Canada: The Milk War
by Sally Fallon
On Tuesday, November 21, Glencolton Farms in Durham, Ontario, Canada was raided by agents of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the enforcement arm of the Ministry of Health. The proprietor of Glencolton Farms, Michael Schmidt, has operated a cow-share program without incident for the past eleven years. (For background, visit realmilk.com/real-milk-canada.html.)
On the morning of November 21, Michael loaded up the vehicle that carries his goods into Toronto--the famous Blue Bus that arrives at the Toronto Waldorf School every Tuesday. There, the shareholders line up to receive the products of their cows. But as Michael drove out of the laneway, the bus was surrounded by a swarm of armed Ministry of Natural Resources officers approaching from all sides. They presented Michael with a search warrant and, for the next seven and a half hours, the investigators searched, questioned and confiscated.
The six individuals who live and/or work on the Farm were ordered to stay in the kitchen. Visits to other areas of the house or outdoors had to be conducted accompanied by an officer. Two investigators from the Ministry of Finance also arrived and spent several hours in the office, eventually leaving with one computer hard drive, its monitor and keyboard, back-up CDs and boxes of paper files.
The investigating officers were very polite, respectful and, somewhat surprised, it seemed, at the farm crew's friendliness and cooperation. Michael and his son Markus filmed much of their activities. Every bottle of milk, cultured milk, quark, cream and sour cream, along with fresh cheese, that had been put on the bus was confiscated . . . and then dumped into a local landfill site in the contaminated substances area! The farm's cheese-making and other dairy equipment was completely dismantled and carted off.
On Thursday, two days after the raid, Michael Schmidt publicly vowed to continue distributing raw milk products and announced that he had begun a hunger strike to back his demand that the provincial government stop interfering with the business. Schmidt, 51, told the gathering of press, supporters and interested individuals, held at his family farm northeast of Durham, that he will live on one glass of milk a day until his milk processing equipment is returned. He also wants the province to compensate the 150 families he supplies with raw milk products for their loss when their food was seized. He's also demanding the province's assurance that it will not interfere in his unpasteurized milk operation until or unless the matter is resolved in court or in the provincial legislature.
"Eleven and a half years ago, when I asked (the government) for co-operation in researching the raw milk issue and they turned me down, I said I would go ahead alone and if (they) interfered again with legal action I would go on a hunger strike . . . I'm simply following up on what I had promised at that time," he said. Schmidt reiterated his vow at a press conference held in Toronto on November 29
According to Schmidt, the government has been fabricating stories that link milk products from his farm to two cases of sick children last summer. He said that it was common knowledge that they had become sick from eating tainted hamburger meat. The family was unknown to Schmidt, were not members of his cow share program and did not consume his unpasteurized milk.
On December 7, a bill to study the raw milk question, proposed by Bill Murdoch, Member of the Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound in Ontario where Glencolton is located, was defeated.
While the actions taken against Schmidt were inexcusable, this situation actually presents a golden opportunity for positive change in Canada, most likely through legal action to force the Canadian government to return Michael's confiscated equipment and to ensure the right of Canadians to obtain raw milk through cow share programs. And in spite of the police action taken against the farm, the Blue Bus continues to make its weekly trip to Toronto where cow-share owners pick up the raw milk from Glencolton Farms. Michael Schmidt remains strong and optimistic, living on one glass of raw milk per day. For updates and further details, visit glencoltonfarms.com.
Above: Agents carry off raw milk products destined for delivery in the Blue Bus to cow-share owners in Toronto.
Above: Protesters demand the right to raw milk and healthy food after a press conference in Toronto.
Sally Fallon Morell is the author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats (with Mary G. Enig, PhD), a well-researched, thought-provoking guide to traditional foods with a startling message: Animal fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the diet, necessary for normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. She joined forces with Enig again to write Eat Fat, Lose Fat, and has authored numerous articles on the subject of diet and health. The President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and founder of A Campaign for Real Milk, Sally is also a journalist, chef, nutrition researcher, homemaker, and community activist. Her four healthy children were raised on whole foods including butter, cream, eggs and meat.
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