Milk and Cookies in the park in Fergus Monday Nov. 21, with Michael Schmidt

From a post by Pat Winter on the Support Michael Schmidt Facebook page:

Michael Schmidt (left) in a picture from Pat Winter's Facebook page.

Meet Michael Schmidt in the park and partake of milk and cookies.

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Michael Schmidt,my farmer and friend, will be sentenced by Ontario Judge Peter Tetley on November 25, 2011 at 9:30 am per a recent appellate ruling which overturned a previous court decision that he did indeed have a legal right to provide cowshare owners with raw milk.

Training kids in the ways of raw milk

Wisconsin Attorney General taking Judge Fiedler’s decision to mean so called private clubs must be licensed

From David E. Gumpert, on The Complete Patient blog:

Vernon Herschberger. Complete Patient photo.

“The Wisconsin attorney general’s office sent dairy farmer Vernon Hershberger a little invite this past week. It came from an assistant attorney general, Eric D. Defort.

“I am writing to invite you to meet with me at the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office at 1300 Lange Court in Baraboo, WI, on Thursday, December 1, 2011, at 10:00 a.m. so that I may inform you of the progress of the investigation of your dairy and retail food establishment. Feel free to bring an attorney to the meeting.

Hershberger is the Wisconsin dairy farmer, you may remember, who cut the tape placed on his coolers in 2010 by inspectors from the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. He doesn’t think he wants to have this little tête-à-tête with the AG. His reason? “I don’t have a retail store,” he tells me. “I have a private club.” He has nearly 200 members in his club, who pay an annual membership fee for the privilege of obtaining their food privately.

The issues around raw milk as seen by a sixteen-year-old Canadian school girl

The author of this essay, Shay Lucas, is a 16 year old Grade 10 girl who has been drinking Michael Schmidt’s raw milk for more than 13 years. According to her parents she has never had to take antibiotic drugs. Shay has visited Glencolton Farms many times over the years and spent a week there this past summer helping out. She has attended many of the rallies and events and is a strong supporter of “Freedom of Choice”. Shay originally wrote this essay for her English class at school.

"Snow-frosted" raw milk cows munching on winter hay at Michael Schmidt's Glencolton Farms.

Raw Milk Should Be Accessible To All

Have you ever looked at the back of your milk carton and wondered why it says ‘pasteurized’? Why is it that Canadian dairy companies are adding vitamins and protein into your milk when they were already there in the first place, but were removed in the pasteurization process for so called safety reasons? For the past 70 years or so, raw, unpasteurized milk has been illegal to obtain throughout Canada. Through the pasteurization process, important and healthy assets which are originally found in milk are removed. This pasteurization process is a law which means the government is controlling what we put in our bodies and eliminating a health care solution that can help many. Allowing unpasteurized milk to be available in Canada will help our nation socially, environmentally and allow a health choice that will benefit people in many ways.

Nationwide raw milk rallies Nov. 23 in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, St. John’s, Wolfville

From Margo McIntosh at Balance Your Apple (current as of Nov. 6):

“….November 23^rd in Ontario – at 11 a.m. we are having a rally at Queens Park in Toronto – Michael is to bring a cow to milk (provided he is well).  If he can’t we will find another farmer to do it.  Organizers are Margo McIntosh at margo@balanceyourapple.com and Charlotte VanGenechten at gushue_8@sympatico.ca

“Raw milk puts babies, farm workers, at risk” — United Press International

This United Press International wire story pretty much sums up the party line when it comes to raw milk. Hey, could raw milk be why the United States has an infant mortality rate (6.5) between that of Cuba (6.45) and Croatia (6.96)? Canada, where raw milk is banned (and therefore, where nobody drinks it, right?) has a much lower infant mortality rate of 4.82.

“ITHACA, N.Y., Nov. 19 (UPI) — Unpasteurized “raw” milk provides a potential breeding ground for bacteria such as E. coli, Listeria, Campylobacter and Salmonella, U.S. researchers warn.

Ynte Schukken, professor of epidemiology and herd health at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, N.Y., and co-author Alejandra Latorre, a graduate student, produced a comprehensive map showing which populations were most at risk when buying from various sources.

The researchers analyzed risk across various purchasing methods including buying from a farm’s on-site store, directly from its bulk tank or from a third-party retailer.

“Is the price of milk too high” Toronto Star asks; more questioning of Canada’s dairy supply management quota system

From Kenyon Wallace, in today’s Toronto Star:

Click image to go to page to watch seven minute Toronto Star video clip

“Philip Armstrong walks through one of the spacious barns where his new calves are fed and gestures toward heifer 3097.

The 2-week-old black-and-white purebred Holstein stares back and inches forward, as if hoping the dairy farmer might have a bottle of milk at the ready.

Over the course of her production life, this little cow is expected to give about 36,000 litres of milk, representing $29,000 in revenue for Armstrong Manor Farm in Caledon.