NFU will double your donations to Cow Share Canada to help legalize raw milk

With a little help from our friends... Michael Schmidt talks with a couple of supporters after being sentenced in late November of 2011.

The Grey Local Executive of the National Farmers Union has decided to support the Cow Share Canada campaign to legalize direct-farm sales of milk.

They say they will match up to $5,000.00 in donations made by February 1, 2012.

If you would like to support this cause, make cheques payable to the “National Farmers Union – Grey Local” and send them to:

Kristine Hammel,
Grey Local Secretary/Treasurer,
R.R. #3 Allenford, Ont.,
N0H 1A0.

“Uniting or Dividing” — farmer Michael Schmidt on the occasion of one million visits to “The Bovine” raw milk blog

Michael interviews Michael Schmidt, reflecting on the occasion of one million visits to this blog.

In the vortex of raw milk controversy, things are not always as they seem to be.

M: One Million visits to the Bovine, is this a reason to celebrate?

Michael: Yes, this is remarkable and significant within the context of a new form of dialogue.

M: There are more discussions following many articles, very often with rather radical views and extreme verbiage. How much weight are you giving to these comments?

Cow Share Canada Level 1 course Sat. October 29th with Tim Wightman

Farmer and educator Tim Wightman, at Glencolton Farms during an earlier visit.

Despite the current stalemate Cow Share Canada is holding another level one Cow Share College at Glencolton Farms this coming Saturday.

This course is open to Farmers and Consumers alike to understand the requirements, standards, and social implications before venturing into the new concept.

The following topics will be addressed:

Mark McAfee brings the Cow Share Canada concept to America with the newly formed “Raw Milk Institute”

From Cookson Beecher on Bill Marler’s “Food Safety News”:

Raw Milk Institute logo

“The much-anticipated Raw Milk Institute has gone live.

The brainchild of Mark McAfee, co-owner of Organic Pastures near Fresno, CA, the institute introduced its website — www.rawmilkinstitute.org — on Tuesday.

Simply put, the goal of the institute is to use science-based food-safety principles to shore up a strong foundation for the growing raw-milk movement.

Raw milk is milk that hasn’t been pasteurized to kill bacteria, some of which can make people sick or even kill them. These harmful organisms can be in milk from healthy animals as the result of contamination from fecal matter or unclean milking equipment.

Michael Schmidt raw milk appeal verdict is expected later this week; farmshare members eager for news

Michael Schmidt with his wife Elise VanderHout (in red) at yesterday's meeting.

Michael Schmidt and Elisa VanderHout held a meeting of Glencolton Farms farmshare members last night in Thornhill. Speaking with regard to the recently issued farmshare certificates, both thanked the members for their support in making possible the kind of farming that Glencolton stands for, a kind of farming that respects the land and the animals, and makes every effort to produce the highest quality of milk and milk products. Elisa described how a farm near Glencolton had recently been bought by someone who wasted no time removing the hedgerows and readying the place for the kind of no-holds-barred exploitation of the land that is sadly still in vogue among mainstream farming types in Ontario.

Michael Schmidt’s Glencolton Farms, Cow Share Canada, at Feast of Fields

Feast of Fields is an annual event, organized by Organic Advocates, to showcase organic food culture in the Greater Toronto Area. Michael Schmidt’s raw milk blue bus was there as usual, along with representatives from Cow Share Canada. The weather was perfect for this year’s Feast of Fields, which took place yesterday at Cold Creek Conservation Area near Bolton Ontario:

A beautiful display table flanked by the latest incarnation of "the blue bus", at Feast of Fields.

“Ignoring Ontario’s cow share ruling will endanger future access to raw milk in Canada” — farmer Michael Schmidt

Michael Schmidt shares some thoughts on the state of raw milk in Canada:

Michael Schmidt with host during a recent visit to Wisconsin, with a glass of raw milk.

Things have drastically changed in Ontario since January last year. As soon as the celebration of the historical cow share ruling by Paul Kowarsky was over, many farmers who had been silently waiting on the sidelines jumped at the “golden opportunity to milk the opportunity”.

The market is there and is expanding at a frightening pace. There have been countless requests by people searching for raw milk:

Cow Share College Part Two in Durham

This just in from Kimm, who organizes the Cow Share College programs:

Cowshare College – Level II completes process for farmers.

Many of the producers who participated in Canadian Cowshare College – the Basics will be completing the process on Saturday, January 8th, 2011, with a half-day workshop called Cowshare College – Level II.  Most of these participants are considering or starting their own cowshare programmes.  They are or are likely to become members of Cow Share Canada, a grassroots organization that exists to: bring consumers and producers together while meeting Ontario’s regulations/restrictions concerning access to food; to educate and train consumers and producers in food rights and safe production of healthy alternatives; and to act, ultimately, as a voice for those consumers and producers who have serious concerns over the ever-increasing regulation of basic foods.

Raw milk is still “getting ink” in Saskatoon nearly two weeks after Michael Schmidt’s visit Dec. 2nd

Amy Jo Ehman writes in the Saskatchewan Star Phoenix:

Raw milk is still headline news is Saskatoon, 11 days after Michael Schmidt's visit.

“You wouldn’t think that something so basic as milk could be controversial. However, milk has made a renegade out of me.

I have on occasion bought milk from a local farmer — an act that is both venerable and verboten. The sale of raw, unprocessed, straight-from-the-farm milk is illegal in Canada. More specifically, it is illegal to sell milk that has not been pasteurised.

Michael Schmidt’s Saskatchewan raw milk workshop covered by the Regina Leader-Post

Thanks to Jana for the news tip. The following is from a story that appeared today in the Regina Leader-Post, written by Tim Switzer:

Ontario dairy farmer Michael Schmidt was in Regina on Sunday, Dec. 5, 2010, at St. Mary's Anglican Church to talk about legalizing the sale of raw milk. Photograph by: Troy Fleece, Leader-Post

“Michael Schmidt says it is high time the Canadian government launched a review of its laws over the distribution of raw milk.