For those of you who have seen the difference that raw milk has made in your own health or the health of your children or loved ones, doesn’t this sign say it all! Many of us are waking up to the benefits of raw milk and many people right across Canada came together today to rally for the freedom to choose this real food without government intervention. The long and difficult battle that Michael Schmidt has fought since his farm was raided the first time in 2006 has become the battle of all raw milk drinkers across the country. We’ve had enough of interference in our right to have access to this food. It makes no sense to anyone who has experienced the improvement in health and wellbeing that has come from drinking raw milk and making it into yogurt, kefir, butter and cheese. Our united message to the provincial governments across the country and the federal government as well is this: ”We are NOT going away and we ARE going to access this food regardless of “law”. My question is, are we going to do it legally with sanitary measures and testing requirements or are we going to be forced to go back underground where the consumer has no idea whether the milk is produced properly or not? The ball is in the governments court on the legal issue. It is up to us to educate the politicians and Health Canada for that matter. Today in Toronto in front of Queens Park a large group of people (just over 100) came together to peacefully rally for the right to legally obtain raw milk.
Children want their milk!
Families came out with their children to demand their right to feed their kids what they choose. Why is a mother not the best one to decide what is right to feed her child? What kind of country have we become when we take a health giving food away from a child and tell a mother that she has no right to decide what her kids eat and drink? Oh wait! That same mother can feed that same child cola drinks full of caffeine or processed junk snacks and that’s perfectly okay with government but raw milk isn’t? She can also feed that same child processed lunch meat that is much more likely to make the child sick from food born illness. As my youngest daughter would say “what’s up with that?”
For me these children are what this whole raw milk battle is really about. I want to be able to obtain raw milk from the farmer of my choice without the interference of government but it’s far more important to me that my grandchildren and their children have legal access to it IF they choose to drink it.
Why should young children like this have to beg government for the right to have a food that has proven through the centuries to be healthy when it’s produced in a safe way? What is missing from this whole equation is the information on HOW this milk can be produced safely. The Dept. of Health and the Dept. of Agriculture have not given Michael Schmidt a chance to explain to them how this can be done safely as, by the way, it is in many other countries. Our government calls raw milk a “health hazard”. If it’s such a health hazard then why do most countries in the world drink it? Why have farmers been drinking it for years on their own farms and not dropping like flies? Why, for that matter, is it legal and perfectly okay with government that farmers drink the raw milk from their own cows and feed that same milk to their children but they are taking away our right to have it? Are farmers and their children somehow immune to the “hazards”? Hardly! The fact is that raw milk can and is being safely consumed right across this country of ours right under the noses of the milk police and people are getting healthier while essentially breaking the law. 
Conservative MPP Randy Hillier and Liberal MPP Jack McLaren both spoke on our behalf today. Randy Hillier has long been an advocate of the raw milk movement and he was awesome! These two politicians helped us when we were trying to get through to Premier McGuinty about talking to Michael Schmidt. We are very grateful to both of them! The basic message of their speeches today was to keep on talking about this issue to our elected representatives and to not give up. Randy Hillier said that change has to happen and will happen but we have a lot of work to do. Well work is not an issue for those of us passionate about food freedom so bring it on!
Conservative MPP Randy Hillier
Liberal MPP Jack McLaren
Michael Schmidt did his usual magic and articulated very well what the message to government is. Since most of you reading this did not hear him I am reprinting an e-mail that he sent last night to those of us who organized these rallies and events. I think it says it all.
Tags: Cow Share Canada, cows, farmer, farmer to consumer, farming, Food Freedom, food movement, food sovereignty, grass fed animals, healthy food, Jack McLaren, Local Food, Michael Schmidt, Queens Park Toronto, Randy Hillier, raw milk, raw milk rallies, real food, sustainable farming, Weston A. Price Foundation
