Category Archives: politics

politics, raw milk

In solidarity with Michael Schmidt

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I’m writing to encourage you to participate in the Michael Schmidt Solidarity Raw Milk Fast on October 25, 2011. I am writing to draw attention to this hard-working, honorable, and peaceful man who is advocating for our rights to choose what we eat—a cause that shouldn’t need to exist or require activists.

Michael Schmidt began a hunger strike on September 29 to continue his efforts towards engaging a “constructive dialogue about the issue of non-pasteurized milk in Ontario and Canada.”

Last year, Schmidt was charged with selling and distributing raw milk. It is illegal in Canada to sell or distribute raw milk. It is however legal to consume raw milk from your own cows. Schmidt and the raw milk consumers had a cowshare arrangement where the consumers own the animals and Schmidt cared for them.  In turn, the consumers were provided with the milk from their own animals. Schmidt was found innocent of those charges. However, recently, the decision was reversed and Schmidt was found guilty.

On October 18, Schmidt sent a letter to Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario. You can read it at The Bovine or The Complete Patient.

For the Michael Schmidt Solidarity Raw Milk Fast, a group will be assembling in front of the office of Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario. They are asking for people to express solidarity with Michael’s fast by consuming only raw milk for the 24 hours. If fasting is not possible, they ask that at some point in the day, you raise a glass of raw milk to salute Michael.

Additionally, concerned people of the US and Canada are being asked to write to Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario.
Dalton McGuinty, Premier
Legislative Building
Queen’s Park
Toronto ON M7A 1A1
1-800-387-5559
Fax: 416-325-3745

If you’re on Facebook, you can join the Support Michael Schmidt group.

For a while, people were posting comments on Premier McGinty’s Facebook wall to take the meeting with Michael Schmidt. At first, McGuinty’s people were deleting comments, now they’ve disabled commenting.

There are numerous places to get the back story as well as other ways to get involved:

In Michael’s own words (as posted over at The Bovine):

I have been fighting since 1994 for the right of men, women and children in Canada to be able to make the simplest and most important of all choices -what they eat.

Thank you Michael.

farms, health, politics

Soylent Pink

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Jamie Oliver shows where the various cuts of beef come from on the cow. After the good cuts are gone, what happens with the waste trimmings? It gets made into pink slime.

If you don’t have the time or stomach to watch, here’s the synopsis: Butchers pay companies to take away the parts of the cow that cannot be fed to humans. This is usually used to make chicken and dog feed. But thanks to good old Yankee ingenuity, some clever entrepreneurs figured out how to take these remnants and separate the fat so they could access the remaining meat. They “cleanse” that meat in an ammonia solution to kill the e.coli, salmonella, and other pathogens. Then they grind it and it looks just like ground beef.

By law, up to 15% of this pink slime can be mixed into regular ground beef. This filler is popular with fast food chains and grocery stores. Since the ammonia is a processing agent and not an ingredient, there’s no requirement to list it on the label.

Still wondering if my local beef is worth the price? The real question is: Are our legislators and administration officials worth their price?

UPDATE:

I’ve been asking “my” farmers for their assurance. The following farms confirm there is NO pink slime in their ground beef (and that means no ammonia in or on any of their meat either):

Note: Not all the replies are in yet and I will continue to update this list.

If “your” farmers have given you their assurance, please post it in a comment. Thanks.

locavore, politics

Just another elite foodie

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You would think that the biggest problem in the world today is that locavores and other foodies are elite:

I recently remarked elsewhere on the InterTubes that it’s fascinating that with animal poo on my shoes (because I really do know my farmer), I’m elite!

Unfortunately, name-calling really works as a tactic for marginalizing different thinking, particularly when it’s gaining traction. (How many people call themselves liberals or feminists any more?) Once a good idea starts to recognized as a really good idea, it has to be neutralized to maintain the status quo.

I refuse to be shamed back into the industrial food system. I’ve decided to embrace my elitism.

elite: A group of people considered to be the best in a particular society or category, esp. because of their power, talent, or wealth.

Looks to me like elite is good. Notice that snobbery is not part of the definition as the naysayers would have you believe. Nope. Elitism is all about exceptionalism. Imagine that: exceptionalism in your chosen endeavor is a positive attribute!

So, just how elite am I? My category of exceptionalism is good local food: wholesome, sustainable, nutrient-dense, non-toxic, not mass-produced, community-oriented, and healthy. As it happens, I am exceptionally talented at finding good local food—likely due to my willingness to spend the time and effort to do so. I am one of the best locavores that I know. I don’t insist that everyone do as I do, but if anyone wants to, my Web site that tells you everything I’ve learned about it. If this qualifies me elite, I acknowledge the compliment!

I pwn 3l33t.

exceptionalism
farms, locavore, politics

Ken Cook: Turning the Farm Bill into the Food Bill

Here’s Ken Cook from the Environmental Working Group, giving a talk called Turning the Farm Bill into the Food Bill. The bill is coming up again in 2012 so it’s time to start talking and doing something about it now.

Interesting. I didn’t know:

  • The food bill is $412 billion from 2008 to 2012.
  • There are an enormous number of absentee farmers getting subsidies. Some of them are not even living.
  • 60% of farms do not get any subsidies.
  • The top 10% of farmers take 74% of the money (Wow, sounds like regular life with the top 1% of Americans having ¼ of the wealth)
  • 22 of the 435 congressional districts get half of all the farm subsidy money. Yes, the people on the sides are paying for the people in the middle. But that’s not news and it’s not limited to farming.
  • We the taxpayers pay for both the insurance premiums and the claims for disasters! (We did a similar thing in the bank bail out—are we stupid or what?)

Here are some things I want in (or out from, as the case may be) a food bill:

  • Remove the rich absentee farmers and the dead ones from the subsidy roles.
  • Stop subsidizing ethanol.
  • Stop subsidizing monoculture farms and tax them for the damage they’re doing to environment.
  • Reward farms that are sustainable and leaving the land better than they found it.
  • Invest more into organic and permaculture farming

There’s more information at the Environmental Working Group site, like:

23 of members of the 112th Congress (or their family members) signed up for taxpayer-funded farm subsidy payments between 1995 and 2009.

EWG maintains a subsidy database. Texas is #1 and Iowa is #2 in getting subsidy money. Connecticut is #45 and none of the farms on the list are farms I recognize from the markets.