Since 2006, efforts to suppress raw milk initiatives in both Canada and the U.S. have seemingly moved in lock-step. The 2006 raid at Michael Schmidt’s Glencolton Farms was echoed by a similar style of crackdown on herd share farmers south of the border.
Even in States like California, where raw milk was and is already legal, it has been the target of far more than its share of regulatory attention in recent years.
Here in Canada we had the case of a meat packing company which killed several people a few years ago, and yet much more enforcement resources seem to have been directed towards raw milk, which has killed no one and is of lower risk than many other common foods.
One wonders who it is that doesn’t like raw milk, and why. Here in Ontario, one might imagine that the so-called “Dairy Farmers of Ontario” have had something to do with all the naysaying.
Perhaps they feel that raw milk is incompatible with, or a threat to, the supply management system that underpins the value of their milk quota, and the security of their livelihood.
But there’s no supply management system in the States, where similar patterns of legal and regulatory action against raw milk are also prevalent. And in Europe, where raw milk has long been available, it still — after all these years — represents but a tiny sliver of the total market share for dairy products. While raw milk certainly has a dedicated following, it would seem that there are not that many people willing go out of their way to gain access to it.
So why, if the premise of this story is correct, does “big dairy” feel so paranoid about the little raw milk players out there on the fringes of the marketplace?
“Americans’ circle of freedom is constantly shrinking, and in a nation founded on the principle that freedoms should be boundless and virtually limitless.
The raw milk industry is a perfect example of how nanny state government, overly influenced by Big Food, conspires to impose its will on the people while curbing freedom of choice.
As reported by Off the Grid News, a large food industry trade organization is leading opposition to the legalization of raw milk sales and the easing of restrictions for such sales throughout the United States.
The International Dairy Foods Association, or IDFA, is pushing lawmakers around the nation to keep in place current restrictions on the sale of raw milk and not to relax them in deference to Americans who are trying their best to protect their freedom.
“Loosening the regulations surrounding raw milk … would be a step in the wrong direction,” the IDFA wrote in a letter concerning a specific bill in Virginia. “While choice is an important value, it should not pre-empt consumers’ well-being. Legalizing the state-wide sale of raw milk and milk products is an unnecessary risk to consumer safety.”…”
Now where have we heard that kind of rhetoric before?
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The Bovine 