"Michael Schmidt Paralysis" Is Proving Contagious: The Emergence of a Moral Authority
There’s a new strain of illness making the rounds of Canada’s rulers. Call it “Michael Schmidt Paralysis.”
You don’t wish health problems on your enemies, but news that a second British Columbia prosecutor has bowed out of a major raw milk hearing against dairy farmer Michael Schmidt because of illness—with no re-scheduling--has been greeted with at least a few knowing looks.
The case involves the Home-on-the-Range cow share in Chilliwack, British Columbia, that was established five years ago. When local authorities attempted to force farm owner Alice Jongerden to shut down her raw milk production, Michael Schmidt took over its management…and all the penalties the local authorities could hit him with. They included a $55,000 fine for contempt of court.
A previous trial was delayed when a prosecutor took ill. In the meantime, though, Schmidt got Health Canada to approve use of raw milk as a cosmetic. In a blog post, he referred to the dairy as “the Little Chilliwack Dairy (that could, should and would)”.
Fresh from this victory, Schmidt is challenging Canadian authorities to take him on in connection with something even bigger-- the strange case of the disappearing, and re-discovered, Shropshire sheep. They mysteriously vanished from a Canadian farm in April after authorities targeted them for slaughter. They were thought to possibly harbor scrapies, a fatal degenerative disease that can spread among sheep and goats.
In a video statement in which he compared the targeting and slaughter of the rare sheep to Nazi Germany's genetic engineering, Schmidt gently threw down the gauntlet to Canadian authorities. While denying direct involvement in the affair, he said, “I am aware that I as a consequence to my public statement might be subject to an investigation and possible charges related to the sad sheep saga. I am determined to support the brave work of those who have risked their personal safety and security to try to protect those sheep with the hope that ‘conclusive evidence’ would have been provided by the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) in order to return the sheep for orderly slaughter if found infected or for further testing…Whatever will evolve I am honored to be a part of this brave action, as I have taken on the role as liaison for the Farmers Peace Corp.” He issued the statement on his 59th birthday, he noted.
Schmidt began his journey to the rarified role of national moral authority when he went on an eight-week hunger strike last fall, which ended when the premier of Ontario agreed to Schmidt’s demand for a personal meeting.
Next on his agenda will be a hearing July 25 in Toronto, where Schmidt is appealing a $9,100 fine on his conviction for violating Ontario’s dairy law. Schmidt has previously said he has no intention of paying the fine. That will challenge the Ontario authorities to throw him into jail…and turn him into more of a celebrity moral authority.
Pity the poor Canadian prosecutors and judges. They can’t live with Michael Schmidt and his insistence on food rights…and they can’t live without him.
Finally, I hear "Michael Schmidt Paralysis" is highly contagious. Small outbreaks have begun occurring in the U.S., Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California. Try as they might, American prosecutors, judges, and regulators haven't yet developed a vaccine.
This site's mission is to provide news and analysis about food rights and raw milk. Increasingly, our access to privately available food is under attack by government and industry forces that seek to impose their choices on us. The Complete Patient seeks to provide up-to-date information and encourage the development of community to maintain traditional food acquisition options.
A big Happy Birthday to you Michael! May you continue on in your works that have been so to raw milk access. Your dedication is greatly appreciated.
Yikes! if we all get Schmidt Paralysis" we might not be able to move, then what?
"I am determined to support the brave work of those who have risked their personal safety and security to try" sounds like a good motto, let's all adopt it. Happy B'day Michael, watch out for water buffalo and milk snakes.
Michael Schmidt Paralysis....not sure I agree with the syndrome....or its definition. Paralysis??...seems more like a full scale strategic retreat. When I spoke with Mike last weekend in Oregon, it sounded much more like, Royal Scared Shitless Syndrome....than any paralysis.
Dissappearing Sheep that were destined for slaughter....prosecutors that come up ill and delay indefinitely any court proceedings....yep. Definitely Royal Scared Shitless Syndrome. With the 60th anniversery of the Queen sitting on her royal throne drinking raw milk. Definitely RSSS. Mike briefed me on all of this and it appears that persistence has paid off.
There were two pictures that Mike took with me along side my airplane in Redmond Oregon last weekend.... one is PG and the other is PG13....with Mike giving Third Finger to the Crown and the FDA.
Mike has become more than a celebrity or the Canadian Ghandi of raw milk. He has begun to win and win big. Some of that hurt came out in the third finger and I do not blame him one little bit.
The truth has a habit of winning out eventually.
@ Mark McAfee: More like Royal *Running Scared* Shitless Syndrome! Michael has them all running like mice in a maze. I'd love to see that shot of Michael telling the world he's number one. And I don't blame him a bit either. I have an uncle who lives in Toronto who is following all of this with great interest, although at almost 80 (in July of this year) he feels he's a bit too long in the tooth to help much - although he does have his finger on the pulse of the University of Toronto, so he may have more influence than he thinks.
I haven't been scared shitless too many times in my life, but when I was, I was rather paralyzed - at least temporarily. It's a good analogy.
Michael Schmidt is a true raw milk hero, and a champion of social justice and democratic principles! Go Michael!!
Let's not get too cocky. There appear to be several factors that make this disease -- whatever you want to call it -- transmissible.
1) A viral reservoir. One or two free-floating viruses do not a bureaucrademic make.
2) Complete life-cycle. Although I have no direct evidence, this disease appears to be transmitted from the viral reservoir to elected politicians, who then infect the bureaucrats. If you break the life-cycle, the disease is halted.
Regarding #2, I think if all elected officials were feeling as secure as "C-38 shoved down your throat" Stephen Harper, this would not be happening. In BC in particular, the ruling Liberals are way down in the polls and the loyal opposition has endorsed herd sharing as an "innovative" way around the Federal prohibition. They can't be feeling too comfortable with public displays of abuse of power, as shown by FVHA.
Regarding #1, years of regulatory abuse combined with general discontent is increasing the base for support. This is related to the Occupy movement. People who are out of work have lots of time on their hands to make trouble for the ruling class. People who are out of work <b>and</b> have lost 40% of the equity in their home are even more desperate, and are taking to the streets.
Michaels can't do this alone. We need to keep spreading his message to increase the size of the viral reservoir. And that then needs to flow into emails, letters, and calls to elected officials -- especially in vulnerable positions. Only then will the health and legal bureaucrats begin to feel too insecure to follow through on their threats.
Jan, I agree about not getting too cocky. The bureaucrats and prosecutors still have many tricks up their sleeve, and won't hesitate to try a few.
I'm not sure who infects whom, but it's often said that the bureaucrats are of the mindset that, while politicians come and go, the bureaucrats know they'll always remain in place.
David, for those of us that are still naive after all this downstream muck, please define bureaucrats. I know a cockroach or prosecutor when I see one.
Ora Moose, bureaucrats, as used here, are the dept managers, agents, investigators, and assorted pencil pushers in the FDA and state agriculture and public health departments. They're the ones who take it on themselves to harass small farmers and other food producers rather than take on the big boys.
I would be careful about making broad generalizations about all the people who work at these agencies, David. Yes, there are some who really "have it out" for raw milk because they are authoritarians, but there are also many public health workers who are reasonable and respect individual choice to consume raw milk, so long as it is produced in a responsible manner. In fact, most of the people who work at Wisconsin's DATCP actually grew up consuming raw milk since they grew up on dairy farms, and many of them still do consume it from a family or friend's farm.
The problem, of course, is who sets policy and the agenda at those agencies, and what little power the rank-and-file have over that policy. If we lived in a truly socialist society organized from the bottom-up, then public agencies such as this would be subject to the will of the workers, rather than the arbitrary top-down decisions of management. Such is the conundrum we face. If public sector workers had more options than just either accepting management decisions or quitting their job, we might see very different outcomes with raw milk.
But the general consensus in the raw milk movement seems to be that our goal should be to take rights away from those who work in the public sector, because we (falsely) assume that they are all against raw milk. I would argue that, actually, the opposite is true. Most of the people who work at those agencies are privately supportive of raw milk, but have to be careful about what they say and do at work because of the official position of management.
One note:
I would never advocate for a simple "free-for-all" in the public sector, the way that the Canadian right-wing party the Wild Rose suggests. Decisions at those agencies should be made in a collective and democratic fashion, with an eye towards the public good. The problem right now is precisely a lack of democracy and collective decision making.
your comment is a great theme for a sitcom = "Saturday Night Live from Madison / 70 square miles surrounded by reality" ... more than a few laffs as socialists attempt to put their ridiculous doctrines into practice
The consensus in the Food Sovereignty movement is that food growers and eaters don't need centralized power ("public" or "private", to use the terms of the scam you and idiots like Gordon bat back and forth at one another) over us at all.
As for your "I was only following orders" defense for the Food Police thugs, that was correctly rejected at Nuremburg, although we see how everyone in the West today has his favorite fascists for whom he wants to apologize. You apologize for government thugs, Gordon would apologize for corporate thugs. But it's all the same organized crime, all completely parasitic, and all completely unnecessary. No one has any right to do a "job" which involves assaulting or stealing from others. Period.
hazarding the notion that I 'apologize for corporate thugs', you couldn't be more wrong. The fact is : in lawsuit #S 124618, I'm fending-off an allegation of contempt of Court for running a cowshare, while in another lawsuit #139214, I'm suing the same corporation = Fraser Health Authority. As well as preparing to lay criminal charges against it / its lawyer for obstruct/pervert Justice. Most recently, in the 4-year legal warfaring, I exposed the Dairy Council of Canada lobbying the provincial govt. so as to have the regulation implemented, which outlaws raw milk in BC. In the last round I kicked the ass of the corporate thug's lawyer so badly that she fled the field ... yet your take is : I'm apologizing for them ?! It would be hard to portray my actual postion, any more more "Ass-backwards" than you do.
Your relentless kvetching reveals you're no friend of the Campaign for REAL MILK. The net result of your postings prove you're here just to cause trouble, dividing very friends / those involved in normalizing the production & delivery of REAL MILK for the common weal.
In war and in politics, it is crucial to have the measure of one's enemy. Thus, it would be most instructive to the Campaign for REAL MILK, to know whence comes your moral dyslexia. My guess is ; your excuse would be same as the queers who say - "I can't help it, I was born this way"
You might have proximate fights with them, but you nevertheless accept all their premises - capitalism, the corporate form, the corporate state, land/resource "property", big government (in your case, to enforce "property", coinage, kill anyone you don't like, etc.) This dooms you and anyone else who falls into that trap.
Who's "kvetching" more than you? If you're really a "wealth-creating" farmer, how do you have so much time to participate on the commie internet? (And "for free", no less! Surely by your ideology only a paid-subscription website would have any value.) And why aren't you rich, if you're a competent entrepreneur, and your "wealth creator" ideology is true? (Please, no commie nonsense about being content with a certain size or something.)
Meanwhile nothing could be more divisive than your vile epithet- and hate-spewing at anyone who disagrees with you on anything. It's clearly an ingrained part of your indelible (lack of) character. Nothing at this blog more effectively "discredits" the milk movement (for those who worry about such things; I personally focus on the affirmative vigor of a site, group, etc., and only compare alleged subtractions to that positive content) as having an overt racist and flat-earth bigot (and corrupt snake-oil salesman) like you holding forth.
From here on I'll continue to describe the structural facts of corporatism and what strategically follows from there, but ignore you.
Some posters on this blog seem to suffer from a not so rare human disease called intolerance. Please keep in mind that resorting to personal attacks, character assasination or disdain, often says more about you than the subject of the vitriol.
I suggest we could approach it more a "Maybe that's how you see it, but here is my perspective on that..."
Not to say that anyone in particular is right or wrong, but I think we could use a little more civility from all sides especially in the extreme polarized arguments. Please let me know if you think I'm wrong, but do it gently, my ego is too fragile for sharp criticism. Thank you, now let's get to milk talk.
Thanks Ora.
My point is only that many people who work at Wisconsin's DATCP actually consume raw milk, and probably would support legalizing it here.
Russ -- the people who actually do the enforcement against raw milk farmers, in Wisconsin DATCP, are an exceedingly small (and elite) group of high-level management in the Division of Food Safety. I have it on good authority, from insiders, that these individuals (I'm not naming names on this forum) are also known for their antagonistic relationship with the labor union stewards there. The very labor unions which have been smashed under the "libertarian" regime of our governor Scott Walker. (Walker is heavily funded by the Koch Brothers, and is seeking to sell off public deer hunting lands to the highest bidder as part of an anti-communist privatization scheme)
As usual, the "libertarian" attacks on public sector workers are only hurting the cause of raw milk. Until we are willing to accept the fact that not all public sector workers are our enemies, and act accordingly, we ought to not be surprised at the results.
Ora, you seem not to have followed my exchanges with Watson very closely if you think I (A) initiated personal epithets, (B) continued to be aggressive about them. But like I said, I'll be ignoring him in the future, so you won't see more of my taunts in return.
Meanwhile Watson seems never to write any comment, to anyone or to no one in particular, which isn't loaded with racism, homophobia, and antediluvian "commie" rhetoric. (He still hasn't gotten the news about who won the Cold War and has therefore had total global power for over 20 years now.)
The basic point I was trying to explain to him is important for milk, since small farming in general will truly be wiped out (for the duration of the fossil fuel age) if it continues trying to play by corporatism's rules.
Hi Russ,
My impression is that Ora's comment was not aimed at you, or at you alone anyway. It's pretty obvious that Mr. Watson takes pleasure in being offensive.
But at least he did finally clarify the price mystery a little.
I'm really grateful that today I picked up my 6 gallons of milk for a mere $30. Yes, the 2.5 hour round-trip is long sometimes, but it's worth it. When I asked the farmer "How's life?", his response was "Life is good".
I don't think they're suffering financially :)
Hi Ora,
You sound like a really nice person. I'd love to have you as a neighbor :)
I guess some folks are very passionate about these matters, and the internet does tend to invite a "take the gloves off" approach.
I'll admit although I agree with a couple of Mr. Watson's positions, he's such a loose cannon I'm inclined to take Russ's side in their disputes.
Belated condolences on the rooster; I hope things are going better in that department.
All I will say is this: "Sorry, those are the rules. I don't make them".
D. Smith...please send me your email and I will send you the picture of Mike and his royal protest pose.
It is not on-line yet.
www.mark@organicpastures.com
Heck, Mark, I sent it to you yesterday. Hmmm. COmputer gremlins at it again. I just sent it again. It was weird - I had to verify my account! Have had it for a long time and never had to do that before.
@ Mark: Did you receive my email? I know that yesterday was Father's Day, so you were probably busy and I'm not in a hurry, but I did wonder if you got the email simply because I've been having trouble with hotmail lately.
FYI-something most of us knew or suspected long ago....
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/toxin-from-gm-crops-found-in-human-bl...
@ Sylvia: Some of those percentages are startling, considering they are talking mainly pregnant women.
What really needs to happen is a complete ban on *life patenting*. People have been concerned about this for at least 20 years already, as you can tell by reading this:
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/pat-ch.htm
I do believe though, that since so much time has passed, we've already skipped down the yellow brick road.
We can start by rejecting "intellectual property" in principle, especially where it applies to life forms. Otherwise critics of Monsanto, etc. really don't have a leg to stand on, since nothing Monsanto does is an "abuse" of the concept. The concept itself is an abomination.
The whole concept doesn't work, anyway, to protect actual creators. It works only toward corporate profit.
(I'll add that today's IP regime is also completely unconstitutional by Article 1 section 8, since it doesn't "promote...Science and useful Arts" (a recent SCOTUS decision explicitly flouted the constitution on this point; we see how illegitimate the SCOTUS is), nor "secure...to authors and inventors", nor for "limited Times".)
Wow D. Smith, I didn't know they were trying to patent so much, even the simple camomile plant. I'll continue to save my seeds. I have no trust in the "wizard" behind the curtain.
@ Sylvia: Yep, and I'll bet this woman is wishing she had saved seeds. Then again, maybe she did but just isn't saying because she could probably get into trouble for THAT, too. Is there no area of our lives NOT under control by some agency?
http://www.newson6.com/story/18802728/woman-sues-city-of-tulsa-for-cutti...
Here it is on YouTube, just in case that other link doesn't work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7VN123cW2k
I certainly hope she wins her suit against the city.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120605130748.htm
"A natural ingredient found in milk can protect against obesity even as mice continue to enjoy diets that are high in fat. "
I didn't see if this study was with raw or pasteurized milk. Nor did it specify what "high fats" My dad consumes bacon fat daily, in most everything....he is skinny and low cholesterol, low BP......
@ Sylvia: I'm sure they probably used pasteurized milk. I hardly ever rely on info from science daily because they're pretty much mainstream. I typed "raw milk goodness" into the search engine (along with several variations of that heading) and only things about illness from raw milk, etc., came up, nothing supporting the good probiotic features and the enzyme benefits. Not a word. I also typed in "pasteurized milk illnesses and deaths" (again, using several variations of words) and nada. Not a peep. So it's pretty sorta kinda awful biased towards the BIGDAIRY stuff. You can also tell, as you scroll down the page, the other article headlines (in the center of the page) are NOT in favor of raw milk.
Well, so be it, but it's not going to change my mind after nearly 60 years of drinking raw. In those 60 years I've never been sickened from raw milk or any of the things I make from it and that's a fact.
D. Smith,
When I read something, I also research what interests me and/or some of the questionable information out there. Since research on raw dairy is difficult to find and here in the US, almost nonexistent, along with being severely biased, I take what I find with a grain of salt and look further elsewhere. Sometimes what they print is a jumping off place for me to look into whatever the subject is.
I know it isn't the case, but would hope all people look deeper into the research put forth and question everything. I can always hope.
As a nurse, I did not try to change any patients minds, I gave the facts as I knew them and the patient made their choices.
When I read that article, I wondered if the "natural ingredient" was heat sensitive. The story didn't say, nor did it say the milk was raw. So if the nicotinamide riboside along with all the other factors is heat sensitive, then the results are not accurate when boiled milk is used.
@ Sylvia: If I have the time I always like to do further research, as well. I like to utilize the hyperlinks embedded within articles because a lot of times I learn more from following those than I learned from the original article. I'm pretty sure that following hyperlinks is how I found this blog. : )
Our best and brightest scientists know the truth....thank our trillion bacteria for our health.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/14/health/human-microbiome-project-decode...
Injury to our bacteria is injury or death to us....we are truly Bacteriosapiens...DRINK YOUR RAWMILK and THRIVE!!