Milk skirmishes at the EU in Brussels

Nothing specifically to do with raw milk, but it sure does make for some dramatic looking pictures! Story from Agri 007 blog:

Farmers spray milk at riot police in Brussels, pic via Fox News.

BRUSSELS – Dairy farmers sprayed thousands of litres of fresh milk at the European Parliament in Brussels to protest excessive milk quotas and prices below the cost of production, reports Reuters news agency.

GMOs to be forced on the French?

From Reuters news service:

“EU considers ordering France to lift GMO maize ban

May 22 (Reuters) – The European Union’s executive said on Tuesday it was considering ordering Franceto lift its ban on growing a strain of genetically modified maize, after EU science experts said there was no justification for it.

In March France reimposed a ban on Monsanto’s MON810 maize, an insect-resistant variety to protect chiefly against the European corn borer, after a previous prohibition was annulled by the country’s top court late last year.

An opinion issued by the European food safety watchdog (EFSA) on Monday concluded that France had offered no new scientific evidence to justify the ban. The European Commission said EFSA’s opinion confirmed its own initial assessment.

Raw milk in Poland — interview with a Polish raw milk vending machine maker

Polish raw milk vending machine manufacturer Konrad Pszowski came to our attention through comments he posted on the Bovine. We thought, as a maker of raw milk automats, he could fill us in a little on the under-reported raw milk scene in Europe. So we contacted him. He wrote back, and we sent him some questions. And now we are pleased to present his answers in the form of this exclusive interview:

Raw milk vending machine in an urban setting in eastern Europe.

The Bovine:  When I was in Poland in 2007, one could drive along the highway from Warsaw to Bialystock and see people milking cows into buckets out in the field. Also one would sometimes pass horse-drawn hay wagons on the smaller roads. Is there a strong feeling among Poles that smalll farming is something that should be encouraged, that it’s here to stay and not on the way out like it is in so many other parts of the world?

Backlash begins against initiatives to prohibit raw milk sales in Ireland

From a recent letter to the editor, published in the Irish Times, via 3 Wheeled Cheese blog:

“The Irish government intends to ban the sale of raw milk before the end of 2011. The Campaign for Raw Milk in Ireland (CRM) has been formed on behalf of a number of businesses, farmers, chefs, food critics, representative bodies and consumers. The CRM is calling for the government to cease its plans for a draconian, outright ban and take the time to consider other options available in the form of regulation of the raw milk industry in Ireland.

We believe everyone has a right to choose to drink one of Ireland’s premium products which has a rightfully esteemed place in our food heritage. Informed consumers should have the right to decide for themselves what they eat and drink.

The Health Battlefields of Europe … And Why They May Come to Canada

Robert Verkerk, PhD, from the current issue of Vitality Magazine:

Introduction by Helke Ferrie

Robert Verkerk, PhD. Photo via Vitality magazine.

“Robert Verkerk is the executive and scientific director of the Alliance for Natural Health International (ANH-Intl) based in the UK. He is an internationally acclaimed expert in agricultural, health, and environmental sustainability with over 30 years’ experience. He successfully challenged Codex issues in international courts.

Here he provides an overview of the ongoing worldwide battle for health freedom. It is essential to understand this global push to protect Big Pharma’s interests, and whom Health Canada really serves (certainly not the public). Dr. Verkerk shows us which strategies seem to work when defending our human right to use non-toxic therapies.

Germany bans Monsanto’s GMO corn

Here’s an excerpt from the Spiegel Online story:

Greenpeace activists take a sample from a Monsanto test site near Borken in North Rhine-Westphalia: The GM crop MON 810 has been banned in Germany. DPA photo.

“…Under the new regulations, the cultivation of MON 810, a GM corn produced by theAmerican biotech giant Monsanto, will be prohibited in Germany, as will the sale of its seed. Aigner told reporters Tuesday she had legitimate reasons to believe that MON 810 posed “a danger to the environment,” a position which she said the Environment Ministry also supported. In taking the step, Aigner is taking advantage of a clause in EU law which allows individual countries to impose such bans.

EU leaders approve GMO potatoes for use across Europe — against the will of the majority of the European peoples

Here’s an excerpt from  Geoffrey Lean’s story in the U.K. Telegraph:

Crowds gather to protest genetically-modified crops in Ireland. Indiemedia photo.

“Not just a spud, this is likely to prove a very hot political potato indeed. It is living, knobbly proof of the determination of Brussels bureaucrats to spread GM crops throughout Europe, against the will of most of its people.

Prize herd of 567 dairy cattle destroyed in Britain under EU rules for alleged “cattle passport” irregularities — is that what NAIS will look like in the U.S.?

This story is from Christopher Booker’s notebook on the Telegraph UK website. Here’s an excerpt:

PAPERS WERE NOT IN ORDER, SO THEY HAD TO DIE

Of all the stories I have covered about what is now called the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, few have been more remarkable than the disaster that has just befallen David Dobbin, a 43-year-old Cheshire farmer, who derived his entire livelihood from a large dairy herd. His 567 cows, including pedigree Ayrshires and Holsteins, had won prizes, and were worth upwards of £500,0000.

In 2005 Cheshire trading standards officials, acting for Defra (one hopes Cheshire’s taxpayers do not mind officials whose salaries they pay acting for a government department) began a long series of visits, to inspect the documentation required for Mr Dobbin’s cattle under EC rules. The more they attempted to check the animals’ eight-digit ear tags against their EC “cattle passports”, the more they claimed to have found “irregularities”, although they failed to explain how many or what these were.

Last November, on Defra’s instructions, the officials seized all Mr Dobbin’s passports, making it illegal for him to move animals off his farm and all but wiping out his income. Last month, serving him with a “notice to identify”, they removed his herd to another farm, stating that, under EC regulation 494/98, it was their intention to destroy all 567 animals.