Glencolton Farms picture parade ’09

Here are some fun photos phurnished by the pholks at Glencolton farms, Ontario’s justly-celebrated raw milk pioneers:

The crew at Glencolton farm

Angels of the dairy with just-finished cultured milk

Big Food going the way of Big Tobacco

Here’s a significant story from syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman, writing from Boston, but published in the Seattle Times under the title “Tables are turning on Big Food”. 

Will "Big Food" soon be riding off into the sunset the way "Big Tobacco" has?

The Times’ preamble: “Now that two-thirds of Americans are overweight, the lethal effects of fat are catching up to those of smoke, writes columnist Ellen Goodman. We are beginning to see that Overweight America is not some collective collapse of national willpower, but a business plan”

Excerpts from the story: “BOSTON — What caught my eye was not just the ashtray sitting forlornly on the yard-sale table. It was the sign that marked it “vintage,” as if we needed to label this relic of midcentury America.

Ashtrays that once graced every airline armrest, coffee table and office have gone the way of spittoons. Today the car’s cigarette lighter is used to juice up the cellphone. Ask any restaurant for the smoking section, and you’ll be shown the doorway.

If I had to pick the year attitudes changed, it would 1994, when seven CEOs of Big Tobacco came before Congress and swore that nicotine wasn’t addictive. A lobby too big to fail and too powerful to oppose began to lose clout. Smokers are no longer seen as sexy and glamorous but as the addicted dupes.

Food Inc. — the book that picks up where the documentary film left off

Here’s an excerpt from a great new story on the Ethicurean blog, by guest contributor Joshua J. Biggley:

See the movie -- then read the book!

“Summer blockbusters are often contrived, schlocky representations of the books on which they are based. But the documentary “Food, Inc.,” which drew heavily on the nonfiction bestsellers “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “Fast Food Nation” for its subject matter, has produced an accompanying book, “Food Inc.: How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer — And What You Can Do About It,” that does far more than just rehash the film. This is no “one-two punch” marketing ploy by the folks at Participant Media, but rather a well-conceived, thoughtful follow-up to the overview offered up on the big screen.

Perhaps it is the weighty subject matter-the industrialization and externalization of our food supply-or the all-star cast of creators and real-life participants, but in this case the combination of movie and book offers ample education and inspiration for even the most discerning consumer.

Happily, the book is doing almost as well as the movie, which is the year’s top-grossing documentary: it is currently No. 325 on Amazon.com.

Michael Schmidt and the Crown submit final arguments in raw milk case under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Michael Schmidt’s raw milk case is in two parts (or three if you count the contempt charges). The part for which these final arguments apply is the part that is being argued under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

Dinner and a movie July 18th, 2009 presented by Symphony in the Barn at Michael Schmidt's Glencolton Farms near Durham Ontario. The Silent Movie was accompanied by live chamber music.

Michael Schmidt’s final argument in the Charter case appears below (after the letter). These arguments were submitted on June 26th. The Crown’s final argument (submitted July 24th, 2009) can be found at this link. Michael will appear before Judge Kowarski on August 31, 2009, at which time a date will be selected on which the judge will render a verdict. I believe the final arguments in the other part of the case are yet to be submitted. 

And now here’s that final arguments from Michael Schmidt in the Charter case for raw milk:

Duck hunting with Megan Nix — “To know what something is, you need to know where it comes from….”.

Here’s another great story by Denver food editor Megan Nix, excerpted from the Denver Post where it’s called “Convenience vs Ethics in Food Choices“:

Picture from the "about" page of Megan Nix's blog (www.megannix.com) -- considering food choices.

“My grandpa’s dog Gretchen was for hunting, not for loving. She spent more time outside than she did with humans, and I had to trap her in the closet to pet her

I’d roll my knuckles down her ridged spine and whisper nice things to her, but she would just stare out the yellow crack in the closet, indifferent and distanced. She didn’t seem to mind her relegation to the animal world. It was around then that I decided not to mind my place in the food chain, either.

Grandpa gave the pheasants to my grandma with one hand under their heads and the other cradling their slick, limp bodies. She lowered them into thyme and butter, shoulder to shoulder in a casserole dish.

My grandparents taught me that animals deserve tenderness, but that we also use them to enhance our lives.

At that time, a meal’s setting started with the rustling of reeds, the first V of wings over a sunlit lake. Today, it reads like this: a vacant field and a factory’s long shadow. Stench and slaughter. Chemical injections, electric probes, polio.

Shopping where the price is wrong

Supermarket price deception and obfuscation was not even on my radar until I read Shirley-Ann Wood’s special-to-the-Bovine report which appears below. You see, I hardly ever shop at the supermarket anymore. This is not the result of any ideological decision to separate myself from the corporate food industry. 

It just gradually happened that my “dollar votes” have slowly shifted to farmers, farmers markets and health-food stores. But lots of people do shop at supermarkets. And I don’t think it’s a stretch to say they trust those supermarkets to clearly and honestly display product prices and they trust that prices charged at the checkout correctly match those displayed in the store.

How to corner nearly the whole market without appearing to do so -- Loblaws and their many aliases (aka "brands). This image is from smartcanucks.ca; its title is "loblaws-canada.jpg". See what I mean!

 I am not a great writer, nor do I seek to be recognized as a savvy, sarcastic journalist. I am writing simply to express a deep frustration, and truthfully, what is probably more than just a frustration. The topic is a small component of a much larger picture, nonetheless……….

AVMA’s Seattle Raw milk symposium: David E. Gumpert and Amanda Rose

Here is some material from the presentations by author David E. Gumpert of the Complete Patient blog and Dr. Amanda Rose, who writes for the Ethicurean. Dr. Rose was commissioned by the American Veterinary Medicine Association to do a study on raw milk consumers and to present the results at the recent AVMA symposium in Seattle. The following material is excerpted from David’s “The Complete Patient” blog:

Opening slide of David E. Gumpert's powerpoint presentation at the AVMA Symposium.

 

Some generally accepted facts about the incidence of raw-milk-related illnesses. Again, from David E. Gumpert's powerpoint presentation to the AVMA Raw Milk Symposium in Seattle, Summer 2009.

Trick or Treat? — Swine Flu H1N1 v2.0 along with compulsory vaccines — all in time for Hallowe’en? More on the story:

Here is a roundup of thoughts from various sources on the planned swine flu epidemic and what it portends. First, a July 21, 2009 story from Jane Burgermeister, the science journalist who recently brought charges of attempted mass murder against the WHO and others agencies and corporations. We found this on globalreasearch.ca. If you can stand to read just one more story on the subject, read this one. It’s that important:

WHO moves forward in secrecy to accomplish forced vaccination and population agenda

Will October 2009 be a turning point in the public's perception of the dangers of compulsory vaccination?

The WHO has refused to release the Minutes of a key meeting of an advisory vaccine group – packed with executives from Baxter, Novartis and Sanofi – that recommended compulsory vaccinations in the USA, Europe and other countries against the artificial H1N1 “swine flu” virus this autumn. In an email this morning, a WHO spokesperson claimed there are no Minutes of the meeting that took place on July 7th in which guidelines on the need for worldwide vaccinations that WHO adopted this Monday were formulated and in which Baxter and other pharma executives participated.

Under the International Health Regulations, WHO guidelines have a binding character on all of WHO’s 194 signatory countries in the event of a pandemic emergency of the kind anticipated this autumn when the second more lethal wave of the H1N1 virus — which is bioengineered to resemble the Spanish flu virus — emerges.

In short: WHO has the authority to force everyone in those 194 countries to take a vaccine this fall at gunpoint, impose quarantines and restrict travel.

Fast-mutating, vaccine-proof, “flying pig flu” now spreading around the world

Here’s a five-minute video that sums up some of the scary facts about this new pandemic in the making:

We found this on Dr. Mercola’s site. There are more videos there, including several about Jane Burgermeister, the science journalist who is accusing the World Health Organization and others of plotting mass murder.

Small-town Canada is also being denied the benefits of raw milk — readers write

Here’s a recent letter to the editor of the Cornwall Standard Freeholder titled “We’re being denied benefits of raw milk“:

“One of the great debates going on right no in the United States is the raw milk debate.

The one thing our government wants to protect us from, it seems, is raw milk. They don’t seem to do much else. Do they still regularly check restaurants and grocers for temperature controls and cleanliness to the standards that they used to? I think not.

Government-sanctioned big business seems to have sacrificed health benefits totally in favour of public food safety.

To keep costs down (and profits up) everything is done on a larger scale these days. Milk from many cows and different farms is all put together and boiled or pasteurized. If one cow was infected then the whole batch is infected. Such is the nature of bacteria. If a small farmer with few cows has a problem cow, the source of the problem can be isolated and taken care of.

Pasteurization on bulk raw milk makes sense, but the small farmer is being shut out of a needed specialty market by corporate paranoia.

It’s not just the health benefits of raw milk products that we are being denied. Stevia, an all-natural sweetener and perfectly safe, is banned from commercial use while dangerous artificial sweeteners flood the market with cheap, highly profitable and unhealthy food (deemed safe).

I was in Halifax and spent $100 on cheeses made with raw milk. Having eaten it all, I feel great. Go figure.”

Raven Van Leishout,

Cornwall