Raw milk symposium being planned for January 31st, 2009 in Toronto
Farmer Michael Schmidt talks raw milk to the media at Queen’s Park
Raw milk farmer Michael Schmidt and his supporters are hosting an International Raw Milk Symposium during January 31st, 2009 in Toronto at OISE auditorium. The plan is to bring in luminaries in the raw milk movement to address a wide range of topics related to raw milk. The legal side of things will also be addressed. Event is sponsored by the Society for Biodynamic Farming and Gardening in Ontario and the Landowners Association.
The symposium will take place Saturday January 31, from 10 am to 5 pm and will be followed by a wine and cheese party from 5 to 8 pm . Speakers will include Scientists Dr. Ron Hull, Dr. Ted Beals, Dr. Carol Vachon, Mark McAfee and Michael Schmidt, Pam Killeen, Judith McGill, Jamie Kennedy. The symposium will be the weekend following the Guelph Organic conference January 23 and 34th at Guelph University and will be in the middle of Michael Schmidt’s trial on charges laid in connection with the raid on Glencolton Farms in November of 2006. The Bovine will be reporting further details as they become available.
Cost of Symposium is $25.00 at the door.
Originally from the Bovine Press.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
is there a site where to register for the event?
Thanks!
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Steve,
Thanks for checking in on us! Actually it’s just pay at the door “$25 @ the door”. (http://thebovine.wordpress.com/events/)
Raw Milk Symposium Jan. 31, 2009
The symposium will take place Saturday January 31, from 10 am to 5 pm and will be followed by a wine and cheese party from 5 to 8 pm . Speakers will included Dr. Ron Hull, Dr. Ted Beals, Mark McAfee and Michael Schmidt. The symposium will be the week following the Guelph Organic conference and will be in the middle of Michael Schmidt’s trial on charges laid in connection with the raid on Glencolton Farms in November of 2006. The Bovine will be reporting further details as they become available.
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Raw Milk: Opinion of an old Aggie
SCURVEY
Fifty nine years ago. Professor (dusty) Keegan opened his first lecture to an
OAC Freshman class with …
“The time is coming when agricultural policy will be plotted by Bay Street and
Queens Park, I expect there are sons of Bay Streeters in this class. Yeah! You’re
here without the required farm experience cause you’ve been pounding sidewalk
most of your lives. {pause} Ahem …. the only thing you ever raised was your hat!”
I’d have forgotten this provocative remark had it not been for the raw milk
issues that excite us today. Some of us milk-fed Aggies from the counties laughed
at Keegan’s outburst, a few city-borns fretted, but for most of the class, it seemed
to go over their heads. We who understood came from mixed farms – family farms
with milk herds , the like of which supplied milk to weanling pigs, vealing calves,
to cheese factories or butter-making creameries. Even back then, mixed (family )
farms of this kind were becoming economically marginal, especially juxa
-positioned with pure dairy farms. They were birthed and raised by the Ontario
milk marketing boards , willing adolescents of the governments of Ontario for over
half a century. There are hundreds of Canadian farmers outside the price-fixing
monopoly because they can’t afford a huge buy-in contract to obtain a quota or
meet a slew of regulations that reek of contrivance and guile. In large part, the
demise of the family farm can be put at the door of the
lack of a free market in the entire milk industry. I believe the hidden nut in
Keegan’s outburst rested on that premise.
The trial of Michael Schmidt should result in the legalized sales of natural milk and
products there of with no caveat, whatsoever, as to location. Of course all cow
herds should be government vetted, but for natural milk: it’s the customer who
inspects.
The judge should go further: Recommend that the Government of Ontario find
why Americans in the free-market border states pay approximately one third less
for their milk than our monopoly set price in Ontario.
I write memoir stories, this being one of them. I go back to times when I was just a pup in Ontario, old enough to hear the adult talk about that awful Mitch Hepburn and his scheme. Actually, his scheme to pasteurize was roundly popular and necessary at the time.
John D Lee
Victoria, BC.
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