(NaturalNews) Canadian dairy farmer Michael Schmidt's 37 day lemon water fast achieved his goal of a personal meeting with the Premier of Ontario Province, Dalton McGuinty. The raw milk caravan of Raw Milk Freedom Riders achieved a small legal victory. The fact that these food freedom activists are alive and not incarcerated, marks a small step toward food freedom.
Meet the courageous activists
German immigrant Michael Schmidt is a dairy farmer in the province of Ontario, Canada. He has been a raw milk provider for several years. He was arrested in 1994 for selling raw milk and sentenced to two years probation. But he wouldn't stop distributing raw milk.
Then his farm was raided in 1996 by 25 armed agents. Maybe they were concerned that the cows would charge at them. He was arrested again, but still refused to stop distributing raw milk through his
cow share activity. He managed to gain an acquittal, which is being appealed by the prosecution.
Cow sharing avoids the Gestapo actions against raw milk product transactions by selling shares of cows, enabling shareholders the right to consume the raw milk from "their" cows. This approach works where it is not illegal to drink raw milk (yes, some states forbid that), but illegal to sell it.
Michael took over another cow share enterprise to keep the milk flowing in the province of British Columbia, where farmer Alice Jongerden ran her raw milk cow share activity. She was arrested on similar charges from which Schmidt had been acquitted. But unfortunately she was railroaded by a kangaroo court and shut down.
Michael Schmidt's latest confrontation with police power to decide what Canadians can eat and drink was the recent 37 day fast, which he refused to end until a one on one meeting with Ontario Premier McGuinty was arranged.
He achieved that meeting. And Michael was able to toast the Raw Milk Freedom Riders with
raw milk that they all drank together outside of FDA headquarters in Maryland. You can read more about the Raw Milk Freedom Riders here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/034027_raw_milk_protest.htmlWhat's ultimately at stake
Although it's true that clean raw milk is easy to produce and is far more beneficial than pasteurized, poisonous commercially sold milk, raw milk is not the essential issue.
It is the vanguard for food freedom arousing the greatest notoriety. These
raw milk skirmishes are bringing the tyranny against food freedom to public attention.
Even Michael Pollan,
NY Times food columnist alerted the public of the FDA using terrifying surprise armed raids on small raw milk producers, which is financially devastating to them. This while only reprimanding Jack DeCoster after his huge factory farm's eggs poisoned over 1500 with salmonella.
The more information that leaks out to the mainstream media and public with these military style raids, questions will be asked by more observers.
So people like Michael Schmidt, who fasted with his stated willingness to die for the cause of food freedom, are important and inspirational rallying points. He did draw considerable media attention and internet support during his hunger strike.
And the Raw Milk Freedom Riders, who also drew national attention risking arrest with their conspicuous caravan carrying raw milk across state lines, then drinking and giving it out in front of FDA headquarters had similar merit.
This is the stuff of true activism, attracting public attention and exposing Big Brother's tyrannical control over what we eat and drink.
Sources for this article include:
http://healthwyze.org/index.php/component/content/article/307-canadia...
http://thehealingjournal.com/node/1364
http://chelseagreen.com/blogs/davidgumpert/category/food-and-health/
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