“VAXXED” and “the Streisand Effect”

From the Levi Quackenboss blog:

“Surely you’ve heard a few times this month that Robert De Niro deselecting Andrew Wakefield’s movie VAXXED at Tribeca was the best thing that could have ever have happened to it.  Even though De Niro was kicking himself for his knee-jerk reaction on the Today Show last week in the greatest six-and-half-minute interview of all time, no one can deny that this has turned into quite the phenomenon.

I’m not going to lie– I was momentarily devastated when I saw the news that it was pulled three weeks ago. “Pharma wins again,” I thought.  “No surprise there.” I figured that the two-day ride that the movie had at the top of Facebook’s trending news was over; VAXXED would disappear into oblivion without anyone outside of our circle ever seeing it.

Raw Milk’s Media Shadow

Global TV Crew interviews Farmshare mom at the Newmarket rally

Here’s wondering whether at least some major media have been spoken to, either by their corporate masters, or by other shadowy figures that lurk behind the scenes and orchestrate the media circus.

Notably at the March 16th rally in Newmarket — with the biggest turnout ever of supporters and with the prospect of lots of photogenic attractions including the on-site milking of a cow, kids and families, and placards, and the prospect of raw milk facing criminalization for the first time — not many local media sent reporters or camera crews.

Editorial on Raw Milk in Metroland’s Newmarket Era-Banner Newspaper

From a recent editorial in the the Era-Banner:

“There is a growing trend in society toward more natural food consumption.

What began with people buying products directly from farmers at local markets, through farm share programs or at actual farms, has spread to grocery store shelves through the growth of things such as organic products, hormone- and antibiotic-free meat selections and packaged food that’s free of artificial colours and flavours.

By and large, the trend is a good thing. The fewer unnatural additions to food, the better, if only because we don’t have adequate research on the long-term effects of some food additives.

TV Crew and Mark McAfee Visiting with Glencolton Farmshare Members Jan. 26

TUESDAY JANUARY 26: Today in Thornhill, several Glencolton farmshare member were interviewed by a television crew for an upcoming program on TV Ontario (photo below). TVO will also be sending a camera crew to cover the Raw Milk Symposium in Guelph this Saturday, January 30th.

TVO producer Liane Kotler interviews farmshare members at “The Blue Bus”.

Mark McAfee flew in from California to Canada this week for the Raw Milk Symposium this coming Saturday and stopped by to chat today with the farmshare members as well. That’s Mark, in the photo below, signing the food rights declaration on the side of the Glencolton Farms truck. Mark met with the farmshare members together with his wife Blaine who will also be presenting at this weekend’s Symposium. Thanks to David Pickett for the photo.

Mark runs a large raw milk farm and dairy in California and has been active in helping establish standards for raw milk production in the U.S. through the RAWMI organization.

Bank of Canada case ignored by media

A little off topic here. Yes we realize this is not connected to raw milk or food rights. Still we feel it’s important Canadians hear this news that’s not getting out there through the filters and the blinders of our mainstream media.

From Murray Dobbin, in CounterPunch:

“You know the old aphorism – “If a tree falls in the forest….?” Well, how about this one:  if citizens win a significant victory in court against an autocratic government involving the fleecing of Canadians of billions of their hard-earned tax dollars and no one in the media actually covers it, did it really happen?

That might well be the question being asked over at the Committee for Monetary and Economic Reform (COMER) a very small and low-budget think tank. With their lawyer Rocco Galati (of Supreme Court fame in the Nadon case) they have been steadily winning court battles initiated in 2011 that would oblige the Bank of Canada to return to its pre-1974 practice of lending the government money virtually (.37%) interest free. But the mainstream media, with a single exception, has boycotted the story. Galati believes the Harper government has done some serious arm-twisting to keep the story buried.

Canada’s supreme court refuses to hear appeal of Michael Schmidt milk case

From Global News — “Mon, Aug 18: Raw milk advocate talks about how plans to continue to fight for the right to drink and sell unpasteurized milk.”

Click image to go to Global News page to watch video interview.

From The Canadian Press, in the Toronto Star:

“OTTAWA—The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear an appeal from an Ontario farmer who has long championed the right to sell and drink unpasteurized milk, but he says “it’s not the end of the road.”

The top court’s refusal to hear Michael Schmidt’s case — as is usual it did not provide reasons — means his 2011 convictions of 13 charges under the Health Protection and Promotion Act and the Milk Act that saw him fined $9,150 stand.

43 Mainstream Media Outlets Cover Michael Schmidt’s Raw Milk Appeal

Michael Schmidt talks to a CBC news reporter on the steps of Osgoode Hall Wednesday.

According to Michael Schmidt’s first lawyer, Clayton Ruby, this case will be won or lost in the court of public opinion. And that’s why the news media coverage is significant. Because coverage in the press helps spread public awareness of the issue. Regardless of the slant of the stories, questions are being raised in the minds of thinking people across the country. By the way, that count of 43 is as of Saturday, Feb. 8th, according to Google’s news aggregator. Here are 25 examples from that list:

Toronto’s Rachel Parent talks GMOs tonight, Ed Show, MSNBC, 5:15 EST

From Rachel Parent on Facebook:

Rachel sez: BREAKING NEWS !! RACHEL ON THE ED SHOW ! TONIGHT 5.15 PM EST, MSNBC. DON’T MISS IT, PLEASE LET EVERYONE KNOW!

Setting the record straight on the economics of local organic farming

From Lindsey Lusher Shute on TakePart.com:

Future local organic farmers of America? The 2012 crew at Lindsey Lusher Shute’s New York farm. (Photo: Hearty Roots Community Farm) via TakePart.com

“In the past year, the mainstream media featured more than a few stories critiquing America’s local and organic foods movement. The New York Times and others swallowed the findings of a Stanford study debating the value of organic foods hook, line and sinker; Time and Dr. Oz declared, “Organic food is great, it’s just not very democratic”; and NPR recently reported that growing local food doesn’t pay.

Raw milk appeal breaking news in TO

From CP24 news:

Click image to go to story on CP24

“TORONTO — An Ontario dairy farmer convicted of producing, selling and distributing raw milk has won the right to appeal.

Karen Selick, a lawyer for Michael Schmidt, said the Ontario Court of Appeal granted the leave to appeal Thursday following arguments.

Schmidt was sentenced to one year of probation and fined $9,150 for operating an illegal cow-share business….”