And in-depth look at raw milk through the story of farmer Michael Schmidt

Brittany Devanyi has written one of the most extensive articles on Michael Schmidt and raw milk that we’ve seen for a long time. It’s just been published in the quarterly journal Maisoneuve:

Happy bovines at Glencolton Farms. Photo by Brittany Devanyi.

“AS I DRIVE down a muddy, narrow road, past acres of farmland guarded by overarching trees, everything looks like a carbon copy of itself. The six-digit numbers, glued to every mailbox, are different at each lot, but the same—in the way a barcode identifies a product, but doesn’t reveal anything about the commodity itself. I stop at number 393889. Pulling in, a sign, about the size of two Bristol boards, is nailed to a tree. It reads: “THIS LAND IS OUR LAND, BACK OFF GOVERNMENT,” in bold, capitalized red-and-black letters. I have arrived.

A new Canadian raw milk consumer advocacy group has now been formed

A guest post by Margo McIntosh:

A new consumer group has formed to coordinate the efforts of many across Canada to make headway with raw milk legislation.  There is a working group consisting of consumers from various walks of life across Canada.  Our website is www.rawmilkconsumer.ca.  I have just been informed that Slow Food Montreal is gearing up to create the same type of group in French so we will be collaborating our efforts with them.  This is a Federal and Provincial advocacy effort and we need your help.

On the Welcome page of the website is a petition that we need hand signed and returned to us by September 15, 2012.  In order to present this to the House of Commons, the petition has to be in original format.  Please help us by circulating this petition and collecting as many signatures as you can.  Anyone who believes that Canadians have the right to access natural foods if they want them can sign this petition.  You will find the address to mail the petition to printed right on it.  We need your help!  Help us make a difference!

Sean McGivern and Michael Schmidt are forming new “Practical Farmers” group to meet March 31st, and seek adjustment of supply management

From Jim Algie, in the Owen Sound Sun Times:

“It’s worth noticing that Grey County farm policy reformer Sean McGivern prefers to talk these days about a “readjustment” in agricultural supply management.

Considering the direction from which he has come, the Desboro-based founder of a proposed new general farm organization could be talking instead about scrapping the controversial Canadian system for controlling farm production of some commodities.

An energetic, entrepreneurial, organic farmer who has run up against the system’s production limitations personally, McGivern might have joined the chorus of high profile non-farm commentators seeking to dismantle supply management.

Michigan wants to kill outdoor pigs but is Canada any better? Rally Monday April 2 to protest CFIA’s extermination order on rare Shropshire sheep herd

Canadian farmer Montana Jones with one of her rare Shropshire sheep which the CFIA wants to kill.

You’ve no doubt read the stories in recent days about how Michigan’s Natural Resources Department has mysteriously concluded that most if not all of the free range (non CAFO) pigs in the state are an “invasive species” and therefore need to be shot, killed and disposed of. Meanwhile the Michigan Pork Producers  are endorsing the move, as the competition to their CAFO-raised pork is about to be eliminated.

Perhaps they’re tired of hearing about how more people prefer meat that’s raised the old fashioned local and organic way. But when all the other options are conveniently gone, people are just going to have to settle for what they can get and shut up about it.

No doubt you’re thinking that this is some sort of abuse of government power by private interests that’s going on down in the states. And maybe you’d be right about that. But we may have our own peculiar problems with regulatory overreach up here in Canada as well. Remember the story from December 2011 about Montana Jones’ herd of Shropshire sheep that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency was proposing to kill, and for what seemed like no good reason. 

Growing threats to human life on earth

Alex Jones thinks GMO foods are part of a “soft kill” solution:

From Willie Nelson and Anna Lappe on Reader Supported News:

“Why we must occupy our food system

Our food is under threat. It is felt by every family farmer who has lost their land and livelihood, every parent who can’t find affordable or healthy ingredients in their neighborhood, every person worried about foodborne illnesses thanks to lobbyist-weakened food safety laws, every farmworker who faces toxic pesticides in the fields as part of a day’s work.

When our food is at risk we are all at risk.

Bakers Green Acres vs Michigan DNR

For more on the story, see our earlier post.

Michigan DNR issues an order to kill specialty pigs as “invasive species” and arrest the farmers on felony charges

From Mike Adams at Natural News.com:

Meanwhile, in other news, it's becoming illegal to expose the practices of large scale industrial farms. You know, the sort of thing Upton Sinclair did with the meat packing industry in the early decades of the last century. Click image to go to Gawker to watch the video. If corporate interests have their way, you won't be seeing a lot of these kind of horror movies! Nothing like getting the power of government onside to help deal with upstart competitors.

“(NaturalNews) The state of Michigan is only days away from engaging in what can only be called true “animal genocide” — the mass murder of ranch animals based on the color of their hair. It’s all part of a shocking new “Invasive Species Order” (ISO) put in place by Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR). This Invasive Species Order suddenly and shockingly defines virtually all open-range pigs raised by small family farms to be illegal “invasive species,” and possession of just one of these animals is now a felony crime in Michigan, punishable by up to four years in prison.

Canadian Constitution Day March 29th

From the Canadian Constitution Foundation:

TORONTO, ON: With Constitution Day (March 29th) fast approaching, a survey commissioned by the Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) has revealed a startling lack of basic knowledge among Canadians about Canada’s Constitution and Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Among other findings:

• Barely half of Canadians surveyed (53%) knew that Canada’s original constitution came into force on July 1, 1867.

• Only 28% of Canadians were correctly able to identify the four provinces (Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) that initially formed the Dominion of Canada in 1867.

• 61% of Canadians did not know that the Constitution Act, 1867 listed the distribution of powers between the federal and provincial levels of government.

• Only 9% of Canadians surveyed knew that the Charter does not include protection for private property.

• Only 7% of Canadians surveyed knew that the Charter only applies to governments and not to private individuals, businesses, or other organizations.

The survey also reveals Canadians attitudes about various amendments to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including:

Censored? Is the WAPF’s Sally Fallon too controversial for New Zealanders?

From the Wellington New Zealand chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation Facebook page:

“Sally was booked to do an interview on the Kim Hill show this morning at 11:15am. But we hear Kim Hill pulled the pin at the last moment because she said Sally was “too controversial”

She didn’t actually tell Sally though, she just replaced her with Tony Taylor talking about his new fly fishing book. (Fishing the River of Time)

Could this be censorship?”

First learned of this story from Cryptogon.com, where they wrote:

“If anyone inside Radio NZ (yeah, I see that you’re reading) wants to tell me why Kim Hill pulled the plug on the Sally Fallon Morell interview, I’d be interested in hearing from you.”

Videos from the Vernon Herschberger rally and the Raw Milk Freedom Riders

Thanks to Liz Reitzig and Michael Schmidt: