Colin Kaepernick in the Nike ad.
On the face of it, rebel Canadian raw milk farmer Michael Schmidt has a lot in common with football star Colin Kaepernick. Both took unorthodox approaches to assert big-time grievances within powerful industries—Schmidt by selling raw milk in defiance of provincial regulations dictated by Canada’s dairy cartel, Kaepernick by taking a knee during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner prior to NFL games, in defiance of tradition and club policy.
Both continued with their acts of protest in the face of warnings from their industries, and threats to their future earnings.
Both were punished severely as a result of apparent collusion among industry players. Schmidt had to give up producing and selling raw dairy to avoid long-term jail time (after enduring short-term jail time). Kaepernick failed to get any contract offers from NFL teams as a free agent, despite being one of the top performing quarterbacks in the game.
So, how is it that, despite the commonalities, that within the food-rights community, Schmidt is seen as a good guy and Kaepernick is seen as some kind of blot on the republic? I ask that question based on a number of Facebook posts from foodies I know trashing Kaepernick as some kind of bad sport who’s advocating for something subversive, namely, an end to oppression of blacks and other racial minorities by law enforcement.
I’ve watched the whole scenario recur with the nomination process of Brett Kavanaugh for the U.S. Supreme Court. To a number of the same people who trash Kaepernick, the allegations of sexual assault from Christine Blasey Ford, along with two other women, aren’t to be taken seriously. In this view, the accusations are too old, are unsubstantiated, are a political trick, etc., etc. There’s not even a little allowance for the emerging reality that many thousands of women have in effect been victims of oppression—sexual oppression by powerful men, sometimes many years ago.
I find it amazingly ironic that people who view owners of small dairy farms as victims of exploitation by a rigged system can’t or won’t allow outrage when it happens to other groups, including racial minorities, women, and immigrants.
Why does it matter if food rights supporters are blinded to other groups that are abused and exploited? For one very practical reason: owners of small farms get very little meaningful popular support, while other victims of oppression are garnering huge amounts of support.
For Kaepernick, a major sportswear company, Nike, has stood up tall for the former quarterback, heaping on him a lucrative endorsement that launched with a TV ad featuring the former quarterback. This calculated but risky action by a major corporation has had some in the food rights arena, among others, threatening to boycott Nike.
Guess what. While old white folks, including the prez, were mocking Nike, young people were rushing to buy Nike products, and its stock price has added billions and set a record.
As one financial analyst put it: ”People vote with their wallets, and the one clear winner in athletic apparel remains Nike.”
Similarly, there have been important expressions of support for women who are sexually harassed, in Hollywood and in the media. Corporations have adopted new policies designed to end such harassment, and forced out bullying men. No, it’s not the end of sexual harassment in the workplace, but important messages have been sent.
And what about the support for dairy farmers—whether raw or processed? Regulators still harass producers of raw dairy, in both the U.S. and Canada. And dozens of conventional dairy farms continue to fail each week around the U.S. No corporate support and no political support. You see consumers rushing out to stock up on milk to show support? I think not. All the young people rushing out to buy Nike products and supporting the many female candidates for political office care not a whit about oppressed farmers.
Is there a message here? What would happen if foodies stopped turning other oppressed people into the enemy, and instead looked for common ground? What if they began taking up the causes of oppressed people off the farm as their own? There is a lot of common ground sitting there just waiting to be used.
Brilliant post….
I see this time and time again. The small dairies that are closing everyweek all across the USA do not stand in solidarity and cooperate with one another, even as a solution is provided to them. They would rather die than collaborate.
Instead they go silently into extinction.
I totally respect Kaepernic. I totally support NIKE and their gutsy move.
This is a great example of the chasm in America. Follow Trump to the economic Gallows or vote for a socially conscious new America.
The breaking news today finally revealed that Trump is not a billionaire at all, he is a spoiled rotten sugar baby who has never built anything successful in his life. Taking hundreds of millions from his father and cheating everyone that’s ever associated with him….including plenty of women.
Watch this….we are being reborn in America. The morally corrupt Shock and Awe of Trump has awakened the social conscience of this great nation and it is about to swing far left in defiance. Nike stock shows this as an indicator better than anything. The next indication will be the female vote and the take over of congress. Step three, Trumps impeachment. Meanwhile the politically disassociated dairy community will continue to ignorantly pray to their false god and continue into extinction as they vote against their own best interests as trade tariffs, lack of cooperation, over supply, low prices and greed kill them off.
David,
You can fix ugly, but you cannot fix stupid.
John Dutcher
I empathize with Kaepernick, if he wants to go down on one knee then that is his choice. I won’t criticize him for that and I don’t believe he is any less patriotic then anyone else in your country. I do not interpret his getting on one knee as a sign of disrespect for flag or country… Traditionally the action of getting down on one knee is a sign of respect and in his case a peaceful way of showing concern for injustice while at the same time demonstrating respect for his country. All to often symbols such as flags and statues etc. are idolized to the point of deity, which usurps God our creator who commands us to love and not judge others.
With respect to corporate support of Kaepernick and the lack thereof with respect to the raw milk movement, including healthy living foods; if people placed as much value on quality foods such as raw milk as they do on their Nike shoes, booze and innumerable other toys, farmers in the US and Canada would be in much better shape and corporate support would be much more forthcoming…
With respect to Christine Blasey Ford and Bret Kavanaugh I take both of them very seriously. In my view they are both victims of a power struggle, (exacerbated by the media) between the left and the right, with the left resorting to unsavory tactics that failed to respect due process and Ford’s anonymity … Considering the evidence so far, it is a “he said she said” scenario and drawing judgmental conclusions under such circumstances is unwise and a breach of justice.
“Common ground?” as you propose is an unrealistic expectation, considering the dynamics of the foodie movement and free choice being the fundamental matrix of its existence. Searching for “common ground” ought not be our goal for such a search can result in either positive or negative common ground scenarios. Expressing virtues such as charity, compassion, and respect aught to be what guide us.
You say, “if people placed as much value on quality foods such as raw milk as they do on their Nike shoes, booze and innumerable other toys, farmers in the US and Canada would be in much better shape and corporate support would be much more forthcoming…” I disagree, to the extent it would only be forthcoming if the foodies organized and worked for it. It doesn’t just happen. It didn’t just happen for the civil rights movement, and it isn’t just happening for the #metoo movement.
You may want to take another look at my interview with Heather Retberg, where she describes all the excruciatingly hard work it has taken to get food sovereignty ordinances passed around Maine…..and how the organizers avoided the partisanship trap that has sucked in so many foodies over the last couple years.
http://www.davidgumpert.com/why-has-food-sovereignty-caught-on-in-such-a-big-way-in-maine-no-enemies-or-other
I agree, I doesn’t just happen… What I’m suggesting is that consumer purchasing power speaks loud and clear and is what prompts companies such as Nike to be proactive. Without it, Nike’s action would have likely not been forthcoming.
Nike has a reputation of abusing workers and children for profit, so anything it can do to improve its image in the eyes of its customers is invaluable to her bottom line. Social Justice activist who demonstrate against Nike’s abuses are taking advantage of consumer purchasing power in order to achieve their objective. And a moral activist such as Kaepernick is reaping the benefits of it.
https://qz.com/1042298/nike-is-facing-a-new-wave-of-anti-sweatshop-protests/
The food sovereignty movement is a genuine grass roots movement minus the advantage of substantial consumer support or purchasing power to back it up, mainly because the majority of consumers do not place as much value on quality food as they do on, as I previously mentioned, shoes, clothing, and booze etc.
As similar as pieces on a chess board. You really do know how to touch on all the hot topics that divide our society, furthering the edges of this canyon. How sad that these issues are not recognized as completely contrary when one is in the daytime soap of mainstream tv – nothing life-changing about watching grown men chase a ball – and the other involving natural health and mere survival for many:( Approaching the oxymoron..
Alvin, exactly, what do Kaepernick and Canadian raw milk farmer Michael Schmidt have in common? Absolutely nothing. Garbage.
Brave soul you are, David, dipping your toe once again in the fetid political swamp. Thoughtful post. Thanks.
I think what will work in the end is more communication about raw food and milk – on a personal level and on the Web level, as you so admirably do, David.
People are being converted, We moved to a new Town and found three Raw Milk Suppliers, One was so loaded with customers and would be customers that he closed his short list, Another just worked off her feet and not able to supply more, and a third (Thank the Lord,) who NEVER had a customer list, just left his milk and cream in a refrigerator in a Farm Building with a ‘Please pay here’ box for customer’s payments. You still had to find out when he’s got milk and cream, and get there that day.
All these three are known only through a network of Raw Milk Afficionadoes and I was lucky to know one when we arrived here.
Spread the good word about Raw Milk, then one day we shall win this battle.
Rodale Garden Store now offering Organic Raw Milk:
The Garden Store has long carried organic produce and farm fresh eggs, and a few years ago it began featuring cuts of meat from Rodale Institute’s livestock–several varieties of sausage, bacon, pork chops, ham steaks, lard, and more. Customers who live locally purchase these cuts week in and week out, and can also order whole and half hogs.
But new this week is a product the store hasn’t stocked before, and one that will likely come as a welcome surprise to certain dairy lovers: certified organic raw milk, yogurts, and cheeses courtesy of Dutch Meadows Farm, located in Paradise, PA.
If you’re a believer in the potential benefits of raw milk or are curious to try this foodstuff, stop by the store and enjoy a sample, available today! Interested customers can also now place pre-orders for half gallons, quarts, and pints of raw milk by emailing Garden Store Manager Heather Gurk at heather.gurk@rodaleinstitute.org.
I was so honored when a raw milk producer contacted me today and wanted power point slides to increase education awareness for his raw milk!!
Teaching teaching and more teaching is the pathway forward. When people wake up in a cold sweat and realize that they are genomically driven by bacterial DNA….they will search high and low to find and consume quality raw milk.
It is the first food of life. Raw milk creates an immune system where one does not exist. It rebuilds and feeds the immune systems,and drives gut biome health like no other food on earth, especially when Whole and Fermented.
I don’t think you can compare a hard-working, freedom loving farmer who is providing food with a snotty nosed little hypocritical millionaire who plays a game for money!
right on Jacqueline … thank you for antidote to Mr McAffee’s trite and so-predictable political analysis. The feds sabotaged the currency thus the entire economy of Ham-merica, for over a century, …now the vultures are circling over the last vestiges of large family properties, farms/ ranches … but we;re supposed to believe that – after 2 years in the White House – “it’s ALL the fault of Herr Trumpf!”
As for the ‘snotty -nosed little millionaire”, fold in the rank hypocrisy of him being raised in a white household, then positioning himself as front-man for the grievance industry, the central theme of which is : “it’s the White Man’s Fault!!”. What next?!! … photos in the National Enquirer, of Mr Kopper~Knicker~bocker’s galpal wearing a bourqua?
LMAO!!
Jacqueline Lostritto I agree. Comparing food (survival) rights with entertainment (Distraction for the plebs) is just not right.
https://www.richardcassaro.com/the-sports-conspiracy-americans-mass-controlled-enslaved/
Like I said on October 3rd David.
Will Trump’s “New NAFTA” Spread the American Dairy Catastrophe to Canada?
https://www.cornucopia.org/2018/10/will-trumps-new-nafta-spread-the-american-dairy-catastrophe-to-canada/?utm_source=eNews&utm_medium=email&utm_content=10.6.18&utm_campaign=DairyMORE
Raw and ready: Dairy herdshares give members access to unprocessed milk
http://www.c-ville.com/raw-ready-dairy-herdshares-give-members-access-unprocessed-milk/#.W7tOCfZFw2x
Thank you for eloquently expressing the question I have had in my mind for several years.
Milk inspection program marks 50 years of success in New York
http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2018/10/milk-inspection-program-marks-50-years-success-new-york
http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2018/10/study-finds-glyphosate-cat-and-dog-food
If there is roundup in our GMO free pet foods, We are really screwed. Who is watching out for humans ?
Roundup is a powerful antibiotic. It is no wonder that the American gut biome is inflamed and sick.
Mark,
There are recognized residues of glyphosate in an array of foods and drugs, including human breast milk. And that being the case we can be certain that there are more then just “residues” of that chemical in cow’s milk.
Here is a sobering statement by plant pathologist Dr. Don Huber in a letter to the US department of Agriculture (USDA, “It is well-documented that glyphosate promotes soil pathogens and is already implicated with the increase of more than 40 plant diseases; it dismantles plant defenses by chelating vital nutrients; and it reduces the bioavailability of nutrients in feed, which in turn can cause animal disorders.”
My stated position in the late 1970’s with respect to Roundup/glyphosate shortly after it was first introduce as a so called biodegradable and non harmful herbicide, and 20 years before it was used in relation to GMO glyphosate-resistant cops beginning with soybeans in 1996… “Anything that has such a wide spectrum of toxicity cannot but be harmful”.
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide including other weed-killing products is also a recognized biocide. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines biocides as “a diverse group of poisonous substances including preservatives, insecticides, disinfectants, and pesticides used for the control of organisms that are harmful to human or animal health or that cause damage to natural or manufactured products”
IF ONLY IT WERE THAT SIMPLE…
What should be added to the above EPA statement is that the toxic effects of biocidal chemicals on microbes is extensive in nature and that they don’t merely “control” microbes that are harmful to humans but are equally if not more so destructive to a vast network of beneficial microbes that are essential for life.
As I previously stated, efforts to reduce the incidence of so-called food born illnesses via the superficial control of microbes, is merely cosmetic when one considers the far-reaching effects of insidious chemicals such as glyphosate/Roundup, as well as other similar chemicals, and drugs.
The real problem with all herbicides, food preservatives and other bactericides is that they suppress the keystone species of the bacterial community ,the lactic acid bacteria.The lactic acid bacteria reproduce more rapidly and therefore dominate the system in a beneficial way.When they are suppressed other bacteria that promote putrefaction rather than fermentation become dominant. Because the LAB are being suppressed in the cow’s rumen, cows now often suffer from a new disease called rumen botulism which can be fatal very quickly.Large doses of LAB along with an alkalizing substance such as slippery elm bark has successfully treated this condition when administered daily for a few weeks.
I just spent the last three days at Liveaware conference at San Francisco Airport.
A great deal of time and focus was on Roundup. Jeff Smith was there and gave the keynote speech.
GMOs by them selves are bad news. But they are the really scary gateway to Roundup being spread across our food chain in high doses on GMO crops.
The science behind this human hebris and earthly debacle has been exposed. Jeffery shared with us why the recent Monsanto Roundup Cancer verdict was so high at more than $275,000,000 million dollars. Documents submitted as evidence in the court litigation showed clearly that Monsanto faked science studies !!!!! They paid off Phds to write reports that were blatant lies!!!
That’s why the verdict was massive. There was willful intent to deceive.
They knew that Roundup caused cancer in lab animals and never tested it on humans because that would be illegal.
The take away for the Liveaware conference was clearly that Roundup is directly implicated in a broad range of gut biome origin illnesses.
The list is long!!! Very long. Autism could be at the top of the list along with IBS and a host of other immune and auto immune disorders.
My question is this. Why isn’t there a federal warrant for the arrest of the bastards!!! When lies result in deaths….that’s murder. Science has been sold to the medical and chemical mafia.
No GMO or Roundup near our home or plate that’s for sure. Organic is supposed to be the sanctuary for the conscious consumer.
I just wish the USDA took organic enforcement seriously. It is now a matter of life and or death…..one bite of SAD food at a time.
The Canadian government’s position on Roundup — as was told to me by phone by a government employee a few weeks ago — is that it disintegrates completely 2 weeks after being applied and it is never applied to crops within 2 weeks of harvest, so no consumer ever ingests it. I think that this is what Monsanto has reassured governments.
Vera, It is amazing that they still hold onto that fallacy!!!
Although it is claimed that soil microbes readily degrade glyphosate, the half-life estimate of glyphosate in soil varies between 2 and 197 days; a typical field half-life of 47 days has been suggested. When Roundup is sprayed on crops prior to harvested glyphosate along with and thanks to included toxic chemical surfactants, are absorbed into the plants cell structure; hence the reason why levels of glyphosate and its primary breakdown product AMPA can now be isolated in soil, water and food, and as a result can be found in human urine and breast milk.
With respect to it never being applied to crops within “2 weeks of harvest”, the Roundup.ca website states otherwise… The recommended preharvest staging for most crops is between 3-10 days.
http://www.roundup.ca/_uploads/documents/MON-Preharvest%20Staging%20Guide.pdf
The recommended crop staging for peas, “Apply when the crop has 30% or less moisture content. At this stage, the majority of the pods are brown. Typically, the lower and middle pods will be brown and the seeds dry; the upper pods will be yellow and wrinkled, seed rubbery. This is the stage you would normally swath. Wait 3 full days (72 hours) after application before swathing to allow thorough translocation for long-term weed control. The crop may be harvested (straight cutting or swath pick-up) 7 days after application”.
The recommended crop staging for canola, Apply when the crop has 30% or less moisture. At this stage, the pods are green to yellow and most seeds have turned from green to yellow or brown. In Argentine-type canola, application closer to 30% seed moisture content will allow sufficient time for optimum weed control before swathing is required to prevent shattering. Wait 3 full days (72 hours) after application before swathing to allow thorough translocation for long-term weed control. The crop may be harvested (straight cutting or swath pick-up) 7 days after application.
Crop staging for wheat, “Apply when the crop has 30% or less moisture content – the hard dough stage. At this stage, a thumbnail impression will remain on the kernel. This stage is typically 3 to 5 days before you would normally swath”.
Vera, while it may be true that it may disintegrate that does not mean it disappears, it just breaks down into sub forms, and yes you would be ingesting it regardless of timing. Nasty chemicals embedded in living things don’t just disappear as if they never existed, you know? They get absorbed into your biome and that’s just as bad in the long run as fresh sprayed stuff.
Parroted from Monsatan themselves!!
Seems to me like you’re still the boy in the bubble as we all get older. The simple answer is that there just aren’t enough people that have the wealth and power to make those kinds of decisions, and the few of those that do don’t want to lose it so they push, you know, status quo… And they don’t want their names out there. Still, don’t get me wrong I am not putting you down and greatly admire what you do, both in doing the right thing in the marketplace and here on this blog. Salud
BTW my post was directed at Mark, not at David but the real reason most of us keep coming back here is that most of us appreciate both and more perspective is a good thing.
Good Staement Ora!!
Agrichemicals and antibiotics in combination increase antibiotic resistance evolution
https://peerj.com/articles/5801/
Pennsylvania Gov. Issues Warning Over Raw Milk
http://www.post-journal.com/news/latest-news/2018/10/pennsylvania-gov-issues-warning-over-raw-milk/
What is sad is that outbreaks like this are entirely preventable, but farms like this appear not to care enough to implement the proper practices to prevent them. They give everyone else a bad name.
Regarding glyphosate check out this movie: What’s with Wheat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt70HjEiNlw
Also check out another Secret Ingredients
https://secretingredientsmovie.com/trailer/
Also Moms Across America:
https://www.momsacrossamerica.com/glyphosate_testing_results
Richmond, M. E. (2018). Glyphosate: A review of its global use, environmental impact, and potential health effects on humans and other species. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 1-19.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13412-018-0517-2
Abstract
Glyphosate, [N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine], was synthesized in 1950 and patented as a chemical chelator, capable of binding metals such as calcium, magnesium, and manganese. Glyphosate’s ability to bind to manganese was later found to inhibit an enzyme used by plants and bacteria for biosynthesis of three amino acids found in all proteins, and the commercial value of this property led to the development and marketing of glyphosate as a broad-spectrum herbicide. In 1974, the Monsanto Chemical Company introduced the herbicide as Roundup™, a formulation of glyphosate and adjuvants. Roundup™ was originally used for weed control in specific farming and landscaping operations and around power lines and train tracks. Following introduction of Roundup Ready™ seeds, in the 1990s, glyphosate use increased significantly. Although Monsanto’s patent on glyphosate expired in 2002, the widespread and growing use of Roundup Ready™ seed globally and competitive glyphosate marketing by other chemical companies have led to glyphosate’s significant increase in the environment. Concerns about potential adverse effects have also grown. While, at present, many regulatory agencies have determined that there is little risk of adverse health effects to the general public or to farmworkers using proper handling techniques, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) assessing hazard data on glyphosate identified it in 2016 as a category 2A carcinogen (likely to cause human cancer). Response to this classification has been divided: The agribusiness industry has been forceful in its opposition, while other experts support IARC’s classification. The following article examines these issues. It also examines the basis for regulatory decisions, controversies involved, and questions of environmental justice that may or may not be addressed as glyphosate continues to be used.
Glyphosate in these films:
What’s with Wheat?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at8iIk14OtM
Secret Ingredients
https://secretingredientsmovie.com/trailer/
“Three Oregon medical organizations said Monday they want Republican gubernatorial nominee Knute Buehler to retract a statement he made last week calling for parents to have more latitude to exempt their children from medical vaccines.”
https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/10/medical_groups_want_buehler_to.html?fbclid=IwAR3FeIaLfmpOJLEBjkzCFnwhOAk6-blc3-UEmf5RjSEIWIsCXKsq8k9Kcm8
I saw the documentary Secret Ingedients by Jeff Smith last weekend at the LiveAware conference in SF CA.
Pretty impressive work.
The nexus between GMO development and the secondary ability to really abuse Roundup is made very clear. GMOs are a killer because they are th gateway to the direct use of Roundup on our food. Not on the sides of the roads. No….directly on the food we eat.
Thousands of acres of Roundup GMO alfalfa in CA has been removed by farmers because cows refused to eat it. That directly from a dairyman that I know just a few miles from our organic farm. .
Jeff Smith was at the conference and explained how the recent Roundup
Cancer trial verdict of $280 million outcome came about. The reason that the verdict was so massive was because Monsanto had lied in their studies. They had paid off PhD scientists to FAKE the data and claim that Roundup was not associated with Cancer!!! When in fact it caused high levels of Cancer in lab animals.
It was an overt criminal fraud! That’s why the jury went off the rails and gave the massive verdict!
My big question? Why aren’t the EPA and the US Marshals arresting Michael Taylor of Monsanto fame and why aren’t there indictments flying everywhere.
We have a sick government. Money Trumps everything. Winning is everything. People are Pons.
Even the sanctioned murder of a US citizen by the Saudis in their own embassy does not matter. The only thing that matters is winning and money. Winning at the expense of our children’s guts and biome. Sure why not….?
This is the end of the world as we once knew it. Everyone better vote. Buy organic at a minimum. Get Roundup off your plate and out of our lives and out of soils.
Mark,
Unless these corrupt practices you mentioned are directed at individuals via criminal charges rather then at the corporate level at large via litigation, you are not going to see much change. Nor will you see much change if you expect it to come from the top-down…
Companies like Monsanto and Bayer have been around for a long time selling their wares and manipulating “the system”. Mergers and spin offs is their modus operandi in an attempt to disguise their unscrupulous criminal activity in order to evade scrutiny.
Ultimately a reduction in the wide spread use of GMOs and chemical products such as Roundup will only come about when farmers stop buying into this biotechnology and chemical bag of tricks… Go ahead and state your opinion, and ask your neighboring farmers why they continue to use these toxic insidious products? I do, and I get the usual condescending smirks labeling me as some sort of small minded Luddite. In fact Monsanto have gone out of their way to turn farmers who support their products against those farmers who do not.
Companies like Monsanto and Bayer know very well who butters their toast… First the consumer/farmer who purchases their products and second the consumer/farmer that elects the politicians that regulate those same products.
Ken,
Please let me dream and vent in my catharsis.
You are so right.
Farmers in the commodity markets don’t know and don’t really have a basis for caring about consumers. They don’t serve consumers. They serve commodity brokers. The distance between farmers and consumers is huge.
I see this all the time at National Famers Union conventions. The organic consumer connected farmers are marginalized as liberals and the pro GMO Roundup lovers are right wingers ( with their no drone, no trespassing policies to protect exposure of their CAFO abuses )
One look at the Midwest and those that love their diet cokes with high rates of obesity, diabetes, cancer and etc. and I know all I need to know.
In the end it will be morr pain and plenty more tragedy that will cause dollar voting to make the change in history. Some mainstream scientist will expose Roundup and the truth in the mainstream media and then FOX news will finally get the spine to carry it and then the truth will get exposed. It will be years from now. Plenty of time for huge damage to be delivered to real people at huge expense.
As organic markets grow and conscientiousness grows, so will health and gut health and mental health and voting clarity. Addicted, unhealthy unconscious people vote poorly.
A brilliant scientist is the one who sees and discovers the obvious. Its not the discovery, its the balls to stand and speak of it.
We see this all the time in the EU raw milk research and the PubMed Politics in order to get the truth peer reviwed and published. The truth is too big to announce. The lie too big and too disruptive to denounce out loud. Most Scientists are really cowards and sell themselves to stay in the favored grant herd. The rare scientist that stands at high cost for the truth is the real Nobel Winner. It was not the novelty of the discovery. It was the courage to speak of it.
Little by little. With Time, truth and perseverance, good things have a way of rising to the top…just like cream.
Why is this not a surprise…
I would think that they view a ruling in favor of this constitutional challenge a threat to the milk quota, supply management system and therefore of commercial interest to them. They want nothing less then absolute control of all of the milk produced in Ontario…
“As noted earlier, we have been waiting since April for the government to file their responding evidence in our constitutional challenge – due in November. Now the DFO (Dairy Farmers of Ontario, formerly the Milk Marketing Board) is seeking to intervene. Although the DFO’s commercial interest is not relevant to the constitutional question of whether our Charter rights are being violated by the prohibition on accessing raw milk, we agreed to their participation on a “friend of the court” basis. The DFO rejected our offer and has embarked on a costly fight to gain full intervenor status. If they succeed, the DFO’s involvement will substantially increase administrative complexity (i.e., our costs) in the court process from this point forward, and likely the number of months it will take to conclude it. A judge will hear arguments on the DFO’s motion later this month.”
https://www.gofundme.com/legal-raw-milk-canada?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-153996516144-e1fa86a1011e47fc&utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email&utm_content=cta_button&utm_campaign=upd_n
It occurred to me that all the energy, money and effort that has gone into this court case could have gone into forming a consumer lobby group which could have approached the DFO and worked with them to create a “specialty quota” for regulated farm-gate sales of unpasteurized milk from grass-fed microdairy herds which implement proper production standards (e.g. RAWMI training).
Perhaps this could still be done, and thus remove the endless money-sink called “Ontario Courts”. There are two RAWMI-listed producers in Ontario — grassfed microdairies (3 and 5 cows respectively, if I recall correctly). These two farms could be brought on board as a DFO pilot project. Has a raw milk consumer group approached the DFO yet? If not, then is there any interest in this happening?
Vera your comment is what intelligent people would say… predicated in logic. Your mistake, is : presuming good will on the parts of those vested interests who have much to lose, if REAL MILK were to become available. Not for nothing do the Dairy Farmers of Canada spend million$ per year, dis-informing govt. officials to perpetuate the myths. : ordinary people are naive when they enter politics : ’til they get “blooded in the fray”, they do not have the measure of the Enemy.
The Dairy cartel was powerful enough to skew the leadership campaign of the federal Conservative party, so that the true favourite was edged out ( on the 12th ballot!! ) by Sheer. Read all about it in Maxime Bernier’s book … particularly, how the dairy lobbyists came up with thousands of faux memberships, then cast those ballots to undercut Bernier. Point being ; that’s just a hint of the wickedness you’re dealing with.
About a decade ago when I started commenting on internet forums about REAL MILK I used the tagline “America is ruled by people who hate us”. Too much ‘strong meat’ for most folks. Still true though> Throughout history, the Israelites have had a thorn in our flesh who hate our God and take out that hatred every way they can, on us. Poisoning our food supply is just one of their tactics. : no mere co-incidence that one of the staple foodstuffs in this country is processed so as to ruin the very Vitamins and enzymes which are crucial for our reproductive systems to function properly. Confer with the work of Weston A Price. No, Price did not endorse my theory of an intergenerational, international conspiracy of consanguine human beings whose very religion curses white Christians. But as Jesus Christ put it “by their fruits ye shall know them”. What went on in the Soviet Union in the Holomordor, being Exhibit#1 in modern times. –
Oh Yes several times
DFO has really lost any sort of consumer orientation. If they were concerned about consumers they would immediately issue Niche Cottage Industry Quota for raw milk and lose this chapter. Done.
Instead they continue to blindly and ignorantly pursue market dominance and control over dairy production and supply.
Do they realize that “raw milk” is a dairy product!!! No…more than anything, they see their milk check and will protect it, what ever it takes.
If they listened to any of my presentations across Canada, they would realize that consumers that are allergic or lactose intolerant to pasteurized dairy products will never drink or eat their processes stuff. But, if those same consumers consumed raw dairy perhaps they would. Time and time again we see consumers after eating raw….can then eat pasteurized again. Raw fixes the gut biome….
The UK has 170 raw milk dairies. RAWMI is being utilized to train them all through a relationship with their org The UK Raw Milk Producers Association.
Canada looks to the UK for many things. The UK is about to become the premier raw milk production country in the world. Canada will look shamefully backward in its shadow.
It is unfortunate that dairymen by nature get stuck in cultures they can not extricate themselves from.
Before raw milk can be distributed in Ontario, the Health Protection and Promotion Act must be changed. Current wording: “18 (1) No person shall sell, offer for sale, deliver or distribute milk or cream that has not been pasteurized or sterilized in a plant that is licensed under the Milk Act or in a plant outside Ontario that meets the standards for plants licensed under the Milk Act.”
However, the DFO has the political clout to ask the Ontario government to change this law. If the DFO can present the Health Minister Christine Elliott with a plan for the production of safe raw milk, it can happen. Current advice to Ontario government policy shops from the University of Guelph is that such production is impossible. But, Guelph has a commercial dairying facility which uses conventional industrial dairying methods, right?
Can RAWMI ask for a meeting with the DFO, and you go to Ontario to show them how RAWMI methods work and how they differ from ProAction/CQM and conventional Canadian dairying?
Vera,
Recently I was in WA DC. Members of the Ontario Milk Board and BC Canada Milk Boards had been invited to present to members of congress about the Canadian Supply Management system.
I made quick friends with the BC board member. He was open and impressed with RAWMI systems and outcomes. I shared my last bacteria counts sent real time via Apple Cell phone ( we test twice a day using BAX PCR RT at a local lab ) He was impressed,….perhaps the better word was shocked!! He could not believe OPDC was getting less than one on Coliforms with zero pathogens and results by lab in 11 hours. Milking 580 cows ! Not to mention a raw organic brand sold in 500 California stores and growing!
This was a real wake up call for my BC CanadIan dairy friend.
The dairy member from DFO was not impressed ( he might have been but did not show it ) He was distant and just kind of faded away from the conversation. BC was impressed and DFO distant.
There goes the story of Canada from East verses West.
When the Canadian dairymen learn that their products are incomplete and they need raw products to complete their offerings to the consumers….things will change then.
Meanwhile, there are 160 raw milk dairies in the UK that are about to become RAWMI trained. When the Food Safety Agency of UK talks to the Canadians, there will be a huge shift in thought. The UK has set a goal of becoming the preeminent raw milk producing nation in the world and RAWMI along with their producers association will be the organizations to make it happen. Just less than 1% of all milk sold in the UK is raw! That’s impressive. They also have a 20% failure rate when milk is tested. That is the UK RAWMI challenge,….get all tbose dairies passing their tests.
A huge compliment to the UK FSA, unlike the FDA, they see the challenge and have reached out to help farmers to become world class raw milk producers.
I only wish our FDA would wake up and serve consumers instead of CAFO industry.
Mark, that 1% must include milk going for production of other products such as cheese, powdered milk etc.
The FSA reported that as of their 2018 survey, 10% of the population of Wales, England, and Northern Ireland drank raw milk – up from 3% in 2012 – see page 3 at http://acss.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/rawdrinkingmilkconsumerinsightreport2018.pdf
Clarification – I meant the remaining 99% must include all the milk going toward making processed products (cheese etc.). If 10% of all residents of the UK excluding Scotland are raw milk drinkers, then I’d think that more than 1% of retail fluid milk sales are of unpasteurized fluid milk.
ABC Nightline has been in Wisconsin and Washington DC and at Farm Aid talking with dairy farmers and farm advocates about efforts to build a farmer-led movement calling for solutions to the dairy price crisis. The story is set to air tomorrow night (October 24th).
For the life in me… I simply don’t understand the psychology of dairymen.
When faced with bankruptcy and certain failure of their farms, they refuse to cooperate and would rather stand by and watch each other die off. Can anyone answer why they refuse to join together ?
The Canadians formed strong collaborations 50 years ago. Why are US dairymen so adverse to a system that they run and guarantees success. I just don’t get it.
It’s not all as it seems in Canada Mark.
Farmers including dairy farmers tend to be fiercely independent. In Canada dairy farmers were compelled (dragged in kicking and screaming) via government legislation to participate in a supply management system and there are a growing number of dairy farmers today who are fed up with it’s top down control mechanisms and would like nothing more then to see the system curtailed and even abandoned.
Supply management is no substitute for the consumer’s lack of appreciation for good food. Indeed, it has not ever been popular and is growing increasingly unpopular amongst consumers and many reporters in the media. Forcing consumers to pay more for their food via government legislated supply management is not a popular modus operandi; better they do without a foodstuff for an extended period of time in order to gain a genuine appreciation for that food…
As the following article states, “The world wants Canada to scrap supply management.” And as Sylvain Charlebois, dean of the faculty of management at Dalhousie University states in the article,” “This was predictable. We are the only industrialized country in the world with such a system.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/3388537/donald-trump-dairy-supply-management-benefits/
I read this on social media today: A raw milk farm in Alberta was raided yesterday by a team of RCMP, Alberta Health, and Alberta Agriculture officers.
The fact that Alberta Health hasn’t yet issued press releases begs the question of why the silence — maybe they want to ensure that other farms can’t prepare for planned raids?
Given also that (1) the DFO tried recently to get intervenor status in the Glencolton Farm legal action in Ontario, and given that (2) the rumour is spreading in BC from gleeful commercial dairy farmers who are crowing that “the government is going to put a stop to all that now, as they gave too many [free trade] concessions away”, a suspicious mind might wonder if Caanadian governments are attacking raw milk farms in order to pacify the Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) and its provincial branches, which are upset that more American milk is being allowed into Canada. If they now go after farms in other provinces, then it’s not paranoia, it’s fact.
Mark has the solution: creating a new class under supply management for raw milk sales. Why won’t the DFC listen? Contact information for the DFC is at https://www.dairyfarmers.ca/contact if anyone wishes to try to get them to.
Mark, the DFO is just a branch of the DFC – you need to talk to “head office” of the DFC in order to make change.
the Establishment – meaning the Dairy Farmers of Canada, and all its subsidiary Milk Marketing Board commissars – won’t listen because they know perfectly well how the mere existence of the Campaign for REAL MILK seriously embarrasses them. They cannot abide comparison of their product with what is produced by conscientious artisanal raw milk dairies.
but “it’s an ill wind which doesn’t blow someone good”. If -as appears – the racketeers are getting heavy-handed – that means they’re desperate. So we’re at the stage of a political movement where the Tyrants overreach demselves, and does something really stupid.
I suggest that raw milk fans in Canada contact Maxime Bernier… this incident is a prime opportunity for him to make ‘political hay’ = armed officers in the uniform of the government, coming down on a guy who’s just feeding people. Yeah, the RCMP can get away with it in Alberta, but you sure would not see this non-sense in Quebec.
ONe has to laugh at the scenario of the cavalcade riding in to Dave Rand’s farm yard on their coal black steeds … having galloped over immediately after finishing the Musical Ride show. Yes, Dave Rand certainly does warrant the Mounties showing up right at milking time … Someone who tells the truth in a society stupified by lies is considered extremely dangerous by the Powers-that-Be!
Raw milk is a foundational strategy for natural teeth healing and I believe that oral health is a human right which is undermined by structural inequalities (especially racism, colonialism, classism, able-bodiedism).
The high cost of dental treatment, and its inadequate public funding in many countries put conventional approaches to oral health out of reach.
Capitalism and racism conspire to make fresh food of any kind hard to access in many communities where people of color are the majority. My own mostly BIPOC neighbourhood is well served with fast food joints and liquor stores, but not a single green grocer.
Teeth nourishing food choices, even for the minority of people who know what that means, are literally out of reach for many many people.
There is no staple food where that is more extreme than with raw milk which is so difficult to access in most countries that it’s an obscure niche product.
You have to have money, motivation and time to consume raw milk regularly when you can’t buy it with the rest of your groceries, and often have to drive long distances… if you can buy it at all.
Oral health is ultimately a human rights issue, and there are many ways in which racism undermines teeth and gum health. US raw milk producers’ racism alienating BIPOC, is just one of them.