“Queen of the Sun” doc about bees

Roger Ebert, from RogerEbert.com:

Bees are often under-appreciated for the important role they play in fertilizing food plants.

“In the Central Valley of California, there are 500,000 acres of almond trees. All almond trees. Nothing but almond trees. This is wrong. It is not natural. For these trees to bear almonds, they must be pollinated. But bees cannot live there, for there is nothing to sustain them when the trees are not in blossom. So hives containing millions of bees must be trucked more than a thousand miles, and then trucked back again.

FDA agents infiltrate membership of Amish raw milk farmer in Pennslyvania

From Stephan Dinan in the Washington Times:

Photo via Bloomberg News The FDA headquarters stand in Silver Spring, Maryland.

“A yearlong sting operation, including aliases, a 5 a.m. surprise inspection and surreptitious purchases from an Amish farm in Pennsylvania, culminated in the federal government announcing this week that it has gone to court to stop Rainbow Acres Farm from selling its contraband to willing customers in the Washington area.

Guelph-area health unit issues pointed warning about the dangers of raw milk

From the Vik Kirsch at the Guelph Mercury:

“GUELPH — “If you drink raw milk, you risk illness and death,” is the sharp message of Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health.

With a high-profile raw milk court case re-emerging in the media, the current top item on the regional health unit’s online home page is titled Health Risks of Drinking Raw Milk.

Given that heightened awareness, the health agency concluded “we should put a reminder up for people,” said Scott Hutchison, a health protection division program manager.

“From our perspective, the concern is the transmission of various communicable diseases. Milk is a good vehicle for many harmful organisms,” he said, citing E. coli, salmonella and listeria.

First Cow Share Canada accredited raw milk farm targeted by Gov’t agents

Press Statement [from Michael Schmidt] regarding recent inappropriate anti raw milk actions by Government agents in Ontario:

Farm of Cathy and Paul Noble, near Arthur, Ontario. Photos from yesterday's meeting.

Government Agencies of Ontario on behalf of certain interest groups has been trying lately to jeopardize and undermine the current legal standing of cow shares in Ontario.

Michael Schmidt’s acquittal on all charges relating to the Milk Act and the Health and Promotion Act has created concerns within the dairy industry, and related Government Agencies.

“a line in the dirt” — farmers, citizens stand up to regulators over attempt to harass raw milk cowshares in Ontario

Michael Schmidt reports on today’s meeting. See earlier post for context.

Words on farmer's hat say it all.

Michael Schmidt reports that this morning he and Paul Noble were on the Brian Allen phone in show. And he said that every person who called in spoke in support of food rights and raw milk.

“Milk War” producer interviewed about making the James Beard nominated doc — about raw milk and Michael Schmidt

Twenty Questions on the movie “Milk War”

In view of the upcoming Toronto screening of the latest raw milk documentary “Milk War” at 5 pm on Sunday May 1, 2011 at the Toronto Underground Cinema, we thought we’d interview producer Richard Paradiso about his experiences of exploring raw milk and working with Declan O’Driscoll on making the movie. So here goes:

THE BOVINE: When you started on this project in 2006, what was your initial perspective on the topic of raw milk?

Regulators on the march in Ontario — meeting 2 pm Thursday April 28th

Via Margo McIntosh, on Facebook:

I just received this plea today and am asking that everyone who lives in Southern Ontario who can possibly come out to this meeting please come.  We have to stand up to these people who threaten to take away our food rights and not give us free choice in issues of our own health!

Today, April 21, 2011 (Maundy Thursday in the middle of Passion Week, and the day when Christ had his last supper with his disciples), I stood in the middle of my farmers driveway before 5 government officials. They wanted to talk to my farmer, it was in his best interest, could he be reached? where was he? they just wanted to talk.

They arrived with no notice, no forewarning. They were armed with paperwork (the Milk Act, the risks of unpasteurized milk, the consumer protection act). OH MY! This was an assault from the faceless dictatorship, my choice to drink raw milk was threatened, my toe nails clattered against my steel toes, my stomach churned, and I STOOD.

Lies, damned lies, and “Food Safety”

M. Gray, from Op Ed News.com:

“Risk Assessment in the hands of centralized corruptible agencies is no protection for consumers as the disease and health epidemic in the U.S. linked to over processed, industrial foods shows. Even while the U.S. is at the epicenter of the food related public health crises, the U.S. government is trying to export its Food laws which deregulate the industry and over regulate ordinary citizens and small enterprise. This deregulation of the big and toxic and over regulation of the small and ecological is at the core of Food Fascism …” — Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva doesn’t mince words. Food safety is food fascism. Goebbels is equally straightforward.

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

What’s the truth?

Crippling trade in real food in the name of “food safety” — Bill S-510 already?

Underground sources report that U.S. food safety legislation is already being implemented. Here are a few snippets:

S510 is going into effect.  For those who supported it, arguing it was needed and wasn’t going to destroy local farmers and food producers, here is the reality.

This radio show gives detail.  Listen to the podcast at: http://www.derrybrownfield.com/tracks/042511.mp3

They are using it to try to shut down Mike Callicrate and/or people doing the same work he is, with HACCP.   He produced raw beef and delivers it fresh every day, within just hours of grinding it (or cutting, too?).  They are imposing a “test and wait” rule, in which ground beef (or other kinds, too?) has to be tested daily (sent off for tests?) and then held for test results (for days).  This would kill the business of anyone producing fresh meat.

More evidence we are bacteria-sapiens

From Robert Martone, in Scientific American, “The Neuroscience of the gut”:

We human beings may think of ourselves as a highly evolved species of conscious individuals, but we are all far less human than most of us appreciate. Scientists have long recognized that the bacterial cells inhabiting our skin and gut outnumber human cells by ten-to-one.

Indeed, Princeton University scientist Bonnie Bassler compared the approximately 30,000 human genes found in the average human to the more than 3 million bacterial genes inhabiting us, concluding that we are at most one percent human. We are only beginning to understand the sort of impact our bacterial passengers have on our daily lives.