Key legal points in the recent Ontario Regine v. Schmidt raw milk judgment

Many thanks to an anonymous academic researcher who contributed a helpful analysis of historical material which clarified the meaning and intent of the province of Ontario’s 1938 and subsequent milk pasteurization legislation. This research provided useful perspective in developing a successful legal defence against charges arising from the 2006 raid on Glencolton Farms. What follows is a summary of a few of the significant legal points arising from the judgement that was handed down January 21st in that case:

Michael Schmidt's wife Elisa, and son William, become the focus for media attention once news of the not-guilty verdict begiins to filter out of the courtroom on Thursday January 21, around noon.

On 21 January 2010 the court in Regina versus Schmidt held that Michael Schmidt,

* a qualified expert bio-dynamic farmer (praised by the court as a forthcoming and reliable witness who had been described in those terms, and was recognised as an expert witness, by the Health Protection Appeal Board, in its ruling  against him in 1994), who

Life tastes good for young farmers

Here’s an excerpt from a recent Toronto Star story by Jennifer Bain, about a young agricultural entrepreneur and his partner.

Mark Trealout and Laura Boyd serve visitors to their Kawartha Lakes farmhouse locally grown and homemade antipasti. They are part of a community-shared agriculture (CSA) program. Photo Jennifer Bain / Toronto Star

The man featured in this story is a someone who the Bovine editor met personally a few years ago at the Guelph Organic Conference, back when Mark was just starting out. It seems that since then he’s had some success with his business plan of remarketing the products of other small organic growers in the Kawartha Lakes area and trucking them in to Toronto.

Toronto’s recent Greenbelt-Foundation-money-fueled explosion of farmers’ markets in the last couple of years has led to a real shortage of authentic farmers willing to schlep their produce to Toronto. That trip to Toronto can be well worth the gas money, since organic produce in smaller communities, commands nowhere near the price premium it does among Toronto’s health-conscious foodies.

500 days, 900 posts, 244,444 hits

Last Wesdnesday the Bovine posted its 900th story. And sometime this morning, the hit counter clocked over the magic number of 244,444. It now stands at 244, 495.

The Bovine blog was started on September 6th, 2008. So that’s been nearly 17 months of blogging — more than 500 days.

Thanks to our growing readership and to our regular and irregular contributors for leading us to the sources of raw milk knowledge.