It's Just a Little Sour Milk!

The police and Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) gestapo descended on a family farm west of Toronto this past week. Their goal to remove illegal unpasteurized milk which has been sold by this farm for the past 10 years to an ever-growing list of clients. Farmer Michael Schmidt has been selling his product to a community of believers which seems to be constantly growing. Why it even includes one of the highest level Cabinet Ministers in the Ontario provincial government - Greg Sorbara (Finance minister) who has been buying it for his family.

Schmidt had been circumventing the law by selling shares in his herd and then charging a fee per litre for the feeding and milking of that herd. At last count he had a waiting list of several hundred potential owners clamouring for a piece of the action and a source of unadulterated milk.

Both the dairy farmers organization and the health community have been quick to support the status quo arguing that unpasteurized milk was full of harmful or potentially harmful bacteria. After all it comes directly from a live animal - it can't be good if it hasn't been treated, eh?

Farmer Schmidt has many supporters, including celebrity chef Jamie Kennedy and US milk activist Sally Fallon who came to a Toronto news conference to lend their support to Schmidt. What remains is for the Agriculture minister in the provincial government to decide if a change could/should be made to the legislation allowing this milk to be sold. There are many states in the US that allow it as well as some of our European friends. Why should supposedly forward thinking Ontario be left in the dust?

I say let the milking begin and those who want to have it fresh and raw go ahead and enjoy it! The rest of society can continue to enjoy pasturized milk if they choose. But let's not make a criminal of someone who is genuinely providing a product that a segment of society deems to be both fit and preferential.

Cheers from the Valley.