk without any danger.
When are we going to be civilized at the end?