Latest report from the [Canadian] wild west, via Gordon Watson:
Raw milk -- target of unlawful seizure by Alberta officials? Click image for source.
“I just got off the phone from conversation with an agister managing a herd with 2 cows, near Edmonton Alberta. He told me that yesterday afternoon (Oct 27 2010) his wife was pulled over while delivering raw milk to a member of the cowshare. An officer of the Edmonton police and an officer of some provincial ministry physically assaulted this lady, bruising and traumatizing her so badly that she went to the hospital, getting back home at 3 in the morning. All – in order to seize one gallon of raw milk out of her vehicle. That gallon being private property.
At the moment, I’m trying to locate the section of Alberta law which exempts dairies producing less than 50 liters per day, from being compelled to participate in the milk marketing quota scheme there at first blush, this is a classic example of the petty tyrant over-stepping bounds of authority. Via the grapevine, the agister heard that the milk has been tested; good!…. let’s see those results. In over a year, no member of the cowshare has reported getting sick from drinking the raw milk.
The idiot bureaucrats are strong on offence – when they’ve assuming the mantle of official-dom, all pumped-up in their vanity – but they go to pieces when we start shoving back via Freedom of Information / Access to Information / Privacy Act etc, getting the facts in what they wrote down. Especially delicious is when I catch them back-dating things and destroying evidence to cover what they know is wrong-doing. Then, the cover-up becomes the story.
The good thing is that this agister has followed Michael Schmidt’s case from Day One, and understands very well that the way we will prevail is to keep right on producing.
Gordon S Watson
Image from this story on Howling Duck Ranch blog.
The Bovine 
This is not just in Ontario and British Columbia anymore, it’s nationwide. Who knows how many more two or three-cow cowshare operations there are across this fair land of ours?
20, 50, 200, or 2,000. Not to mention all those conventional farmers who ship to the marketing board but drink raw milk themselves — like the guy in that latest raw milk movie that aired on ichannel last month. He was automated to the teeth, an agriculture college grad, with computer stats on every cow — yet there was no fooling him. He knew raw milk was the best and that’s why he drank it.
This will have consequences. I am currently in discussion with the family.
The Government does not realize what is coming down the pipe
All One gallon of milk, a herd of two cows?? I am really at a loss for words at the ridiculousness of this….how sad.
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It now seems from later more detailed reports that police were not involved in the assault per se, although they did back up the official’s questionable demand that car be opened or else the windows would be broken or the car seized.
Here’s that latest article on the subject: https://thebovine.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/more-on-that-forcible-seizure-of-raw-milk-near-edmonton-by-agriculture-ministry-offical-backed-by-police/
Pingback: Michael Schmidt in Alberta talking to farmers about raw milk strategies « The Bovine