Michael Schmidt breaks radio silence with first public interview in months

Michael Schmidt has been conspicuous by his absence from the raw milk and food rights scene for quite some months now. Instead of traveling the continent as keynote speaker at conferences, he quietly tends to his cows and avoids the limelight — which leads many to wonder what is up with the mystery man. Fortunately, for those who have been wondering, this recent self-interview from Michael sheds a little light on some of the latest developments in Michael’s long, and still continuing, work in the fields of raw milk and food rights.

A rather rare interview with Michael Schmidt:

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, Associate Dean, University of Guelph, the only scientist who openly said that change should and can happen if the DFO would have the courage and the political will to tackle the raw milk issue. Marie-Chantal Houde, farmer and cheese maker from Quebec, Michael Schmidt

M:

It was hard to track you down and convince you to sit down for a one on one interview with yourself, why?

Michael:

There are several reasons for the withdrawal from the public view.

The last 8 years have been very intense and dominated by the legal battles in Ontario, BC and Alberta regarding raw milk.

Besides all the legal challenges I had a lot of speaking engagements in the US, Europe and here in Canada.

This was necessary in order to raise the awareness in regards to the loss of our fundamental right to make an informed and educated choice.

I am sure I made my point.

Tech talents trying to rethink farming

Nevermind kids’ games like “Farmville”, the folks who brought you the computer revolution have set their sights on transforming agriculture. They might make a lot of money doing it, but how much do they care about food quality, the sustainability of ecosystems, and decentralized politics of production? Perhaps only time will tell.

By Heather Somerville, San Jose Mercury News (TNS)

“TRACY, Calif. — Investors and entrepreneurs behind some of the world’s newest industries have started to put their money and tech talents into farming — the world’s oldest industry — with an audacious agenda: to make sure there is enough food for the 10 billion people expected to inhabit the planet by 2100, do it without destroying the world and make a pretty penny along the way.

Silicon Valley is pushing its way into every stage of the food-growing process, from tech tycoons buying up farmland to startups selling robots that work the fields to hackathons dedicated to building the next farming app.

Plan Bee — Ontario to restrict Neonics

By Lisa Gue, Researcher and Analyst, (from DavidSuzuki.org)

“Ontario’s Pollinator Health proposal has created quite a buzz. The government is proposing regulations to prohibit the use of neonicotinoid-treated corn and soybean seeds, except under certain conditions. The intent is to reduce these uses by 80 per cent by 2017.

Interview with makers of “Milk War”

Yesterday on The Bovine we posted a link to the full “Milk War” documentary (featuring the Michael Schmidt story) on YouTube. Today we bring you an interview with the maker of that documentary.

The following interview from Good Food Revolution is reproduced with permission from Good Food Media (all rights reserved).

From Ivy Knight, on the Good Food Revolution blog:

Richard Paradiso and Declan O’Driscoll on May 6 upon winning the 2011 James Beard Award for Best Television Special/Documentary for Milk War. Photo: ichannel.ca

“Declan O’Driscoll was born in Toronto but spent most of his childhood in Ireland before heading out into the world to live in Iceland and the Kootenays of British Columbia until returning to Canada. He majored in theatre and minored in film at Concordia and has since shot the Iceland Airwaves Festival for four years running and completed a documentary about Icelandic immigration to Canada called The Path to Gimli. He now works as a music television producer for BPM TV, the Montreal-based dance and club culture digital TV channel.

Full “Milk War” doc now on YouTube

“Milk War” is one of several documentaries, from recent years, which explore questions around raw milk and food rights through the story of Ontario raw milk farmer Michael Schmidt.