GaiaHealth.com on Michael Schmidt’s month-long (33 day) hunger strike for responsible food freedom for raw milk

From Gaia Health.com:

“This is a call to action! Please, help keep Michael Schmidt alive and support your right to freedom of food at the same time!

Michael Schmidt is on a hunger strike for the right to produce and sell raw milk—and for everyone’s right to food freedom. He is a highly educated dairy farmer, and is also a classical musician and conductor of symphonies and choral groups. His hunger strike has gone on for a full month—and Michael is growing weak. But vows to continue to death, if necessary.

All illegal in interstate commerce: loaded guns, prostitutes, raw milk

From the Good Food 4 All blog:

Photo illustration found on the interwebz

“It’s  illegal to take loaded firearms and  prostitutes across state lines! My sister reminded me of these laws as we spoke tonight on the telephone.  Yet, on Tuesday November 1st, a group of Moms, known as the Raw Milk Freedom Riders will break the law and transport RAW MILK ACROSS STATE LINES, which is illegal.

They’ll start in Pennsylvania and drive to Maryland with containers of raw milk.  Their destination is the headquarters of the FDA in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Readers write their politicians, part 12

Raw milk friends at Michael Schmidt's blue bus in Thornhill earlier this month.

This is now day 33 of Michael Schmidt’s hunger strike for responsible food freedom. He started his fast on the 29th of September. We’re calling that day one. We hear that many people ARE calling McGuinty’s office with their concerns about his apparent unwillingness to meet with Michael on what may before too long become a life and death issue. Let’s hope the newly formed committee of MPPs from all three parties will help to turn things around. Thanks to the many readers who continue to send copies of their letters to The Bovine. We’ll keep publishing them. So send them in to us at TheBovine AT gmx DOT com.

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Esteemed elected officials of Ontario,

Greetings from a family-farm dairy in SE South Dakota (USA)! Please do not take this as another American attempt to meddle / dictate in Canadian affairs. We have the highest regard for the sovereignty of Canada and the province of Ontario and admire your government systems for their progressive nature on the whole.

CTV on Michael Schmidt in Vancouver

From Ian Monroe at CTV.ca:

Michael Schmidt at a news conference in Thornhill Oct. 11th.

“An Ontario dairy farmer and raw milk activist says he’s lost around 40 lbs, a month after going on a hunger strike. But he’s still hopeful that Premier Dalton McGuinty will agree to meet with him.

In late September, the Ontario Court of Justice found Michael Schmidt guilty of 15 charges related to producing and distributing unpasteurized milk, which is banned in Canada.

While he waits to hear his sentence in the case, Schmidt began a hunger strike in the hopes of being granted a meeting with the newly re-elected Ontario premier.

In a phone interview from his farm south of Owen Sound, Ont., Schmidt said he’s under the supervision of a doctor and is running low on energy.

Some sympathy for the medical officer of health and her challenging task

From farmer Michael Schmidt:

L-R: Former medical officer of health, Dr. Murray McQuigge, and his successor, Dr. Hazel Lynn

The challenging task of the office of chief medical officer of Health in Owen Sound

I like to respond to the recent article in the Owen Sound Sun Times about the consideration to charge me once again in regards to a public protest, where apparently raw milk was distributed.

The relationship with both chief medical officers of “health” have been for strange reasons aggressive and spiteful.

Readers write their politicians, part 11

It may be Sunday, the day of rest, but still people are writing to their politicians, concerned that a farmer might die because our elected representative, Premier McGuinty, won’t yet agree to meet with him and listen to his concerns about matters affecting the public good. But there’s some hope on the horizon with the formation of a committee of MPPs committed to encouraging McGuinty to make that move. Copy the Bovine on any further correspondence please: theBovine AT gmx DOT com

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To: gsorbara.mpp@liberal.ola.org

Dear Greg [Sorbara],

Thank you so much for being part of the group that is conveying the urgency of the Michael Schmidt situation to Dalton McGuinty. Although the issue of raw milk is no doubt not a huge political topic in most circles, it will be a blight on Dalton’s reputation as a person of  integrity if Michael Schmidt dies on account of this fast. In my workplace, I have met several people who have expressed a keen interest in being able to acquire raw milk. In other words, there are people who care about this, who maybe at this point are not writing letters about the raw milk issue, but who will certainly be horrified if they hear that Michael Schmidt died on account of a hunger strike while waiting to speak to the Premier of Ontario.

Dr Hazel Lynn: Michael Schmidt’s hunger strike is “not a rational way of dealing with the problem”

From Tracey Richardson in the Owen Sound Sun Times:

Dr. Hazel Lynn, chief medical officer of health at the Grey Bruce Health Unit

“The Grey Bruce Health Unit is expecting to hear any day now official word on how it’s going to proceed on new charges against Durham-area raw milk farmer Michael Schmidt.

Schmidt distributed milk at a public rally outside the health unit building early in October. Later tests indicated it was unpasteurized.

Health unit lawyers and provincial lawyers have been considering how best to proceed “to stop this blatant breaking of the law,” said medical officer of health Dr. Hazel Lynn….”

Will Tuesday’s “milk and cookies” rally at the FDA be the “Woodstock” of the food rights movement?

From what David says in the article below, it sure sounds like next Tuesday’s “Mom and Cookies” rally is shaping up to be a defining moment in the history of the food rights movement, maybe a little like the Woodstock music festival was for the generation that came of age around 1969.

From David E. Gumpert on the Complete Patient blog:

The Tuesday “Raw Milk Freedom Riders–Milk and Cookies Rally” is shaping up as a national event. There are car caravans coming from Minnesota and Illinois, as well as protesters flying in from Wisconsin, Michigan, and California, among many other places.

That is as it should be, since the event is about protesting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s prohibition on interstate shipment of raw milk, and the effective criminalization of parents and other consumers who routinely buy it in one state and drive back home to another state.

U.S. citizens urged to speak up for Michael Schmidt and food freedom

From 3 Wheeled Cheese blog:

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A campaign to flood U.S. and Canadian lawmakers with letters of support for a Canadian farmer who was convicted on charges connected with selling raw milk products has spread to Michigan.

Sample letters, contact addresses, and background of the case were re-posted this morning in EatLocalSWMich, a Kalamazoo-area online for people interested in local foods.

According to the website organizing the letter-writing campaign:

Treasa’s chat with Michael Schmidt

Longtime supporter Treasa O’Driscoll recently had a telephone chat with Michael, which she wrote up and sent to The Bovine. Thanks Treasa.

Michael chats with a supporter October 11th while a press photographer snaps his picture.

October 28, 2011

Dear friend of Michael Schmidt,

I spoke to Michael today and let him know that Barrie MPP, Rodney Jackson, has joined a newly formed bipartisan committee of Provincial MPPs that includes Randy Hillier, Greg Sorbara, Jack McLaren, John O’Toole and others. They are determined to persuade the Premier to concede to Farmer Schmidt’s request for dialogue. They realise that Michael Schmidt’s hunger strike is a matter of concern to a growing number of representatives from every party, much talked about in the corridors of power where many agree that Michael’s stance is indicative of the much larger issue of Food Freedom that underlies his tireless campaign for Safe Raw Milk.