On behalf of the Center for Media and Democracy, I want to thank you for joining the new Food Rights Network. We appreciate you for taking a stand against hoodwinking school children and people of all ages into using “organic” “compost” that is really industrial and human sewage sludge to grow fruits and vegetables without any fair notice.
We believe such practices violate both common sense and your rights.
But, at the Food Rights Network, we need your help not just to fight toxic sewage sludge but also to support safe, healthy, and sustainable agriculture. For farmers and eaters.
Photo Credit: Grassway Organics
And, to us, that means supporting real family farms. It means standing up for the rights of farmers to care for animals with enough pasture to graze and ensure good quality milk. It means opposing efforts to indenture farmers to corporations whose drive for profits forces herds and flocks to be so large that farming is industrialized, antibiotics are ubiquitous, and waste is concentrated into massive lagoons that threaten neighbors and our water supplies. It also means standing up for the rights of people to know what they are eating, how it was farmed, where it was processed, and what it contains.
That’s why I am also honored to introduce you to our new lead writer for the Food Rights Network, Rebekah Wilce. Let me let Bekah tell you her own journey here.
- Lisa Graves
Editor, Food Rights Network
Executive Director, Center for Media and Democracy
What’s Milk Got to Do With It?
I’ve worked on eight small farms since 2007. Six of them are certified organic. The other two are not, only because their tiny size and the directness of their markets negate the need for an outside certification. All follow organic practices.
Even if they did not, however, none of them would consider spreading sewage sludge on their fields. They eat food from their fields; their children eat from their fields; their parents eat from their fields; their best friends and neighbors all eat from their fields. Healthy soil is the most important asset of an organic farm. None of them would allow their soil or their food to be contaminated with the heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, and flame retardants in industrial sewage sludge.
These farms don’t avoid sludge because using it would get them in trouble with regulators; they avoid it because it’s the right thing to do.
A couple of them, in fact, claim that the regulators are trying to put them out of business. Why? Of the farms where I’ve worked, two produce small amounts of milk in addition to other produce (being small, diverse farms). The FDA and some state agriculture departments have not only told them that they cannot sell their milk directly to their friends and neighbors without having it first trucked to an outside processor to be pasteurized and homogenized. They have also told them that they don’t even have a right to drink the milk from their own cows, goats, or sheep.
The government has taken away these farms’ dairy licenses based on the suspicion that they might try to sell unpasteurized milk, milk that comes from healthy cows, without being cooked or adulterated. In one case, bureaucrats even took away an unrelated beef license to punish a family farmer they suspected of sharing raw milk with farm visitors.
All of the farms where I’ve worked are small and clean, with their dairy livestock on pasture, eating grass and hay. These farmers are paragons of organic farming, true stewards of the land, and faithful friends who care for their customers. None of them would risk getting those customers sick.
These aren’t the dangerous dairies attached to distilleries that proliferated as industrial farming took hold in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in New York City. In those early days of the industrial revolution, cows on the forerunners of factory farms were kept in disgusting conditions and fed distillery swill.
It is exactly that sort of commingling of industry and agriculture that the Food Rights Network is opposed to. It is exactly those kinds of practices that we believe eaters should be informed of and be able to choose to avoid. That is why we work to expose the practice of spreading toxic sludge on land used to grow our food. That is why we work to protect the right to choose and obtain clean, healthy food.
Stay tuned in the coming months as we not only continue to expose corporate products and practices that endanger our health and welfare; but also focus on incredible farmers who bring us healthy food, makers of real compost for us to use in our gardens, and activists who fight for the right to continue to choose these healthy alternatives.
In October, the Food Rights Network focused on the first in a series of Food and Farm Heroes, Wisconsin dairy farmer and food rights activist John Kinsman. This month, we interviewed the intrepid raw milk activist, Max Kane. Look for that interview in the coming weeks.
- Rebekah Wilce
Lead Writer, Food Rights Network
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November 14, 2011
Michael Schmidt is a Canadian dairy farmer, and he’s scared. Why?
“Over the last 17 years I have made every effort to engage the authorities in a constructive dialogue about the issue of non-pasteurized milk in Ontario and Canada. In return my farm has been raided by armed officers, my family has been terrorized and I [have] been dragged through the courts – first being acquitted and then being found guilty.
“Today, farmers like me in Ontario and around the country are scared. We are scared that people with guns who claim to be acting in our best interests will snatch our livelihoods from us. We are scared that we will be tried for the “crime” of believing that informed consumers and citizens in our free country should be able to choose what they eat and drink.”
(From a letter to Ontario Premier, Dalton McGuinty, published on David Gumpert’s blog, “The Complete Patient.”)
On Friday, November 4th, Schmidt ended his 37 day hunger strike for the right to buy food directly from farmers, which he had said he’d “keep going until death”, because he was able to meet with McGuinty to discuss what he calls “responsible food freedom.” According to the Canadian Press, a “spokeswoman for McGuinty says the meeting went well, and Schmidt was invited to speak to the Liberal caucus, but the government will not change its position to allow the sale of raw milk.” In Canada, it is at least legal to drink raw milk.
The fight in Canada is scarcely different from the fight in the United States, where regulatory bodies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and judges like Wisconsin’s Judge Patrick Fiedler declare that farmers and eaters “do not have a fundamental right to produce and consume the foods of [our] choice” (emphasis added).
“My Farm Has Been Raided By Armed Officers”
Farmers in the United States have made the same claim in the last several years. For a timeline of a handful of them, see the Raw Milk Raid Timeline on SourceWatch.org. (more…)
November 8, 2011
URGENT RAW MILK ACTION ALERT
(from the Weston A. Price Foundation, with appreciation for all their work)
Mobilizing For Food Sovereignty
BACKGROUND
On Wednesday, September 28, 2010, the Ontario government won its appeal against biodynamic farmer, Michael Schmidt. The appeal reversed the former ruling, which confirmed cow share members’ right to obtain raw milk products. Justice Peter Tetley rejected Schmidt’s argument that providing raw milk to cow share owners who are aware of any health risks was his legal right.
Schmidt has been fighting for the right to provide raw milk at his Grey County farm ever since it was raided by government officials in 1994. The recent ruling convicts Michael on 15 of 19 and reverses last year’s lower court decision to acquit him of all charges. This latest judicial ruling basically endorses governmental interference of property ownership rights and violates basic human rights to food sovereignty.
Since this ruling, Michael has embarked on a hunger strike and faces imminent danger of another raid to his farm, as do other farms that participate in Cowshare Canada.
He feels that our movement is in great danger and we must act in unison now!
Michael’s urgent message: We must mobilize our forces throughout Canada and the US with an enormous public outcry. We need to put relentless pressure on legislators in both countries—national, state and local—and also on health authorities through a massive letter-writing and call-in campaign. We also need to organize face-to-face meetings whenever possible. Canada desperately needs US support in these matters, so we encourage all US members to send messages to key Canadian contacts as well.
ACTION TO TAKE
It is imperative that we organize to a much higher level. We need everyone in our movement to participate. We need:
- At the very least, all members (US and Canada) should write to Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Canada. Submit by email at https://correspondence.premier.gov.on.ca/en/feedback/feedback.aspx or send a fax to 416-325-3745.
- US citizens to write letters and call local, state, and federal legislators in the U.S. and to write letters to Canadian members of the Provincial Parliament in Ontario and British Columbia listed in this alert.
- Canadian citizens to write letters to Canadian members of the Provincial Parliament in Ontario and British Columbia listed in this alert.
- All need to write letters and call your local and state health officials.
Michael is depending on us to back up his brave efforts for food sovereignty!
CANADIAN CONTACTS:
Dalton McGuinty, Premier
Legislative Building
Queen’s Park Toronto ON M7A 1A1
1-800-387-5559
https://correspondence.premier.gov.on.ca/en/feedback/feedback.aspx
Fax: 416-325-3745
Tim Hudak- Leader of the Opposition
4961 King St. E Unit M1
Beamsville, ON L0R 1B0
timhudak@niagara.net
905-563-1755 (or toll free at 1-800-665-3697).
Deb Matthews-Minister of Health and Long-Term Care
242 Piccadilly Street
London, ON N6A 1S4
dmatthews.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
Tel: (519) 432-7339
Fax: (519) 432-0613
Andrea Horwath – Leader of the New Democratic Party
Hamilton Centre Constituency Suite 200
20 Hughson Street South
Hamilton, Ontario L8N 2A1
ahorwath-co@ndp.on.ca
905-544-9644
Fax: 905-544-515
Randy Hillier
Lanark–Frontenac–Lennox and Addington Constituency
Unit 1
105 Dufferin Street
Perth, Ontario K7H 3A5
randy.hillierco@pc.ola.org
613-267-8239
Fax: 613-267-7398
Jack MacLaren
2 Beaverbrook Mall, Unit 102
Kanata, ON K2K 1L2
jack@jackmaclaren.com
Tel: 1-877-780-5225
Greg Sorbara
Liberal MPP in Ontario
Constituency Office
140 Woodbridge Avenue, Unit AU8 – Market Lane
Woodbridge, ON L4L 4K9
Tel: (905) 851-0440
Fax: (905) 851-0210
gsorbara.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
Queen’s Park Office
Room 186, Main Legislative Building
Toronto, ON M7A 1A4
Tel: (416) 212-1022
Fax: (416) 212-1025
Larry Miller
Federal Conservative MP for Grey
Chair of Standing Committee on Agriculture in Ottawa
1131 2nd Avenue East, Suite 208
Owen Sound, ON N4K 2J1
519-371-1059 phone
519-371-1752 fax
millela1@parl.gc.ca
or
Room 510, Justice Building
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
613-996-5191 phone
613-952-0979 fax
ottawa@larrymiller.ca
U.S. CONTACTS
State and Federal Elected Officials: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
State Health and Agriculture Departments: Google your state and “Health Department”
SAMPLE LETTER
An Urgent Appeal for Justice
Dear ___________,
Today, governments are pouring enormous resources into interfering with people’s rights to their own property and to obtain the food they need for their well-being. Governments that are truly concerned with justice are supposed to protect citizens’ rights, not violate them. We urgently demand an open, in-depth dialogue with government and health officials about these violations of food rights.
Increasing numbers of people consider it crucial to their health to obtain high-quality foods directly from organic, sustainable farms. These foods often include raw dairy products, meat and eggs from free-ranging, grass-fed animals—foods of very dense nutrient value that cannot be found in grocery stores.
In states and provinces where the law bans the sale of raw milk, people enter into contracts to co-own a cow and board the animal with a farmer. As owners of the cow, they are also the owners of the milk the cow produces, and are legally entitled to drink it because no sale of milk is involved. These arrangements are called “cowshares.”
The most allergenic food in North America is pasteurized milk, so it is not an option for many families. Raw milk is less allergenic for some, and reduces asthma attacks (huge international studies such as the recent GABRIELA study show this to be true). That is why we must be free to make that choice. That is why our lack of food sovereignty creates illness and pushes us all into food slavery.
These basic principles of justice must prevail:
- Food sovereignty is an inalienable constitutional right;
- Rights to one’s own property is a legally binding principle;
- Cowshares are a legal binding contract of property ownership;
- Access to foods from small farms is essential to the health and well-being of families who choose these foods;
- Small sustainable farms are essential to the health of agriculture world-wide;
- Governmental interference with property ownership rights along with violations to basic human rights of food sovereignty must end; and
- Government and health authorities must abstain from the infringement of rights and violence or threat of violence against participants in cowshare programs.
Sincerely,
(Action Alert from the Weston A. Price Foundation)
October 27, 2011
