Raw milk battle top health story of 2011

Tracey Richardson in the Owen Sound Sun Times:

“No pandemic, no contaminated drinking water, no catastrophes, yet Grey-Bruce still proved fertile ground for newsworthy health-care stories in 2011.

Here are my selections of the top local health stories of the year:

1. Michael Schmidt. Schmidt, the Durham-area raw milk crusader, takes the Number 1 spot because of his public middle-finger waving to the Grey Bruce Health Unit. In October, a defiant Schmidt handed out what he said was unpasteurized milk to a rally of his supporters in the parking lot of the health unit, right below the office window of Medical Officer of Health Dr. Hazel Lynn.

Michael Schmidt, the milk crusader

From The Happy Homesteader blog:

Criminalization of food may cause cows everywhere to have to go underground!

“Michael Schmidt, farmer and real food activist, is a man to be admired.  Since 1994, Schmidt’s been persecuted by the Ontario government. His crime?  Producing and selling milk and cheese that is not pasteurized.

In Ontario – as in the rest of Canada, it is illegal to produce, sell or distribute raw milk or cream.  It is however, legal for farmers and their families to consume these products, and that does not make much sense to me.

Raw milk debate coming to a boil in Saskatchewan — The Star Phoenix

From  Andrew Matte, in The Star Phoenix:

“Dozens of Saskatchewan residents say they’re getting a raw deal from the federal government because they’re forced to go underground to buy unpasteurized milk they believe is more nutritious than what’s sold in grocery stores.

The long-simmering debate between raw-milk consumers and federal officials continues across the country where law-breaking dairy producers share small quantities of unpasteurized milk to local buyers despite a federal law prohibiting its sale in Canada.

Raw-milk drinkers are calling on Ottawa to lift its ban on the sale of raw milk and introduce a new milk category and introduce testing and quality control to help ensure it’s safe to drink.

U.S. farmers free to drug livestock with no FDA oversight — The Guardian UK

From Karen McVeigh in The Guardian U.K.:

“Environmental and consumer groups have condemned the US Food and Drug Administration’s move to renege on its long-held policy to regulate the use of human antibiotics in animal feed.

Last week, the agency quietly announced it was withdrawing its plan to limit the use of antibiotics fed to healthy livestock intended for human consumption.

Critics say the U-turn, which comes amid the FDA’s own stated concerns over food safety, is at odds with its obligations to protect the public.

I wish the milkman would deliver my milk raw — National Post readers write

From the National Post:

This little boy must not be living in one of the "free" countries. Photo Samrang Pring/Reuters

“Re: The Case For Raw Milk, Karen Selick, Dec. 27.

When I lived in India before moving to Canada in 1970, we always drank fresh raw milk, which we boiled before drinking. Nowadays, India is following the West in mass producing pasteurized milk.

I am am still alive and well at the age of 65. Everything in moderation is good. I do not listen to any of the health advice. I follow my own.

Karen Selick on cases in which “Expert” opinion has been shown to be WRONG

From Karen Selick on Troy Media.com

BELLEVILLE, ON, Dec. 29, 2011/ Troy Media/ – Raw milk crusader Michael Schmidt finally got to meet with Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty in early November, 2011 after a 37-day hunger strike. However, the premier told him the government had no plans to change the law to legalize raw milk sales, and that it would rely on the best advice of medical experts.

But what is the best advice of medical experts? And which experts, consulted when? As a high school student 40 years ago, I was instructed to do a breast self-examination every month without fail, to detect cancer. That advice survived until about three weeks ago, when experts suddenly retracted it and announced that breast self-exams “have no benefit and should not be used.”

Ottawa to set up new long pig registry?

From Al Pope, writing in Yukon News.com:

Have you registered your pig yet? Click image to go to source.

“According to a mail-out from Agriculture Canada and the government of Yukon, Canadians are now required to register their pigs. Under the National Agriculture and Food Traceability program, all pigs must be registered, for safety purposes.

They’re kidding right? This can’t possibly be the Harper government at work. Surely the champions of freedom who are in the process of dismantling the odious gun registry aren’t about to replace it with a pig registry? The Nordicity research team has been working on this day and night, and we have uncovered some shocking truths. For instance, pet pot-belly pigs, which are short as well as stout, are exempt from the registry. Which means, of course, that Canada is embarked upon a national long-pig registry.

Michael Schmidt keynote speaker at NOFA, New Jersey in January 2012

Michael Schmidt has been invited to be a keynote speaker at this winter’s NOFA conference in Princeton New Jersey:

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Monsanto sued in India over biopiracy

Thanks to Andrew Kohl on the Support Michael Schmidt Facebook group:

Fledgling Raw Milk Institute challenged

From David E. Gumpert on the Complete Patient blog:

“The fledgling Raw Milk Institute is in trouble.

The grandiose plan for a national organization that will at once establish raw milk production standards, educate farmers on improving their safety protocols, lobby for raw milk legislative expansion, and back research into raw milk’s benefits finds itself hobbled by internal dissension out of the gate.

I don’t think it’s overly dramatic to question whether the group can survive what has turned out to be a huge test of its purpose and objectivity.