http://educate-yourself.org/cn/rawmilkwitchhunt18sep10.shtml
September 18, 2010

Canada's Fraser Health Bureaucracy on Witch Hunt to Shut Down Raw Milk Farm Co-operatives (Sep. 20, 2010)

STANDING UP FOR OUR RIGHT TO DRINK FRESH RAW MILK

Alice Jongerden (right) with Michael Schmidt, Elise and their son, during a visit in May to Schmidt's Glencolton Farms in Durham, Ontario. Schmidt has now taken over operation of Jongerden's Home on the Range dairy in Chilliwack while Alice faces contempt of court charges brought by Fraser Health.

http://tinyurl.com/27w85fp

Ontario dairy farmer Michel Schmidt has taken over Chilliwack's Home on the Range raw milk dairy so the flow of milk can continue to hundreds of members of the co-operative.

Fraser Health [Authority] has been trying to shut down Home on the Range for more than two years and on Tuesday succeeded in forcing the cowshare operator Alice Jongerden to officially resign as part of a court-ordered condition.

Jongerden was in court in New Westminster Tuesday facing civil contempt of court charges brought by Fraser Health for continuing the milk production and distribution after being issued cease and desist orders.

She asked for an adjournment, something the judge agreed to under the condition that there would be no further production or distribution. She then stepped down and Schmidt told the Times Friday that cowshare members are on the farm to milk the cows.

"Alice is completely out now," he said over the phone from Ontario. "I'm at the moment basically managing it from here."

Schmidt said he will essentially run the dairy from his farm in Durham, On. He plans to come out for a visit later in September for two days. Schmidt has been consulting and supporting Home on the Range for a number of years.

Schmidt's own case made national and international headlines in January when he was acquitted of all 19 charges in Ontario court for doing essentially the same thing as Jongerden was doing in Chilliwack.

"I was acquitted in exactly the same situation as Home on the Range," he said. "People own the cows and we had a private arrangement just like Home on the Range."

The Ontario government is appealing the decision, but in the meantime Schmidt says the authorities are leaving his operation alone.

When asked if he hoped Fraser Health would eventually respect the Ontario situation as some sort of precedent, Schmidt said: "One way or the other we'll get them."

In a press release issued by Jongerden Friday morning, Schmidt says "We have reached the level of a new and powerful dictatorship called bureaucracy in the name of food safety, and in the favour of multinational corporations."

He told the Times he has not taken over to pick a fight or make the situation worse for the Home on the Range cowshare owners, but to restructure the dairy so that it is legal.

phenderson@chilliwacktimes.com
© Copyright (c) Chilliwack Times

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Posted by Marjorie Theroux Tietjen at 5:40 AM 0 comments

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Legal way to get REAL MILK in British Columbia

http://www.freewebs.com/bovinity/

Updated September 19th 2010

REAL MILK has been flowing from our cowshare since May 2007. Our dairy has 22 Jersey cows producing about 60 gallons a day, making fresh whole unprocessed milk available to 450 households from Chilliwack to Vancouver.

Cowsharing is where several people own shares in a cow, or a herd, and hire a farmer to do the work. Although Fraser Health says otherwise at the moment, our private dairy is not properly caught by the law against selling raw milk because the milk does not enter-in to commerce. As we divide what our jointly-owned asset produces, we are exercising our right to use and enjoy our personal property.

Each shareholder makes an agreement with the Agister* for his services of looking after our cows and making ready the milk. Shareholders are not contracted with each other.

* Agister is an antique word meaning 'one who takes care of cattle for a fee' ; for instance, the boarding of horses is “agistment”.

Up til September 14th, Alice Jongerden, doing business as Home on the Range was doing the work for us as we farm co-operatively for our own sustenance. By Order of the Court, she's had to quit packaging and distributing. So now we've contracted Michael Schmidt to be our agister. He won the legal point in Ontario

Joint ownership of a herd is working to provide raw milk in British Columbia and other provinces in Canada. There are nine raw milk dairies in British Columbia operating on a similar basis, that I know of. One of them - Wild Thing Organics - is in Christina Lake. Have a look at their website for a good explanation of how cowsharing works, under the link = 'Frequently Asked Questions FAQ' on

http://www.wildthingorganics.ca/

We are not 'certified organic". As much as possible, the cows are grass-fed, with no antibiotics ; no rBGH ; no soy meal nor 'animal byproducts' ie offal, in the feed. The cows are given a small ration of grain at milking time, as inducement to come into the milking parlour

While researching the law in order to prepare my appeals, I read the Milk Industry Act RSBC of British Columbia, as it stood from 1955 'til 1996. Turns out the original Act had sections under which a farm could be certified to sell raw milk to the Public. In his Royal Commission in to the marketing of milk in 1955 Commissioner J V Clyne touched on the controversy over the health aspects of raw milk versus par-boiled, also known as "Pasteur-ized". He recommended that all milk which was to be offered for sale be pasteurized. But he said that there must always be a way for those who want unpasteurized milk to get it. Twice I've asked the Milk Marketing Board for the protocol to apply for such Certification. They just blew me off, saying, essentially, they didn't comprehend what I was talking about.

After ten years' lobbying on this issue, our success (until the little glitch lately) plus that of the other local dairies throughout BC, makes me confident that we have passed the tipping-point of public understanding about the health benefits of raw milk. The decision in the case of Michael Schmidt - rendered on January 21 2010 - acquitted him of "selling" raw milk via his cowshare.

The latest development was Fraser Health Authority applying for an injunction to prevent our former Agister from distributing our milk. At the hearing, February 1st 2010 in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Madame Justice Gropper listened to both sides, then reserved her decision. The fact that Fraser Health did not put any evidence before the Court demonstrating that milk from our dairy is a hazard to the Public Health, proves our point = raw milk dairying can be done safely.

On March 18th 2010, the judge handed down her ruling = an Order that Alice Jongerden dba Home on the Range, Cease and Desist distributing raw milk for human consumption. Our packages always said "NOT FOR SALE". We changed the package so as to make clear to shareholders that the milk is NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION. Thus complying perfectly with the Milk Industry Act RSBC and Her Ladyship's Order. But that wasn't good enough for the high & mighty Justice Saunders, on September 14th 2010, he turned the screws in a contempt of court application, to put Alice Jongerden out of business. Despite the communists and idiots in high places who are attempting to stifle live food, whole fresh pure raw milk continues to flow to its owners who then use and enjoy their own property in whatever ways, they believe best.

Gordon S Watson e-mail < justice_critic@shaw.ca >

I saw visions of mists rising from languid streams, their deep banks overhung with mosses and ferns, of thick and spreading English oaks in June with red-and-white spotted Alderney cows lying placidly in their shade, chewing cuds of rich English grass and clover and lazily twitching away flies with their tails Jane Austen

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fresh whole raw goat milk - strictly for pets, not for human consumption - is now available from Sacred Circle Farm, in Sooke BC. Call 778 425 0507

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