The Michael Schmidt case: What it means to me
Awesome pic of Michael Schmidt & his raw milk! Pic from The National Post.
As someone new to the raw milk “scene,” as it were, but not new to other food issues, I wasn’t really that surprised to learn that raw milk is a political hot potato. Of course I wasn’t; everything that is truly good & nourishing for us, that does not have some kind of industrial additive or shortcut included with it, is being attacked overtly and covertly. Advertising, misinformation, and just plain addiction are all working together to make “food” nothing more than a synthetic mishmash that rakes in billions for the few who control it. And when people contract one of the modern diseases, the pharmeceutical industry is ready & waiting to sell its drugs. Big pharm & big ag are bosom buddies, and you go against them at your peril, it seems. But most people don’t; most people don’t give a flying fig what’s in their food as long as it tastes good, is cheap, and they can eat loads & loads of it. We’re a country of addicts.
Big ag works because it’s big business. Big biz only wants to make money, and they are making lots and lots of money. The problem, of course, is that food is not—well, should not be—a typical manufacturing commodity. You wanna cut corners to make tables & chairs? Fine (well, not fine, but that’s an entirely different rant). I’m not eating my table. The table isn’t going into my body to keep me alive. But food is. Food should keep me healthy, not turn me into a future big pharm customer. But food is being produced as if it doesn’t matter what goes into it or how it is made, and people are suffering because of it. Any way big ag can cut costs, use cheaper ingredients, find cheaper labor, all the usual suspects, it does, and the end product is a shelf-stable food product that is almost completely devoid of any bodily value or true nutrition.
Yet there are still small farmers here & there who are going about their business, trying to make a living, and doing it in a healthier way that produces real food. They are finding their efforts made difficult, and in some cases completely blocked, by big ag. It’s ridiculous. A very small percentage of people prefer real food over industrial food-like products, but the way bullying and legislation is going, you’d think that big ag is scared the little guy will put a dent in their business.
Well, maybe they will. Supply and demand, of course. Although I don’t expect a statistically significant number of people to voluntarily give up fake food, and you know what? That’s fine. That’s their choice. If they don’t want to make changes, they don’t have to. But choice is the key word. If I choose to consume real food, I should be able to do so.
That’s what the raw milk issue, and Michael’s case, are about, no matter what the verdict is. Choice. If you don’t think raw milk has benefits, then by all means don’t drink it. If I do think it has benefits, I should be able to drink it. If a government wants to pass laws, then pass laws that require raw milk producers to be subject to stringent regular inspection. Require people to sign something that says they can’t sue the government if they get sick, whatever. But leave me with the choice to eat as I see fit.
UPDATE!! Michael found not guilty of all charges! Woohoo! What a wonderful step in the right direction. The battle’s only just gearing up, I’ll bet (who me, cynical?), but it’s times like these that give me hope. :)
Hear! Hear! I completely agree with what you said in the last paragraph.
Each person should be able to choose! Well said. Thanks.
Great post, but a point about your conclusion:
“pass laws that require raw milk producers to be subject to stringent regular inspection…”
That leaves me wondering whether you thought about how much your proposed policy would limit (if not eliminate) your choice. This is exactly the kind of legislation big ag would love in order to put small raw milk producers out of business. The cost of doing a sample inspection for a processor that runs many hundreds of thousands of gallons of milk each day is negligable for them while it could be quite burdensome to a small dairy. There are better ways to ensure food safety than through using the force of government against our fellow citizens.
Hi Renee, Julia, agrassfarmer, thanks for your comments! :)
agrassfarmer, you are right, I didn’t think about how such a policy might get enacted. I was just writing ideas that came into my head as I let off a bit of steam. :) I was thinking that there could be a regular inspection that goes with a raw milk license, included in the price perhaps, but one that is of course affordable…and yep, that’s where my naivete shows up loud & clear, which I fully acknowledge, because of course such a system would never be so simple (or affordable). And there is no guarantee that the results would be objective & correct.
In my mind, the relationship between the farmer & the customer is the key. Let the customer see the operation, get to know the farmer, etc, like what Schmidt has going on. This way the customer knows what s/he is buying. But I also know that governments would never accept such unquantifiable standards of safety. The more I learn about this issue, the more I’m seeing just how complicated and political it is to get food from the farm to the people.
Thanks for commenting!
Hi Sara – I completely share your sentiment on raw milk, and I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t get raw milk from the local farm that sells it here just outside of Boise where we live. The other day, my 9-year old son & I went to a House hearing in downtown Boise at the Statehouse about raw milk. The State Dept. of Agriculture was trying to put an exemption on facilities with fewer than 3 cows for selling raw milk. The exemption would prohibit milk from being sold to the public from these smaller operations. Fortunately, the movement was rejected by the chairman and house committee members. But I know this issue will be coming up again and again, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing more proposals from the State in the future. The situation with raw milk is so tenuous, and we have to be ever vigilant to keep on educating people about the benefits of its consumption.
Thanks for this post, Sara! It’s an important message. I love your site!
-Raine
.-= Raine Saunders´s last blog ..Healthy Chili Cheese Fries =-.
Dairy Regulations in the USA,supported by agribisiness dairies in California and New Mexico with herds of muck slimed cattle milling about by the thousands,shot with TONS of anti-biotics, milked in carousel operations on a three time shift, with a life expectancy of three years milking of cows, reflects the insane fanaitical quest for MORE PRODUCTION by a Government…as reflectd in the recent Supreme Court decision regarding the allowance of corporate puppets to run ALL Government elections……That has shown an overwhelming lack of a single thread of responsibility toward God, Country, or of we the people.
Milk standards imposed by the US govt in the 1940’s hold hostage,any and all dairy producers from getting the prices they need to survive.Thus the Dairy producers are forced to go on AGRICULTURAL WELFARE to suppliment their incomes.In short these slop pens producing the lowest grade of milk you can find are in short FEDERALLY sponsored and attack and shut down legitimate farms.
The recent shooting of a herd of dairy cows and the sucide of a farmer in Copake New York dairy farmer reflects the will of Government to place farmers in such desperate positions that they opt for suicide rather than become a part of a terroristic parasitic plan to destroy humanity in the name of
INCREASED PRODUCTION.
The raw milk movement, like the last of the Mohegans,is a level headed way to AVOID the destructive process of pastuerization and government controll.The raw mlk industry allows farmers to survive, sustain, and share with humanity the wonderful gift God has bestgowed upon us with the ancient miracle of the human consumptin of raw milk.
The LAST thing the Government wants is a happy small farmer.Theuir assualt on raw mlk, and organic and chemical free farms in the United States is cleverly masked with ‘GRANTS FOR ORGANIC FARMERS”
in a public furor to cover their lethal tracks,yet these grants are not only almost impossible to obtain, but in applying for them,the hoops a farmer has to jump through ACTUALLY WILL SABOTAGE, SLOW DOWN OR STOP A SMALL FARMER FROM ATTAINING HIGHER AGRCULTURAL GOALS.