The Complete Patient

The Canadian press has been aggressively pursuing the story of the government's abuse of Michael Schmidt and his raw milk Glencolton Farms. Moreover, with just one blatant exception (the usual scare trash), the media coverage has been fairly straightforward, and informative. The Toronto Star's story is typical (except for the misleading headline). All this in contrast to the American media's paucity of attention (with the exception of BusinessWeek.com) to a half dozen similar cases in California, Michigan, and Ohio.

Two key developments:

1. Michael's hunger strike has already won him important political points. The national site, cNews, reports that Ontario's finance minister is a big raw milk consumer, and proponent.  "I have long been a proponent for a safe, effective, highly regulated system of distributing raw milk," the finance minister, Greg Sorbara, is quoted as saying. A member of Ontario's parliament is reported to be introducing legislation to open the whole matter to debate next week. The province's premier remains opposed to allowing the distribution of raw milk. But clearly, major cracks have already developed in the Ontario offensive, and I suspect the cracks will only grow wider as sympathy for Michael expands.

2. The media are exposing the abusive approach of the regulatory and police authorites. There are great stories in the Canadian Press, part of the Canada.com network, and the Globe and Mail about how the police and public health authorities surrounded a bus yesterday (Tuesday) from which Michael distributes milk to cow share owners. (Excuse a reporter's use of the term "sells.") The goons didn't have a search warrant, and Michael and his associates told them to get lost. After an hour of shuffling around, that is just what they did. This effort at intimidation follows up on a huge raid by about 20 agents at the farm last week.

Today's press conference at a popular restaurant in Toronto appears to have gone well. Sally Fallon of the Weston A. Price Foundation passed around glasses of raw milk for a toast to Michael. While the case is a travesty, the protest is gaining traction...hopefully enough so that Michael can get back to regular eating sooner rather than later. As I said in yesterday's column, such injustices are usually overcome mainly by the bravery of a few individuals, supported by many others.

I've been wanting to respond to a comment made over the weekend by Damaged Justice to my posting, "The Cincinnati Raw Milk Raid Opens Some Old Wounds".  Damaged Justice stated, "Maybe we don't have people being rounded up and murdered in concentration camps. In every other respect, we are already there...and those who see the 'ominous parallels,' like you, are reluctant to speak the truth and risk having laughing fingers pointed..."

Damaged Justice concludes: "In many ways, the agents of government are trying to control the American people far more than any Nazi ever dreamed."

This individual is saying in stronger terms what many individuals who have commented on the BusinessWeek.com site on my raw-milk-war articles have bemoaned as well--creeping tyranny, and worse.

I'd just like to say in response that I'm not reluctant to speak the truth. At times, such as in reliving my aunt's abuse through Gary Oaks' experience, I feel terribly upset by what I see as an undermining of our freedoms by government authorities. But when I step back and look at the big picture, I know there are huge differences between the U.S. and totalitarian regimes like the Nazis.

One big difference is that we can still speak out. In some countries, including China and Iran, the government actually monitors web postings, and restricts access or goes after "offenders." In others, like Russia, newspapers are regularly shut down.

The second big difference is that this country is capable of changing. It wasn't that long ago that blacks and whites were segregated in half the country, and women were nearly shut out of major professions like law and medicine. The changes only occurred because brave individuals were willing to challenge the existing order.

Yes, our system has been badly corrupted by monied interests. This is a form of corruption that is in certain ways more sinister than what happens in places like Mexico because, as Damaged Justic suggests, it isn't as obvious. The authorities tend to go after the small business or poor individuals because they can't so easily fight back, to establish control, and we see this in the raw milk battles. Another example I'm going to be writing more about is the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), which poses huge threats to our privacy and freedom. I have to believe such things are changeable. It's just going to take a lot of hard work because the monied interests are very determined.

 

 

Have no fear, your intrepid reporter is here. I've got this Canadian raw milk incident covered, and here's my theory: the U.S. and Canada have initiated their mutual defense pact to fight the raw milk wars. Each country figured the wars are too big to fight alone, so they've decided to put their treaty to the test. After all, an attack on one is an attack on all. 

You want another prediction? Michael Schmidt, the owner of Glencolton Farms, the raw milk dairy in Durham, Ontario, raided by Canadian authorities last Tuesday (see photo at right taken from his farm the day of the raid), will bring them to their knees.

I'm making that prediction based on his honesty and resolve. Here is part of his statement explaining his hunger strike:

"In 1994, I was charged and found guilty for exactly the same offences, that is, providing a service to our customers with products that they wanted. I was placed under probation for two years, meaning that I was not to produce and process any milk. During that time, I offered the Government this farm as a research facility for the production of farm fresh milk...

"When there was no response, I announced that I would conduct my research independently and made it clear at that time that, if the farm were subjected to any more raids and interference, I would go on a hunger strike.

"(The Nov. 21) event means that I must act on what I said more than 11 years ago. As of now, I will begin the hunger strike until all of the equipment, documents and other items removed from this farm have been returned. The Government has to agree to be financially liable for the personal property of cow shareowners. As well, they need to agree in writing that the farm is to be left alone, so that it can carry on its service to the 150 families, until and unless all of the issues have been dealt with in court or in the Legislative Assembly or House of Parliament."

I spoke this afternoon with Beverly Viljakainen, an assistant to Michael, and she indicated everyone, including Michael, is in good spirits about both the raid, by about twenty Canadian agents, and the hunger strike. She noted that the agents were sort of considerate in that they didnt take the farm's milking machines and returned the farm's computer a few days after the raid. Michael, who is 52, is on day five of the hunger strike. "The headaches are kind of ferocious," she said, "but he's over that. He hasn't lost his midriff yet."

Otherwise, the entire affair sounded depressingly similar to raids of American raw milk dairies. It was sparked by a mother and child who drank raw milk and became ill 18 months ago--in the mother's view, because of some contaminated hamburger meat, Beverley stated. There were lots of agents scurrying around, disrupting operations, confiscating milk and other products. No charges have been filed in this case, and lots of cow share owners are now without their milk.

Back to another raid, The Detroit News had a surprisingly straightforward account of the Ann Arbor case.

 

I was looking forward to recollecting my own bucolic raw milk experience this weekend. How I stopped in at the On the River Farm alongside the Connecticut River in Lyme, NH, picked up my raw milk, and had a long and enjoyable chat with owner Kathy Barrett about the special attributes of Guernsey milk--the richness, and slightly yellow color of the cream because the cows can't assimilate beta carotene. How pleasant it was to just think and talk about the milk and its nutritional benefits.

But then reality intervened. Reality in the form of a raid on a raw milk farm outside Toronto, and the decision of its owner to stage a hunger strike in protest. Katherine Czapp in her comment on my previous post has provided links to a local newspaper article about the raid and to a background piece from the Weston A. Price Foundation about Michael Schmidt, the Canadian dairy farmer. There is more information about the situation from a local radio station's report.

I suppose it's not surprising that Canadian authorities should imitate their neighbors to the south. We like to think of Canada as a more open and thoughtful society than ours, but when it comes to economics, the Canadians tend to play follow-the-leader. Yet the raw milk wars are as much about politics as they are about economics. Hunger strikes are something of the ultimate political statement. They tell us the aggrieved are out of options, but feel so strongly about an issue that they are willing to sacrifice their health and, ultimately, their lives.

The frequency and intensity of the various raids--in California, Michigan, Ohio, and now in Canada--can only be meant to carry a political message. The message is simple: We, the authorities, know demand is growing for raw milk, and we can't change that, so we'll intimidate consumers. Intimidation is a common enforcement tactic. Come down hard on a few public examples, and hope the great mass of people get the message and change their habits out of fear.

The best counter to these tactics is to do the exact opposite of what the authorities want. It's up to consumers to vote with their feet--to show such overwhelming support for beleagured farmers that the authorities have no choice but to accept reality. The Ohio and Kentucky members of the Double O Farms cowshare program did that by coming to the rescue of farm owner Gary Oaks, even though many felt intimidated, and still feel intimidated. But those are the only actions the authorities take seriously.

 

The bust of Gary Oaks and the Double O Farms cowshare last spring in Cincinnati was actually a carefully orchestrated law enforcement affair, replete with multi-agency coordination and extensive planning.

I learned about many of the details—much more than I had space for in my BusinessWeek.com column—from an internal investigation summary memo compiled by an Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) investigator. The ODA provided it to  my request. As I have noted previously, the ODA is extremely professional in responding to media requests, unlike other agencies like the Kentucky Department of Public Health, which didn’t return my calls or emails. While many government agencies hide behind official language and double-speak, the ODA is upfront about its actions—it believes in what it is doing and isn’t afraid to say so.

The two-and-a-half page memo states that the case had its origins in “an email from a neighbor of Gary Oaks wanting to know where Mr. Oaks sold his milk. He wanted to know so he would be sure not to purchase milk from that location.”

This isn’t a huge surprise to Gary, who told me a neighbor had filed a number of zoning and other challenges against him over the previous couple years, even though their area is zoned for agriculture. Nor is it unusual as these cases go—they seem to originate either from a resentful neighbor or farmer (unhappy that the raw milk farmer is getting more for his or her milk than the conventional dairy farmer), or else from an illness among customers (as in the Ann Arbor, Michigan sting), with the public health authorities immediately assuming raw milk to be the culprit.

Once they had their complaint, the Kentucky, Ohio, and federal officials went to work carrying out major surveillance of the farm and Gary. “Surveillance of the farm revealed that the farm had approximately 15 to 25 cows cows and that the garage area had refrigerators lined on one side of the wall and skids of plastic jugs against the other wall,” says the memo. So it’s obvious the investigators poked around the Double O Farms, without bothering with any formalities, like notifying the owner or obtaining a search warrant.

The surveillance then expanded. “On Feb. 17, 2006, a pickup truck with a trailer was observed backed up to the garage and it appeared that the trailer was being loaded with milk. The truck and trailer was followed to a parking lot of the Waldorf School located at 745 Derby Road, Cincinnati, Ohio. There the driver of the truck began passing out milk to numerous individuals waiting at this location.”

But one such surveillance wasn’t enough. “On Feb. 27, 2006, the truck and trailer was again observed being loaded with milk. The vehicle was followed to the Waldorf School, where the milk was distributed to numerous people.”

So next time you’re picking up raw milk, and you think you’re being watched…well, maybe you are.

On March 6, the day of the bust, seven Kentucky, Ohio, and FDA agents all met in the morning, while two additional agents were “observing the loading of milk into the trailer at the Kentucky farm location. The two inspectors began following the truck and trailer toward Cincinnati.” An inspector notified Cincinnati Police, who were told to accompany the inspectors “so we could speak with the individual involved and examine the milk.”

The confrontation with Gary and his shareholders then took place pretty much as I described in the article. Interestingly, while the memo says the investigators "interviewed" Gary, nothing is mentioned about Gary becoming physically ill from the intensity of the interrogations, of requests by the shareholders to call 9-1-1, and of objections by the shareholders to the seizure of their property. 

The investigators must have been too focused on the objective of their bust. As the memo states, the agencies “each removed three one half gallons of milk for their testing…and the test results revealed that the milk was not pasteurized. After testing, one gallon of the milk contained in a plastic jug, one quart of whey and a package of cheese were all placed in the evidence room freezer and retained for evidence. The remaining milk and milk products were destroyed.”

Presumably the retained milk was kept in the same evidence room as cocaine, heroin, amphetamines, and other such banned items.

The memo performs an important public service: It lets us know what these public officials spend their time doing—following hardworking citizens around, monitoring their property, and then abusing them. It’s nice to know we’re being so well protected.