Interview with Vernon Herschberger, Wisconsin raw milk farmer and food rights champion

Part I – Family Roots, Inspiration and Role Models 

By Raoul Bedi of the Vedic Harmony Centre (www.canadafoodsecurity.info)
Facebook : “Canadian Raw Dairy Consumer Advocacy “ 

Over the past week I interviewed Vernon Hershberger by phone and e-mail. Despite his multitudinous commitments, including raising 9 children (with one on the way!), regular farm work, and preparations for massive rallies and court appearances, Vernon was very warm, forthcoming and present in his responses and attention to detail. Thanks also to “THE BOVINE “ editor for providing some of the  questions and for reprinting the interview in it’s entirety here. 

Animation provokes big ag PR offensive

From Tom Laskawy on Grist.org

“During the broadcast of this year’s Grammys, Chipotle “stole the show” when it ran this animated ad to illustrate the company’s support for less-intensive sustainable livestock agriculture.

The animation itself has been online since last August, but thanks to Chipotle, it was seen by millions of people that night. It also got the attention of Big Ag, which expects to be the one doing all the expensive ad buys when it comes to agriculture.

Are the U.S. and Canada the first “free” nations to deprive their people of food?

From David E. Gumpert on The Complete Patient blog:

Vernon Hershberger with his family at a rally outside the Sauk County Courthouse last August. Photo via The Complete Patient blog.

“Eating is something we do so naturally, so routinely, we tend not to think all that much about it. We make choices–white or dark meat chicken, almond butter or peanut butter, apple or pear, broccoli or chard–nearly unconsciously, so plentiful is the food.

Buying it was once also pretty natural. We bought our foods directly from farmers, or from small specialty outlets, or traveling peddlers. Whatever local farms produced, that’s what was available. If you wanted to deal with a particular farmer, you did it. Your “contract” was a handshake. Nothing about legal precedents or complicated theories of private ownership or dealing with “licenses”.

Wisconsin claims bail violation — state could arrest peaceful raw milk farmer

From Liz Reitzig at Farm Food Freedom Coalition:

Wisconsin raw milk farmer Vernon Herschberger, January 2011. Michael Schmidt photo

Baraboo, WI—Wisconsin dairy farmer Vernon Hershberger, who has a court hearing March 2 in Baraboo, expects and is prepared for arrest.  The Wisconsin Department of Agricultural Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) has charged Hershberger with four criminal misdemeanors that could land him in prison for three years with fines of over $10,000. The chargers are all related to Hershberger supplying a private buying club with fresh milk and other farm products.

Raw milk farmer Vernon Herschberger — the tragic reality of human kindness

Michael Schmidt on the Vernon Herschberger situation:

Raw milk farmers Michael Schmidt and Vernon Herschberger in Wisconsin last winter.

Vernon Hershberger no doubt is struggling deeply with the consequences of putting his moral consciousness above fearful obedience to an unjust law.

I am not worried about Vernon. Vernon has the strength, the will and the inner moral standing to challenge authorities.

Boost longevity with good gut bacteria

From Science Daily:

“The mammalian gut is home to hundreds of bacterial species that contribute to food digestion and, in some cases, inflammatory gut diseases. Probiotics, beneficial bacterial species, can enhance gut health by keeping the resident bacteria in check. Now, a team of researchers at the RIKEN Innovation Center in Wako, including Mitsuharu Matsumoto, report that administration of the probiotic bacterial strain Bifidobacterium animalis subspecies lactis LKM512 to mice can lengthen their lifespan.

Matsumoto and colleagues previously showed that LKM512 could reduce inflammatory markers in elderly humans and modify the makeup of intestinal bacteria2, but the effects of it on lifespan still required investigation. After starting 10-month-old mice on a diet including LKM512 for 11 months, the researchers found that LKM512-treated mice lived longer, had fewer skin lesions, and had better hair quality than untreated mice.

Illegal raw milk bust makes CBS news

California, where you can buy raw milk in the store, but not from your farmer:

Click to go to page to watch video from CBS news.

“An undercover agent posting as a mom busted a Bay Area operation that offers participants raw milk. Dr. Kim Mulvihill reports.”

Harvard study links pasteurized milk to commonly occurring cancers in humans

From Jonathan Benson at Natural News.com:

“(NaturalNews) The truth has once again shaken the foundation of the ‘American Tower of Babel’ that is mainstream science, with a new study out of Harvard University showing that pasteurized milk product from factory farms is linked to causing hormone-dependent cancers. It turns out that the concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) model of raising cows on factory farms churns out milk with dangerously high levels of estrone sulfate, an estrogen compound linked to testicular, prostate, and breast cancers.

Dr. Ganmaa Davaasambuu, Ph.D., and her colleagues specifically identified “milk from modern dairy farms” as the culprit, referring to large-scale confinement operations where cows are milked 300 days of the year, including while they are pregnant. Compared to raw milk from her native Mongolia, which is extracted only during the first six months after cows have already given birth, pasteurized factory milk was found to contain up to 33 times more estrone sulfate.

Wanted: Scientific integrity on GMOs

From Marcia Ishii-Eiteman on Civil Eats:

“As reported in this week’s UK Guardian, Nina Federoff spoke about threats to science at a meeting of 8,000 professional scientists. The former Bush Administration official (and former adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) and GMO proponent described her “profound depression” at how difficult it is to “get a realistic conversation started on issues such as climate change or genetically modified organisms.” I too have agonized over our inability to talk seriously about climate change.

However—and this is no small matter—by conflating fringe climate-deniers with established scientists raising valid concerns about the effects of GMOs, Federoff undermines the scientific integrity that she purports to uphold. The hypocrisy is astonishing.

Diet for a smaller planetary population?

From Concerned Citizen, on the Lyme Disease Sentinel blog:

“We are being told by government to eat low fat, low salt,high grain, low or NO meat and other animal products. We are being conditioned to think that animal foods are bad for us and that an unbalanced diet of mainly vegetables and grains is what we must eat for optimal health. It is crucial to note that indigenous groups throughout history thrived on unrefiined salt, organ meats,animal products,berries, insects, roots and tubers and some greens.