It’s difficult to imagine that there might be a country that is more inhospitable to raw milk than the U.S., but there is, and it is just across to the north–Canada.
That becomes clear in a chilling documentary just out, “Michael Schmidt: Organic Hero or Bioterrorist?”, produced by Norman Lofts. It was screened in front of several hundred attendees Friday evening at the Weston A. Price Foundation Wise Traditions conference. Yours truly had the honor of introducing Michael and the film’s producer, Norman Lofts, who were both attending.
The film begins with a raid conducted by Canadian regulatory and police authorities on Michael Schmidt’s 100-acre raw dairy two hours outside of Toronto, in November 2006. Fortunately for us, Michael pulled out his video camera when he saw the police surrounding his farm, and began filming, so we have the bizarre scene of Canadian inspectors donning special boots, gloves, and hats before entering his barn, as if they’re looking for toxic wastes.
“I was completely calm,” Michael intones on the film of the seven-and-a-half hour raid. “The only time I got choked up was whenI saw the cheese equipment in their truck.”
It’s one thing to hear about the police raiding a raw dairy, quite another to see it unfold as it did at Michael’s dairy. Just as it’s amazing to listen to the Canadian regulators being interviewed, spouting their protect-the-children rhetoric. “This is a hazardous product, it really needs to be looked after,” says one. They really sound like Orwellian robotons as they repeat their gibberish, even in the face of alternating interviews from Michael’s healthy looking herdshare members discussing the ongoing health benefits they receive from consuming raw milk.
The question of liberalizing Canada’s total prohibition of raw milk came up briefly in the Canadian parliament following the raid on Michael’s farm, and a member is shown objecting: “We solved this problem sixty years ago.” His view prevailed.
A big part of the documentary is devoted to Michael’s 28-day hunger strike following the November 2006 raid, and we see him literally shriveling up before the camera.
We also see interviews with conventional dariy farmers defending required pasteurization, and admitting they don’t want Michael to rock the boat of their huge incomes derived courtesy of the monopolistic milk marketing boards.
The lingering feeling I had after the 47-minute film completed was of the loneliness of Michael’s struggle. He can’t get support from other farmers. He is defending himself in court.
Afterwards, Michael told audience why he has refrained from being represented in court by a lawyer. “I want to win it on principle. You can sink to their level or you can take the high road.” He’s been found in contempt of court, and in January faces a trial on charges of illegally selling raw milk.
He also talked about how his children have grown up in the shadow of law enforcement actions against the family dairy for the last 15 years. One of his young-adult sons has started to show signs of having had enough of the pressure.
As I said, it’s a lonely, and haunting, feeling.
One note: While the DVD of the documentary was on sale at the Weston A. Price Foundation gathering, it’s not yet available via mail order or over the Internet. That will likely change within a few months, says Norman Faston, the producer. In the meantime, the documentary has already won an award at a Canadian film festival. It’s well worth viewing.
"So wait a minute, what’s this upstart neighbor doing? Getting three-four times per gallon what I get??!! That’s not fair, he doesn’t even support farm bureau and our insurance programs, and next thing you know, he’s going to make his customers sick!! People will then spook away from all milk, and we can’t afford another ding in the prices we get. Somebody make her stop! She’s dangerous! ………… Oh good, I heard he’s been sued. Serves him right. One way or the other, if the farm bureau can’t do anything about it, the damn lawyers, or the inspector will see to it they don’t do any more of this goofy cow share stuff. Maybe even farm bureau can make sure the law gets changed to keep anyone else from getting a crazy idea like this. This is dangerous stuff. Can’t be allowed to happen. Even the health talk is crazy – sure, we drink our own raw milk, ’cause we make it right, but we’re used to our milk and the price is right. I don’t get colds, but it’s because I work hard outdoors all the time. Crazy stuff. Gotta stop it."
Mike Schmidt, and every one of you farmers out there, are fighting the battle for the rest of us. And you are all heroes, including those who labor for serf’s wages filling up the pasteurizing plants.
Make your support tangible. Join the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (www.farmtoconsumer.org), and encourage all your rich friends, family and neighbors (and even the not-so-rich ones) to make a donation to the Fund or to its sister (tax-deductible) Farm-to-Consumer Foundation.
Michael Schmidt, Mark Nolt and the other brave farmers work very hard, produce natural healthy foods but they and their families are terrorized, fined, or, threatened with jail for "selling" REAL MILK. It is more dangerous to milk a cow than it is to lie, cheat, steal and rob on a grand scale. How well does crime pay in our enlightened age?
What would our Founding Fathers have to say about the state of FREEDOM in the land of the FREE?
From people like George Lakoff author of Don’t Think of an Elephant — we learn how people think in metaphors, how framing developed in right-wing think tanks slants public policy debates almost imperceptibly — as in the phrase tax relief; we learn how communications work best when we can fit our message into one of the archetypal narratives of our culture, narratives that have already worn tracks, as it were, in the public mind. That’s why we have cultural theorists like Camille Paglia talking about how, in the public mind, Sarah Palin was playing the role of frontier girl. So what’s all this have to do with raw milk?
What I thought was most interesting about David’s review of the Michael Schmidt raw milk movie was his view of the raw milk farmer as a solitary figure, fighting a lone and lonely battle. I’ve heard that before, but I’ve heard it as a criticism of this otherwise great movie that it places undue emphasis on the heroism of Michael and fails to adequetely include the supporting community of cow share holders and others who’ve been instrumental and important in getting the story as far as it’s so far gone.
Now don’t get me wrong. I love this move. And not just because I’m into raw milk. Although generally I don’t get that much satisfaction from documentaries, this one seems to have sufficient authentic drama, and enough of a story arc to make it work as an artistic as well as an educational experience.
But back to our metaphor, our narrative. The story of raw milk farmer as maverick, as organic hero, while it does bear an element of truth, doesn’t tell enough of the whole story we need to tell. I think it’s really the community element that’s most amazing, that’s most influential, and that’s the most scary to those on the regulatory, government end of things.
The article by David from Business Week in which the farmer collapsed from the trauma of dealing with police and cowshare holders took over running the farm and distributing the milk, is the best example I’ve seen to show the role of supporting community in the raw milk struggle. Here’s the URL for that story:
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/nov2006/sb20061121_167591.htm?chan=smallbiz_smallbiz%2Bindex%2Bpage_policy
And in the Michael Schmidt case, in the recent contempt of court trial, we heard the local public health official tell the court that the reason they didn’t go on the bus to seize the milk was that the people in the bus wouldn’t let them on. He didn’t mention that the people wouldn’t let them on because they didn’t have a search warrant. But still, we’re as far ahead as we are today because cowshare holders stood their ground. And for pretty much a whole year, cow share member escorted Michael’s blue bus to and from Richmond Hill every week a two-hour drive each way. I think that made an impression on the regulatory and law enforcement folks. And just a couple weeks ago, twenty-some supporters showed up downtown at five o’clock on a weekday to parade around Toronto wearing cardboard cow heads to help promote the local premiere of the raw milk film at the Planet in Focus festival. That’s commitment.
Crowds ranging from 30 to 80 have sat through court proceedings, gone to demonstrations and press conferences and just generally made their presence felt. While we recognize the heroism of farmers like Michael Schmidt, who are putting their livelihoods and their liberty on the line for raw milk, I think we need to find a way to include the community support factor in our narrative, because ultimately, that’s the kind of social proof that’s going to sway the public mind to come ’round to supporting the raw milk freedom we’re all working towards.
For more on the ongoing saga of Michael Schmidt and the story of raw milk in Ontario and across the continent, see http://thebovine.wordpress.com