Raw milk, TED, and the resurgence of neo-primitive consciousness

Scientist Rupert Sheldrake was exiled from TED after spouting this heresy:

TED has been told, it would seem. They’ve been told to hew to the materialist dogma, and to eschew what they are calling bad science, or pseudoscience. Because back in the earlier days, it sure looked like they were a little more open minded. This latest edict has put the kibosh on all that. Health Ranger Mike Adams at Natural News is even reporting that the new TED is to be pro-GMO and anti-diet-affects-health. Now that’s going to stretch many people’s credulity. But now that TED’s gone mainstream and attracting a mainstream audience, evidently there are some who feel the message needs to be massaged accordingly.

Is the 100th monkey effect kicking in on the food rights issue in North America?

First, a few words about the 100th monkey effect, from Wikipedia:

100th monkey. Photo from LaDonna Coy. Creative Commons. Click to go to orginal on Flickr.

“The story of the hundredth monkey effect was published in Lyall Watson‘s foreword to Lawrence Blair’s Rhythms of Vision in 1975,^[2] and spread with the appearance of Watson’s 1979 book Lifetide. The claim is that unidentified scientists were conducting a study of macaque monkeys on the Japanese island of Koshima in 1952.^[3] These scientists purportedly observed that some of these monkeys learned to wash sweet potatoes, and gradually this new behavior spread through the younger generation of monkeys—in the usual fashion, through observation and repetition. Watson then claimed that the researchers observed that once a critical number of monkeys was reached—the so-called hundredth monkey—this previously learned behavior instantly spread across the water to monkeys on nearby islands.

Lessons from the Bushmen in Laurens van der Post’s “A Story Like the Wind”

Sir Laurens van der Post. Photo via NNDB. Click image to go there for a list of his books and a brief biography.

Both as an author and as a man, Laurens van der Post was someone who did not shy away from the difficult questions of life. Although one biographer slags him for allegedly fabricating stories and passing them off as real, many of those stories explore territories of the soul and spirit from which few others have returned intact.

On the one hand you could say he allied himself with established powers, choosing quite deliberately to serve Britain in becoming the post WWII British military attache in Indonesia and in later life accepting a knighthood from the Queen, and a role as godfather to one of Charles and Diana’s children. But on the other hand, his early contact with Bushman culture growing up in South Africa gave him an uncommon and critical perspective on the limitations and spiritual poverty of western materialism, a theme he explored in many of his novels.

Michael Schmidt’s learnings from three days in court with the CFIA last week

From Michael Schmidt, raw milk advocate, farmer, and accused sheep-napper:

Cobourg, on the beach last week after three days of preliminary court hearings, with lawyer Shawn Buckley, and accused sheep-napping conspirator Montana Jones. Photo: Michael Schmidt

Day one, two, three in court from my perspective

Our court proceedings are becoming a family gathering of determined CFIA prosecutors and accused sheep-nappers

Here are the main players:

Michael Schmidt and Montana Jones in “Legal Limbo – counting months and money wasted, instead of sheep”

Montana Jones shares her perspective on three days of court hearings last week:

Montana Jones, Lawyer Shawn Buckley, Michael Schmidt, all of whom were in court last week in Cobourg and Lindsay to hear why the CFIA wants Shawn Buckley removed from the case. The CFIA claims it’s because of a potential conflict of interest. Thanks to Montana Jones for the photo.

The government wants Michael Schmidt and I to please pick a different lawyer. I’m not surprised. They say it’s due to a potential conflict of interest in the pending trial. Others wonder if they’re just not so keen at the prospect of going head to head with Shawn Buckley, our British Columbia based constitutional and criminal lawyer specializing in the Food and Drugs Act and Regulations.

It’s almost three years since the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) wolves first descended onto my farm, and this past week of judicial dancing through court hoops suggests we’ll have to endure the shadowy predators lurking for a long while yet.

The State of Raw Milk in Illinois

From the Midlife Farm Wife blog:

The wheels of raw milk move slowly in Illinois. Photo via Midlife Farmwife blog.

“Last week , September 10, our group of pro-raw milk individuals, made up of farmers and consumers, met again with representatives from the Illinois Department of Public Health.  It was our 4th mtg with them. We entered the meeting in good spirits, I mean after all at the last two meetings we had made real progress…didn’t we?

Cuba, North Korea, and . . . . .

From David E. Gumpert, on Alternet.org

Cuban (top) and North Korean (bottom) flag images via Wikipedia.

“September 19, 2013  |  Quick, name three countries that crack down on small farmers who follow the centuries-old tradition of selling food privately to friends and neighbors.

Toronto residents to demand end to water fluoridation at Sept 21st rally

From a news release via Intellihub:

Toronto City Hall. Photo Wikimedia commons

TORONTO — So far 350 people have confirmed their attendance on the Facebook page and over 1,000 have signed the online petition.

Hydrofluorosilicic acid has been added to the community water supply in Toronto for 50 years. It is a toxic waste byproduct of phosphate fertilizer production that is commonly used for fluoridation in The United States and Canada. It has been shown to cause leaching of lead from pipes and is contaminated with arsenic, mercury and radionuclides.

People of Columbia vs Seed Tyranny

From Russ’ Volatility blog:

“For our physical survival and flourishing, everything starts with seeds. And for our political and economic sovereignty, everything starts with control of our seeds. That’s why a core goal of corporatism and globalization is to seize total control of the global seed supply and crush our right to save and plant our own seeds.

That’s why a primary goal of the US government is to force GMOs on the world. GMOs are a crap product which have zero practical purpose and are poisonous to our bodies and the environment. Their sole purpose is to escalate and enforce corporate profit, enclosure, control, domination.

Michael Schmidt and Montana Jones are in court this week to hear the CFIA argue defense lawyer Shawn Buckley should be removed from sheep case

Summer is over, bureaucrats are back from holiday and Michael Schmidt is going to court again, just as he has so many times before over the last seven years. Photo above is from 2010 in Newmarket. This week’s court sessions will be in Cobourg. Earlier, the CFIA was arguing that lawyer Karen Selick, of the Canadian Constitution Foundation, should not be representing Michael Schmidt in court because they wanted to be able to call her as a witness for the prosecution in the sheep-napping conspiracy case. Now the CFIA wants BC lawyer Shawn Buckley removed from the case.

Michael Schmidt sends this account of the current situation, vis a vis the Shropshire sheep-napping case:

Wolves, Coyotes and the CFIA

Tuesday, Wednesday, and maybe even Thursday this week, Montana Jones and myself will be in court to listen to the CFIA lawyers explain why they want to take our right away to choose our own lawyer.

Yes this is not fiction; it is the reality in Canada in 2013.