Michael Schmidt WILL be allowed to introduce new evidence to counter the Province’s appeal of his acquittal

Michael Schmidt sends his thoughts on recent raw milk developments:

The Hartmann ruling in the US makes it once again very clear that we all will suffer if we cannot counter vicious Government attacks with due diligence.

Our standing in court becomes a farce under the current climate of anti germ fanatics. As much as I can see the point of liberty versus regulations, we are not living in a vacuum independent from the rest of the world. Our standing in court will always be judged by our concerns, our diligence, our openness and our willingness to co-operate IF the other side is willing to work with us.

United States looks down on Canada’s meat inspection standards

From Doug Powell on Barfblog:

“The dean of Canadian food and farm reporting, Jim Romahn, has written a powerful piece about the continuing failures in Canadian meat inspection – failures that had to be pointed out by Americans.

More than a year after 21 people died after eating Maple Leaf Foods Inc. products contaminated with Listeria monocytoges, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was failing to enforce its own standards and there was sloppy follow-up when hazardous conditions were identified.

Those worrisome facts are contained in a report prepared by two U.S. inspectors who visited in the fall of 2009 to check Canada’s compliance with its own standards. They visited headquarters in Ottawa, 23 meat-processing plants and two labs.

Judge rules against Michael Hartmann; a call for standards in raw milk farming

Latest news from David E. Gumpert at the Complete Patient blog:

“Michael Hartmann’s legal challenge to Minnesota authorities over confiscation of his dairy farm’s products last May was totally rejected by a state judge.

The case was tried over several weeks last August, but the judge only yesterday decided on behalf of the state–that the 120 cases of milk, 900 packages of raw cheddar, and 125 tubs of yogurt, among other items that were confiscated, must be destroyed.

Though Hartmann customers who attended the trial last August felt the judge was engaged and fair-minded, there’s not a single encouraging word in the entire 23-page decision for Michael Hartmann or the six consumers who were “intervenors” on his behalf. In fact, adding insult to injury, Hartmann and the consumers must pay the cost of the product destruction.