If you support the right of people to make their own food choices, you are invited to sign a declaration of food rights at Queen’s Park on Thursday November 26th at 1 pm. Queen’s Park is the home of the Ontario Legislature in downtown Toronto.
The day before, on Wed. Nov. 25th, at 9 am, there will be a news conference at Queen’s Park to talk about the declaration of food rights and other topics related to recent raw milk standoffs.
Michael Schmidt will be at both the Nov. 25 news conference and the Nov. 26 food rights declaration signing.
As you will see from the video above and from the photo below, there’s been a shift away from focusing on Michael Schmidt’s role in all this, and putting the focus instead on the farm share members, like Masha Perrone, whose access to milk from their own cows has been put at risk by the recent actions of governmental agencies.
Farmshare owner Masha Perrone seems to have become the poster person for food choice, seen here with Elisa from the farm. Masha’s picture is now on the back of the milk truck. Photo: David Pickett.
Thanks to Collective Evolution for the video. See more of their work here.
Note that the video was shot a while ago and thus does not reflect the fact that a meeting has in fact taken place with York Region Public Health. See transcript of that meeting here. There was also some subsequent correspondence with Joe Lamarca of York Region Public Health, which was essentially a restatement of the Health Unit’s previous position.
The Bovine 
The confusion between rights and privileges around here is thick. The government cannot give you rights. Not sure why the government would have an interest in meeting… Maybe just to be polite? Oh, and that the government exploited a loophole is a joke. Where did that come from? Just because you own stock in RIM does not give you a right to a Blackberry. I would be astonished if this is the product of legal counsel. If so, oh my!
I am trying to understand more about this initiative. Reading this post I am not clear what exactly it is? Is the declaration written somewhere to read? Or is this a call to rally at Queens park switch a meaningful gesture to be made of collectively declaring food choice as a right of natural law?
I am thrilled to learn of the Glencolten Farmshare members taking such initistive. For broader inclusion broader consultation would be helpful. “We are doing this , and invite your support for a common cause ” is often a warranted approach . The greater impact occurs when there is inclusion of stakeholders in the process itself. A bigger undertaking , yes.
Sometimes we could find ourselves in support of appearances and what we ourselves think to be true without having all the infomstion from which to fully reason .
Rights Versus Priveleges (http://realityalwayswins.com/2013/08/14/rights-versus-privileges/)
“A right is something that you as an individual own. A privilege, on the other hand, is something that another entity owns who then grants you the ability to do something. A privilege definitely can be taken away if it is owned by someone other than you because they own it and you don’t. What if someone wanted to get rid of your rights? How would they do that? One way is by physical force. Someone kicking down your door and killing you would take away your right to live. But that is a kind of obvious way to do it. A more subtle way would be to get you to treat your rights as privileges.”
Michael,
It was a both a pleasure and an honor to speak with you today. We look forward to welcoming you and additional Canadian raw milk farmers into our growing international community of RAWMI Listed dairymen. RAWMI Listed has become synonymous with raw milk safety and excellence.
It is just a matter of time before “co owners of cows in Canada” will be left alone to enjoy, simple, safe, clean raw milk. RAWMI is dedicated to this vision and mission. Scientists at the IMGC affirm that processing simply destroys all proteins, inactivates all enzymes, kills all beneficial yogurt like bacteria. Processing Heat even destroys the micro-RNA’s which have been found to regulate immunity in the young.
Consumers have this one right!! And scientists agree!! 17 EU Peer reviewed published studies prove it! Raw milk is powerfully therapeutic food.
Canadian Farmers have a real fight but we will win…because our cause serves families and people and not the processors interests.
RAWMI has shown that raw milk is a very low risk food when done properly.
RAWMI looks forward to working with Canadian raw milk producers as they become a part of our growing RAWMI Listed community.
Mark Mcafee
Chairman RAWMI
Mark thank you for posting, it is good to hear from you. You, the Weston A. Price foundation’s resources, the movie Food Inc. (where I first heard about Joel Salatin), as well the book by Jordan Reuben (I consulted many sources as I didn’t know anything back then) — you and they were the first passionate folks I listened to so many years ago when I first learned about the importance of raw milk. I learned how much I needed it in my life for health reasons. And you all convinced me, it was blatantly obvious what my diet lacked, which led me on a local path to Michael Schmidt. And I am thankful for you all being passionate about your message. And I am so thankful that my many inflammatory issues are under control.
I took some time to browse your RAWMI website. Your group of professionals look to be in a respectable position of positive education and influence. I was reading the testimonials and I really appreciated the true stories about how raw milk (real food) has impacted people in their everyday lives, from the young to the old. My father has a similar story of painful lactose intolerance which has 100% disappeared since bringing raw milk into his diet. Also I recall browsing the research at the Weston A. Price foundation, specifically the powerpoint on raw milk and it was clear — raw milk has both lactose and lactase in it — but the pasteurization process destroys the lactase which is required for the digestion of lactose and our body only produces a little, hence the pain and lactose intolerance so many folks have. I mean, come one, it just makes sense! 🙂 If we destroy the perfect design of unadulterated milk, whether by pasteurization or homogenization or otherwise (non-natural diet of the cows, drugs etc.), we are messing with God’s perfect design and we shouldn’t be surprised when some or all of us get sick.
It is good to hear from you and thanks for posting!
i often ask myself, ” how many raw milk consumers are aware of the conditions and nature of the teats from which their milk has been expelled?” ” are they aware that those teats may have been completely coverd infresh bovine Feces?” And I find myself also wondering how many of people in their private intimate lives find themselves all up into the crotches of their lovers? And in this way explore the difference that might exist between public access as opposed to private access. People privately getting all up into the crotches of others is strictly a private matter though it clearly carries some significant risks, but should such activity be non private , in that it is available to the public , much like a person walking into a store of no relation and buying a jug of milk, or like exists in prostitution , then there is concern for public safety. People that get raw milk that are not aware of the process may have a private arrangement of some kind, that is no business of public health, but may be an issue of civil liability non the less. One is clearly aware of the situation when they find themselves all up in the intimates of others in the private moments, but are they aware of the situation in their private raw milk arrangements?