Raw versus the law

May 18, 2008

One note I would like to add here, when I decided to research raw milk several years ago, I was dead set against it. I have been in the medical profession as a RN for over 20 years and raw milk is 'dangerous' don't ya know! BUT, I had one son with severe, unpredictable asthma. and another son with NO enamel on his teeth. No reasons for these disorders, but modern medicine was just costing us a fortune and not fixing the root cause, so I started reading and I think I have read most every written book on the subject of raw milk. We went with raw milk to try it, I cringed every time one of the kids drank raw milk. But no one got sick! My lactose intolerant husband loved it, he said a glass of milk as a protein shake helped him make it to lunchtime (never had this experience with pasteurized milk) and he works heavy equipment and works physically very hard. My asthma son did not get miraculously well, unfortunately, but he feels much better when he drinks his milk and takes cod liver oil. He says he can think better. I do think his flare ups are less often and certainly less severe, but whether that is his maturity and larger airways as he gets older or raw milk we will never know. My other son with no enamel on his baby teeth, well, he will loose all those soon, so again, no way to know. But we all love the milk taste, so much so that we bought goats so we could milk our own.

So my point here is that from an anecdotal stand point, raw milk tastes good, hasn't made us sick, and actually helped us to feel better, so we will keep drinking it. the article below talks all about people getting sick, and studies that claim to show that raw milk makes people sick and that there are no studies that show it helps people. Well, that one always concerned me. Why wasn't there a very good, double blind research study done on the benefits of raw milk?? Where was it? I looked hard, if raw milk was so great, where was the study backing it up??! Then I read Sally Fallon. The reason is MONEY! No major university would do the study because they could never get the funding. All major research is funded and big dairy would never allow grant money to go for a study on the benefits of raw dairy consumption. I do not trust the government and their 'concern' for our welfare, I do think these people that work for the FDA etc. do honestly believe they are right, I know I was one such ignorant, but well-meaning believer just a short time ago. If you are just starting to research raw milk, read all about it. Sally Fallon and Dr. Enig are great authors, Dr. Enig might be one of the only researchers trying to get the word out about the benefits of raw dairy.

Thanks to Gordon for all the great articles this morning.

Barb

Eastern CO

Raw versus the law

trial of Schmidt in Ontario has been booted-over to the fall.

This is how it goes in the legal system when the Powers-that-Be find themselves on the defensive, for a change : a man who was such a threat to the Public Health that he had to be gaoled is told to 'come back later', (unspoken = when media attention dissipates)

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Schmidt strides down the country lane, his black and white border collie jogging ahead to sniff at clumps of dirt.

When the farmer reaches his back pasture, he calls to the dog in German and Beppo streaks into the field to round up the 30-odd Canadienne cows grazing the new spring grass. The sleek animals trot towards the fence. Their deep brown flanks glisten in the afternoon sun.

"Ach," says Schmidt. "Aren't they beautiful?"

These are the cows that are causing all the fuss. More specifically, it's the milk that streams from the teats of these cows – thick, creamy, yellow milk, sold unpasteurized in glass jars – that has the Ontario government and two public health units taking Schmidt to court.

It has launched a flurry of investigation into Schmidt's farming practices, and officials have used surveillance cameras and a full-out raid on his farm in 2006 to collect evidence. A mole was even sent to infiltrate the farmer's inner circle.

Schmidt says he has never hidden the fact he has been distributing raw milk from Glencolton Farms for more than 20 years.

People who clamour for his milk claim it provides myriad health benefits, from reversing osteoporosis to curing allergies to fattening premature babies. They say it tastes better than any milk bought at a corner store, and are charmed their milk comes from well-cared-for animals that live on an idyllic, organic farm in Grey-Bruce County near Owen Sound.

The problem is, Schmidt is breaking the law. And he knows it.

Milk in Canada must be pasteurized to ensure any dangerous pathogens in the milk are eradicated. Experts say milk that has not been heat-treated can carry hordes of potentially deadly bacteria, including salmonella, listeria, campylobacter, brucella and E. coli 0157:H7, the same strain that killed seven people in ton in 2000.

Public health officials in Ontario say there is a real risk to drinking raw milk, especially for young children, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. They point to a 2005 outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 in Simcoe County that was linked to the consumption of raw milk and sent four people, including two children, to hospital with bloody diarrhea and severe abdominal cramps.

"There is a well documented history of raw milk causing disease in individuals and leading to outbreaks," says Dr. Shapiro, an associate medical officer of health at Toronto Public Health. "The risk is really well known and quite dramatic."

Yet, despite the rafts of warnings issued by everyone from Health Canada to local health units to university food scientists, there are still those who fervently believe the health benefits of raw milk outweigh any risk. Proponents of raw milk say it contains beneficial bacteria and antibodies, otherwise killed by pasteurization, that boost the immune system. They claim unpasteurized and unhomogenized milk is better digested, even by those who are lactose intolerant.

Schmidt says the underground milk market in Ontario is much larger than his 34-cow operation. He estimates as many as 300,000 people in the province regularly drink unpasteurized milk from a network of secretive farmers.

"It's bigger than you can imagine," he says.

The farmer is quick to point out he and his colleagues are no mavericks for producing raw milk. It is legal to sell unpasteurized milk in half the U.S. states and, according to Schmidt, in all European Union countries except Scotland.

Since the 2006 raid on his farm, Schmidt has seen a groundswell of support from raw milk proponents, a land owner association, celebrity chefs, some Ontario MPPs – including former finance minister Greg Sorbara whose family has consumed his milk – and even renowned pianist Anton Kuerti.

Schmidt says he has flouted the law so people who want raw milk can have their fix. He believes people should have the right to put whatever food they want into their body.

The 54-year-old farmer was supposed to go to trial in Newmarket next week to face 20 charges, under two different acts, laid by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Grey-Bruce Health Unit. The charges stem from his production, storage and distribution of raw milk. If found guilty, Schmidt faces fines of up to $10,000 for every day the offence took place, which could bankrupt him and shut down his milk operation.

At a pre-trial hearing yesterday, on consent of all parties, the trial date was adjourned to the fall.

Schmidt has also been charged with contempt of court by the Regional Municipality of York for failing to obey orders to stop distributing raw milk in the region. The court date for that trial is pending.

After hiring, then dismissing, the Toronto law firm of Ruby and h to fight his case, Schmidt now plans to represent himself at both trials. He will claim it is his right to distribute raw milk, that the current laws around mandatory pasteurization are unconstitutional, and the government is infringing on his personal freedom by preventing him from selling milk straight from the cow.

"I have deep respect for the freedom and rights of individuals," he says when asked why he is prepared to risk everything to defend raw milk. "That is the foundation of a just society."

When the trials begin later this year, they will likely pit the government, its ministry officials and their best expert witnesses against a farmer with a small dairy herd and a moral conviction. Cow's milk is now at the centre of an all-out fight between personal freedom and the public good. And both sides are convinced they are right.

Schmidt immigrated to Canada from Germany in 1983 with the dream of owning an organic farm that would operate in harmony with the Earth. He bought 240 hectares in Grey-Bruce County and soon had rolling fields of grain and a bustling barnyard filled with speckled, rare breed chickens, fat hogs and pasture-fed cows.

Almost immediately people began to ask for farm-fresh milk and Schmidt was happy to supply it. He was raised on raw milk in Germany and believed it conferred health benefits not found in the industrial bagged milk sold in stores.

"It is clear that the body rebels against pasteurized milk," says Schmidt.

Things ticked happily along until 1994 when officials raided the farm and charged him with selling raw milk. Schmidt hired a lawyer to help him fight the charges, but at the end of the long struggle, which was peppered with bizarre and sinister events – a cousin was kidnapped, he says, and two cows murdered – he ended up pleading guilty and losing 200 hectares of the farm to cover legal costs.

After things settled, Schmidt and his farm had 12 years of peace. His raw milk enterprise grew, and the farmer clawed out of debt by selling cartons of eggs, homemade loaves of organic wheat bread and bacon and sausage from the pigs.

But then, on a dreary November morning in 2006, ministry officials flooded his farm. As Schmidt complied with their orders and answered their questions, one of his employees videotaped the raid for their own evidence.

"We always kept the cameras with us because I knew, for 12 years I knew, they would be back," says Schmidt.

Footage shows ministry officials entering the dairy dressed in biohazard suits. After eight hours, officials left with bottles of raw milk and all of Schmidt's dairy, even his cheese-making equipment.

Schmidt later learned a team from the Ministry of Natural Resources had been watching his farm for months. In fact, two officers went undercover as regular citizens to gain access to his milk – and to get the evidence needed to lay the 20 charges now before the courts.

"It's so ridiculous ... they developed this huge plan about how they would take us down. Well ... they got us."

This time, Schmidt would not plead guilty. This time he would fight.

From the back of a ramshackle blue school bus, parked in a Thornhill church lot, Ruth Abrahams doles out jars of raw milk. This is where Schmidt's loyal customers come every Tuesday to pick up their milk and buy other groceries from the farm. Sunshine warms the bus and soft strains of Debussy drift from speakers wired to the ceiling.

Abrahams, who takes the TTC up from Toronto every week to volunteer, says raw milk is the best type of food to put in your body.

"It just feels good to drink it," she says. "I wouldn't touch the other stuff."

Today, the chat between customers is all about the upcoming trial. "It's ridiculous, this whole thing," says Abrahams. "It seems absurd to go to so much trouble to prevent us from drinking milk. I just don't understand it. People have not gotten sick."

The people who line up for milk say they are not doing anything illegal. All of them participate in Schmidt's cow-share program and have paid $300 to buy a bit of one of his cows. The money they hand over for a jar of milk – it costs $3 a litre – is simply the cost of boarding the cow at Glencolton Farms.

To Schmidt, this loop-hole means he is not selling milk, rather he says he is fairly distributing it to cow owners. The prohibition of raw milk does not apply to farmers who are allowed to drink fresh milk from their cows. But officials do not appreciate this subtlty.

The Regional Municipality of York's Health Services Department prohibited Schmidt from distributing raw milk within its borders in December 2006. In May 2007, the region served Schmidt with an order from the Ontario Superior Court prohibiting him from further contravening the 2006 order.

When Schmidt did not comply, officials tracked his activity in Thornhill in January with the help of surveillance cameras. Ministry and public health officials would not comment on either of the two cases while they are before the courts.

Boor, a professor and department chair of food science at Cornell University, says there is no solid scientific evidence that consuming raw milk can cure health problems and ailments. But, she adds, that does not stop people from believing that it can.

"A huge part of medicine is faith and believing that you're going to get better."

University of Guelph food scientist Art Hill says studies show pasteurization does not diminish the nutritional qualities of milk.

"From the best data we have, I can't see any particular advantage to drinking raw milk."

And since raw milk can carry deadly pathogens, public health officials must weigh the good of the many over the wishes of the few.

A 1998 study published in the American Journal of Public Health compared the number of outbreaks attributed to raw milk in states where selling raw milk is legal to states where it is prohibited. The authors found that between 1973 and 1992, 40 of the 46 outbreaks occurred in states where the sale of raw milk is legal.

"The risks are tangible and measurable," says Boor, who is considered an international expert on dairy microbiology. "You can quantify the presence of pathogens in raw milk. You can predict the exposure of humans to those pathogens from consuming raw milk. The same is not true for the benefits.

"From a public health perspective, when you put these things on a balance, it strictly goes one way."

Back at the farm, Schmidt opens the door into the white-washed stone barn. Swallows flit overhead and Leif, the farmer's broad-backed bull, snorts in his stall.

"That's the big boy," laughs Schmidt. "He's the boss of the whole barn."

Cow-share owners often come to the farm to help with the chores and to see first-hand where their frothy raw milk comes from. Schmidt says this is the essence of his farming philosophy: to have a connection with the consumer, respect for the animal, and affinity for the Earth. "You don't get rich," he says, "but you have a fair return for milk without pushing the cows into high production."

All of this – the cows, the farm, his way of life – is on the line, but Schmidt believes his philosophy will prevail.

May 17, 2008 Ogilvie HEALTH REPORTERToronto Star

May 18, 2008