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REAL milk for British Columbia |
| Legal way to get REAL MILK in BC | ||||||
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Updated September 30th 2008 on the page 'scrutiny by government', see the proposed Notice of Motion which I served yesterday. Next step is we set a date to go to Court to have that Motion heard
Cowsharing is where several people each own a share in a cow, or a herd, then hire a farmer who does the work of looking after those cows and making ready the milk. This arrangement is not caught by the laws against selling raw milk because the milk is never for sale. Since the herd is jointly owned, when we divide up the milk produced by our asset, we are exercising our right to use and enjoy our personal property We are not 'certified organic', rather, "in transition". 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. In our model, each shareholder makes an agreement with the Agister* for her services, but shareholders are not contracted with each other. Alice Jongerden, doing business as Home on the Range provides agistment services for us as we farm co-operatively for our own sustenance. Her e-mail address is > home_on_the_range@telus.net < *Agister is an antique word for someone who takes care of cattle for a fee. For instance, the boarding of horses is the service of “agistment”. The operation is well known to the provincial Ministers of Health and of Agriculture, and the Ministry of the Attorney General, because I made a point of informing them at every step. In the spring of 2007, in order to have the issue clarified, I originated a Petition in the Supreme Court of BC. The lawyer for the government side invited me to come over to Victoria and talk with him. After a good discussion, I decided not to go ahead with it. Rather, to let the Court action ride while helping ‘Home on the Range’ dairy as it grows to meet the demand for REAL MILK Up 'til July 9 2008, things were going well with our arrangement which allowed us to get raw milk legally. That day, our Agister was served with an Order to Cease and Desist "distributing" raw milk, but I am contesting it "with vigah". The REAL MILK 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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
sources of raw milk products in British Columbia ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| over the line to the united States raw milk can be obtained just over the US border and brought back into Canada, quite legally. When I spoke with the Canada Customs Agency a while ago about regulations, I was told that one may bring $20 worth or twenty kilograms of dairy products per day in to Canada unrestricted. No duty Following are letters from the government of British Columbia answering my requests for a legal way for us to obtain raw = REAL = milk. Below that are my letters, which led to the ones from the Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Health. ```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` most recent letter, no answer yet January 15th 2007 Attorney General Wallace Oppal Minister of Health George Abbot Minister of Agriculture Pat Bell Since my previous letters about REAL MILK I have learned even more about how bad the white, industrial fluid passed off as ‘homo milk’ is. I could get exercised about your administration’s failure to perform its duty to protect the Public Health, particularly the outrage of so-called “milk” being adulterated with concentrated milk protein from third world countries. God only knows how that astounding perversion of common sense is going to come back to haunt us. But I can only do so much. I am concentrating on making available to people who care about good food, an alternative to the garbage which is out there in the retail sector. The last few times I went around this, I hoped to get something with which I could head off the ignorant, heavy-handed way the authorities come down on citizens who simply want a glass of REAL MILK. Mr Duffel’s letter of September 15 2005, your file 629995, is close to a Letter of Comfort but it is not enough, against what Michael Schmidt is suffering in Ontario, lately. Partnering with people who appreciate REAL MILK, I intend to get a few cows and have a farmer look after them for us. When we put our herd in the care of a farmer, who will board the cows including milking them, then ready our milk for us to take home, we will be practicing agistment. Agistment is a word not used in Canada but it is well-understood in the British tradition for at least five centuries. Australians use it in contracts for the boarding of horses, beef cattle and sheep. It means putting one’s animals in the care of another. The key point is that we are private citizens, co-operating to get the kind of milk we prefer, for ourselves and our families. We will not be engaged in commerce. Therefore I put forward for your consideration the argument that as we jointly own a cow, or a herd of cattle, and take home milk from that herd for ourselves, we are not doing anything morally wrong, we are simply exercising our right to use and enjoy our property. Section 9 of the Law and Equity Act Revised Statutes of British Columbia guarantees our British tradition of agistment.There is a different argument to be made that, now with the integrity of the food chain suspect, we have the right, even the duty, to do what we feel is necessary to ensure our own health and personal security. If the provincial government has any reason why we ought not to engage in agistment in order to be self-sufficient in food, please tell me. I hereby request clarification on the position of your administration concerning my proposition, above. Even though I abhor the personal income tax as communism in action, I am going to use the internal rationale of the federal and provincial income tax Acts to shed some light on the situation with raw milk. I say that what we intend to do with our cows is similar to the way a race horse syndicate qualifies under the hobby farming section of the federal Act. Since the Income Tax Act RSBC defers to the federal Income Tax Act [ utterly unconstitutional, but we’ll leave that for another day ] then each of those individuals who wants to avail himself of section 31 of the federal Income Tax Act will automatically be seen by Ian Forman, BC’s Commissioner for Income Tax, as a farmer, to a certain extent. Each of them would be asserting his right to farm.Under the income tax acts, a “herd” can be even one animal. For us to share what is produced by our herd of dairy cows is not qualitatively different than members of a syndicate divvying-up prize money won by their stable of race horses, ie. partners sharing in the risks and rewards obtained from a jointly-owned asset. Please find enclosed the DECISION AND JUDGMENT ENTRY in a recent Court decision in Ohio. I believe that difficulty with the law concerning raw milk, as spelled-out by Judge Hein, is analogous to the situation in British Columbia. Also : a news release concerning what’s going on in Maryland. The situation in British Columbia is similar to that in Ohio and Maryland. Our Legislature has the power to outlaw the sale / distribution /consumption of raw milk sold / distributed in commerce. But does that include the power to deny it to people who are NOT involved in commerce? No it does not. A blanket prohibition which pretends to outlaw citizens underwriting the production of food for ourselves is contrary to Canadian values : it is absurd to tell a nation not two generations off the farm that our Biblical heritage of dairying is illegal … that we can’t have the good stuff …. that we have to just shut up and go over to the supermarket and be content with the dreck on the shelves there. Thirty years ago, those who promoted pasteurization could get away with scare-mongering, saying that ‘every glass of raw milk was a vector for disease’ because the scientific study had not been done to make the case for raw milk. Now it has. Disabuse yourself of the notion that pasteurization makes milk perfectly safe. Especially, disabuse your-selves of the notion that homogenization is somehow ‘a good thing’. In order to deal with these issues, officials are obliged to inform themselves of the case for REAL MILK as set out in the books The Milk Book by Dr Wm Campbell Douglass, The Untold Story of Milk by Ron Schmid. And WHAT’S IN YOUR MILK An expose of Industry and Government cover-up on the DANGERS of the Genetically-Engineered Milk You’re drinking, recently published by Dr Samuel Epstein. Notice that Safeway has rejected recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone. Before you tell me that rBGH isn’t allowed to be used in Canadian cattle, get out and get in touch with the facts. ; every day farmers in the lower Mainland drive across the border to buy Posilac, and bring it back to shoot up their cows with. The milk from which is pooled and consumed by British Columbians. The fact that the UBC demonstration farm was caught shipping milk from cows-on-drugs tells us all we need to know. Polluters only stop when they get caught. Your administration will probably be aware of the decision of the Food and Drug Agency in the United States of America, decreeing that milk and meat from cloned animals is safe. This is just more evidence that the FDA has become utterly perverted from its original purpose ; now it is the actual enemy of the People. That insanity is an outworking of fascism, the FDA being in the pocket of the Big Agricultural / Food processor corporations. Cow-sharing is a perfect example of how, once people completely lose confidence in Big Government, we look after ourselves. This issue - of consumers demanding REAL MILK - is not going to go away. I know of many people who go down to Washington State and buy raw milk there ~ perfectly legally ~ then bring it back to Canada = perfectly legally. I went around this with Canada Customs : I was told candidly that their position is : raw milk purchased in Washington is the personal property of that Canadian citizen. The limit is 20 kg per day, or $20 Cdn … whichever is the less. After that amount, ridiculously prohibitive duty applies. As a Christian Libertarian, I want as little government interference in my life as possible. But two decades of political activism on various topics have made me realistic on this issue. I and some of the people for whom I speak, would be happy with the set-up for raw milk dairying which is in place in Washington State, where there are about 24 micro-dairies with Grade A licences. I know that dozens of people go down there regularly to get raw milk. It is more likely hundreds. For your research purposes, go to Bromley’s Market in Sumas or Whole Foods in Bellingham. Then please tell us REAL MILK fans why it is that Whole Foods in Bellingham can handle raw milk safely, but Whole Foods in West Vancouver cannot? You and I know they could, given the opportunity. Thus, there is no other, more logical reason why fresh whole raw milk is illegal in British Columbia but ‘restraint of trade’. Some time back, on an unrelated topic, I was talking to lawyer George Wool. Prior to being called to the Bar, Mr Wool was a member of the RCMP Commercial Crime squad for 12 years. He told me that one of the projects he worked on was investigating the way law firms would contribute to political parties, then get rewarded with sweetheart contracts. He said “we had enough evidence to put one third of the law firms in Canada on trial”. An amazing statement, but I believe it because of who it came from. How that relates to raw milk is, without a doubt, the same quid~pro~quo is at work behind closed doors in the dairy biz as in the lawyering racket. One way or anther, the dairy cartel influences politicians to have raw milk outlawed so as to pad profitability. Enclosed please find Sally Fallon’s essay explaining how small scale dairying which is oriented to serving local markets, is the salvation of the family farm. Of course, such real free enterprise is what the gigantic corporate “vulture capitalists” cannot withstand. My point being : Regulation 181/88 of the Health Act RSBC was not brought about for any good reason to do with Public Health. It was contrived to maintain the profits of the Big Dairies. It is inimical to the Public Good.All the laws to do with raw milk don’t have to be amended. I suggest that we ‘health fanatics’ could be accommodated by a formal statement expanding what (then) Minister of Agriculture van Dongen put in his letter [ November 24 2003, your file 0280-30 reference 67746 ] assuring us we won’t be criminalized for using and enjoying our own property. If not, I shall go to Court for a Declaration of Right Yours truly Gordon S. Watson Box 63009 RPO Highgate Burnaby British Columbia V5E 4J6 Telephone 604 526 5324 e-mail < justice_critic@shaw.ca > ___________________________ Here’s what I received September 19 2005 in reply to requesting the BC Govt. to clarify what gives with the REAL milk. At first, I was disappointed because it seems to be a step back from the previous letter from the Minister of Agriculture. But thinking about it some more, this is a good thing because it pronounces govt. policy is predicated upon the consumer’s “fully-informed consent about risks”. What a concept ! UNlearned in the law as I am, I believe this letter can be taken to legitimize a cow-op as long as the shareholders pick up their own milk at the farm. Of course, this is by no means the last word. I’ll be getting back to Mr. Duffell with a Freedom of Information request for everything the policymakers had in front of them to come to that position. And in that request I’ll pose a few of the more obvious contradictions between the way raw milk is dealt with versus other products with live bacteria= sushi, raw oysters, steak tartare, raw fruit juices, etc. The best one I came up lately is the fact that at some local beaches during the summer, the coliform count in the water is posted and updated. So people can swim at their own risk in effluent which demonstrably contains human pathogens. But that’s OK - I guess ! ________________________ British Columbia 629995 September 15th 2005 Mr. Gordon S. Watson Box Burnaby B. C. V5E 4J6 Dear Mr. Watson The Honourable George Abbott, Minister of Health, has asked me to respond to your letter of July 8, 2005, directed to the Honourable Wallace Oppal, Attorney General of British Columbia. You asked for clarification of the government’s policy regarding the distribution of raw milk, and specifically whether several people can jointly own a cow or a herd of cows and share the unpasteurized raw milk from that cow or herd. The Milk Industry Act and the Milk Industry Standards Regulation currently regulate raw milk. This legislation prohibits the sale or supply of any dairy product (including raw milk) unless it has been pasteurized in accordance with the Act and Regulations. This means that raw, unpasteurized milk cannot be sold or supplied to anyone other than a licensed dairy processing plant. It is Ministry policy to consider that raw milk is not sold or supplied if it is consumed by a person who owns and has direct care and control of the cow -- in other words, a person who knows how the animal and the raw milk is being handled. In these circumstances, the person who consumes the raw milk is considered to have adequate information to assess the risks associated with that particular raw milk. This narrow policy exception does not apply to raw milk that is sold or supplied to someone who is not directly involved in the care and control of the cow and the raw milk. While I acknowledge that there may be jurisdictions that permit the sale or supply of unpasteurized raw milk to people who do not directly care for or control the cow or cows that produced it, that is not the policy in British Columbia. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns, and the time you have taken to bring this matter to the Minister’s attention. Yours truly (signed) SE Beechers?? For Ron Duffell A/ Executive Director Health Protection pc: Honourable Wallace Oppal Attorney General of British Columbia Honourable Pat Bell Minister of Agriculture and Lands Ministry of Health Executive Director Health Protection Population Health and Wellness 1515 Blanshard Street 4-2 Victoria BC V8W 3C8 telephone (250) 952-1433 Facsimile (250) 952 - 1713~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BRITISH COLUMBIA November 24 2003 File : 0280-30 Ref: 67746 Gordon S. Watson Burnaby BC V5E 1M4 Dear Mr. Watson The Honourable Geoff Plant, Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Treaty Negotiations, has forwarded a copy of your letter for review. In your letter, you ask for clarification regarding your use and enjoyment on the “dividend” from joint ownership of a milking cow. I can advise you that according to the Milk Industry Act, a person must not sell, offer for sale, or supply any dairy product unless the dairy product has been pasteurized. The Act does not prevent you from consuming unpasteurized milk from a cow which you own. Thank you for taking the time to advise me of your concerns. Yours sincerely, [ signature ] John van Dongen Minister pc: Honourable Geoff Plant Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Treaty Negotiations _______________________ Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries Office of the Minister Mailing address: PO Box 9043 Stn Prov Govt Victoria BC V8W 9E2 Web address : http://www.gov.bc.ca/agf/ Phone (250) 387 - 1023 Fax” (250) 387 - 1522 --------------------------------- Honourable John van Dongen, Minister of Agriculture Dear Sir I understand that the Attorney General forwarded to your attention my letter of August 3 2003, concerning raw milk. It seems to me that Mr. Plant must’ve made a mistake, directing it to your Ministry, because the thrust of it has more to do with operation of the laws to do with milk vis-a-vis Public Health, than it does agriculture. Nevertheless ; enclosed please find a recent news article updating and nicely explaining the basis of my proposition. I want you to realize that people’s demands for second, gourmet dairy products made from raw whole milk, which we can be sure don’t have Bovine Growth Hormone in them are not being met by the present production / distribution system. Your government has the duty to actively remedy these problems. With raw dairy products, we’re into the same situation as what happened with Olera Farms / organic eggs over the last decade : when the established egg producers were all fat and sassy, thinking they ‘had it made’ with their places in the government’s protection racket … they wouldn’t give Mr. Reid the time of day as he set out to provide consumers the superior product which he knew the market wanted. But when he proved that there was a profit to be made in the high-price end of a genuinely free market….well !! The cartel soon found a way to get their mitts on part of what’d he’d created, didn’t they ? Despite them having refused to do their statutory duty to develop that market! Many of us are disgusted with the way his initiative, instead of being rewarded, was outlawed. The fruits of his hard work were stolen from him in legal fees by those who coveted his success. Point being ; I’m taking pains to see that the same thing doesn’t happen to me with raw dairy. Demand is accelerating for REAL MILK © and also products made from it. Once people taste the difference, and learn the nutritional superiority / health benefits of fresh whole raw version, they will not settle for the thin, denatured, lowest-common-denominator stuff which we were deceived for a generation to call “milk ”. Did you notice in my material that homogenization of milk has been PROVED to cause arteriosclerosis ? Wait ‘til the lawyers get ’hold of that one. As sketched out in my letter to the Attorney General, I am sure that British Columbians still maintain the right to use and enjoy our own property in the form of cattle on the hoof. And I say that a consequence of that right is that we can associate in a common law partnership for doing jointly whatever we may do as individuals. Just as there’s nothing stopping me from drinking raw milk taken from a cow which I wholly own, neither should there be any let or hindrance upon me, or others who hold an interest in her, from enjoying the same perfectly natural milk from a cow , or a goat, which we each own part of. Think of it as “the right to farm” practiced on a household scale. Your government says that you’re getting rid of red tape … good for you ! Let’s see Minister Falconer address Regulation 181/88 of the Health Act Revised Statutes of British Columbia. Let’s see that election promise put on government stationery. Legitimizing a way for people to obtain raw dairy products could be done very simply, by way of an amendment to the Milk Industry Act I request that your government make it perfectly clear to all concerned, by way of a Letter of Comfort to me, that individuals who own shares in a cow, in common, will not be prosecuted for simply exercising our right to enjoy the dividend from what that chattel produces, particularly, her milk. And for precision, such a Declaration ought to address the situation where individuals who own an interest, or several shares, in a herd of cattle are entitled to use and enjoy what that asset as a whole, produces. Yours truly Gordon S. Watson ----------------------------------------- August 3 2003 Dear Sir Enclosed please find items pertaining to whole fresh raw cow’s / goat’s milk, for which I use the term “REAL MILK” so as to differentiate it from what’s commercially available. Since the beginning of history, people have produced and consumed REAL MILK and thrived on it, yet in this province today it is categorically outlawed. Please look at my letter to the Minister of Health where I explained the insanity of those who want REAL MILK being denied it by law, while other substances which are known poisons are freely available from government outlets. The Minister at that time did nothing. Therefore I am now proposing a couple of ways people who want REAL MILK can have it without being prosecuted. The simplest solution for the official stupidity described in my letter to the Minister of Health, and below, is for your government to immediately repeal Regulation 181/88 of the Health Act RSBC. But I am not optimistic that common sense remedy will happen because the entrenched commercial interests would balk. Therefore I propose a “walk-around” of the law, (as the slang term is in your office) so we can get what we want without all the expense / inefficiency of a full-tilt constitutional challenge to the legislation. As part of my efforts to get REAL MILK flowing here, I had a conversation with a farmer in California who produces and sells it - quite legally ! - down there. At the moment, he doesn’t have any extra to ship us. But what do you think would happen if he got a bee in his bonnet about being prevented by B. C. and Canadian laws from doing business with me ? To start with, we have the WTO ruling on our side. I expect you, and your legal advisers, are already thinking long and hard about the legality of the dairy monopoly in light of recent rulings of the World Trade Organization. I urge all concerned to read the Competition Act Revised Statues of Canada vis-à-vis British Columbians’ demand for REAL MILK. I draw your attention to section 21 of the Natural Products Marketing Act RSBC wherein the bright lights who drafted it acknowledge they knew it was unconstitutional ab initio ! I don’t need a law degree to figure out that the rules against raw milk are on very thin ice. The last thing I want is an ordeal of a court case. So my position on the legality of REAL MILK is ; “let’s be reasonable”. I want to stay out of court if possible. Is it worth all the hassle of sending in your high-priced legal beagles to defend the communistic centrally-dictated supply system when it’s understood all ‘round that the entire ‘Marketing Board’ house-of-cards is crumbling, anyway ? But back to ‘health’. There is more than enough scientific evidence now to prove that the product merchandised as ‘homo milk’ on retail store shelves is inferior to REAL MILK since much of the food value is stripped away in processing. Worse, the case can be made that once homogenized and pasteurized, so-called “milk” is dangerous to public health. Medical science has known for half a century that widespread homogenization of the milk supply is the major factor causing hardening of the arteries. The public continues to be duped so the dairy monopoly doesn’t have to spend what it would take to reform its production / distribution system. It is nothing less than a crime that while the homogenization of milk is known to be a menace to health, that fact has been suppressed from public understanding. How ironic that the good stuff, REAL MILK, is illegal, meanwhile the bad stuff, proven to harm human health, is sold openly. I remind you of what happened in the ‘tainted blood scandal’, where certain businesses continued even after they knew that what they were doing was deadly. As you read this, officials in British Columbia are responsible for having knowledge now about the harm homogenized milk does, yet are failing to do their duty to protect the public. It is a well known fact that cooking milk in a certain way - called “pasteurization” - destroys vital enzymes and renders portions of the proteins and minerals unavailable within the human metabolism. Knowledge that pasteurizing milk degrades its nutritional value has been suppressed for the same reasons the studies about homogenization are hidden : profitability of the dairy cartel and to hide culpability for undermining public health. Not to mention, the enormous profits in the aftermarket for the very ‘supplements’ which are removed out of the original raw milk. The ruining of the taste is no small issue, either. What becomes clear is that this situation - governments sacrificing public health in order that big business shall prosper - persists only because bureaucrats are bamboozled by deceptive propaganda. Raw milk has been outlawed as part of ‘moving the yardsticks’ in the marketplace … so consumers who’ve forgotten what REAL MILK is will unthinkingly accept the inferior product presented on supermarket shelves. Just a co-incidence that the ones who benefit from driving out competition - Dairy World = Ault Dairies = the Bronfmann empire et al. - are major contributors to political parties ? Twenty miles from where I live, raw cow’s / goat’s milk are freely available at a good price, from dairies which differ from small holders in B. C. only in that they have a permit from the state of Washington. What is it they know down there - and the 30 other states in the US where raw milk is sold legally - that the governors of British Columbia can’t figure out ? What is it the people in the European Economic Community ( a market of a mere 300 million consumers ) know about handling dairy products that British Columbia’s dairymen can’t grasp? As for the dairy cartel’s usual first-line of argument - health issues - I urge you to delegate someone to study the material being published by the promoters of REAL MILK so as to be prepared to explain to me, and the thousands of people like me who simply want to obtain good food, why one of nature’s most perfect foods - whole fresh raw milk - is illegal ? I can tell you right now there is no good nor sufficient reason. The pretence that raw milk is a “health hazard” is a canard. Having investigated this situation in depth I conclude that there is no other, more logical explanation for it but restraint of trade. In 1984 I started distributing various products to health food stores. Over the next two decades I watched organic food go from being a fringe category, ‘til now, where it’s about 15% of the fresh food market by dollar value. Last year, the lady with whom I started in business back then brokered nearly two million dollars of organics to the largest food store chain in B. C. Twenty years ago, agricultural officials sneered at organic agriculture as “pittance farming” yet today, your government actively promotes it. Point being : informed consumers will get what they want, one way or another. There is no denying an idea whose time has come ; interest in raw dairy is at the same stage now as the organic fruit & vegetable segment was in 1984 … a niche which turned into a major industry. If your government is truly responsive to the people, then it is incumbent upon you to accommodate the demand for REAL MILK instead of hindering it by illogical regulation. Around the world, people have awakened to what went on during the last century … our food was denatured for the convenience + profit of monolithic corporations. Corporations are permitted to operate on the presumption that it is in everyone’s best interest people’s needs are met for a profit. But, overall, they have done the opposite ; hand in hand with compliant / corrupt governors, corporate interests deliberately ‘dumbed-down’ the food supply in order to suit their selfserving convenience. Dividends paid to their shareholders were derived from value literally stolen out of our, and our children’s, mouths. Nowhere is that better illustrated than with whole raw fresh milk. When intelligent consumers realize this, we lose confidence in Big Government. Realizing that we have to take care of ourselves, one of our high priorities is ‘health‘, which translates into people taking control of the quality of our food at source. People I know who are convinced of the value of REAL MILK are determined to obtain what we believe is essential to maintaining and enhancing our quality of life. We want to do that in a simple, honest way. We want to avoid all the wrangling / expense of a court battle. Still, I am ready to go that route on this issue, if necessary. Unlearned in the law as I am, it seems to me that the provision in the Canadian Bill of Rights concerning property, as well section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms, entitles every one to produce co-operatively, whole raw cow’s and goat’s milk for his / her personal use and enjoyment without interference from overbearing regulators. I am not asking for free legal advice ; but I am entitled to clarification of certain laws in order to know how to govern myself properly. So my question is : let’s say I and a dozen other people each throw in $100 to buy a cow, then pay someone a weekly fee to board that cow for us, which fee includes milking. Thus, each of us has a property interest in her. According to our agreement, each partner has a property interest in what our asset, Bossy, produces - primarily milk * - proportionate to the amount of investment, and also dependent upon ante-ing up the boarding fee ; no fee that week = no milk that week. * In such a common law partnership, there will eventually be other products ie pedigreed calves / colostrum / meat / hide / horns / manure, to which we are entitled - in kind or in money - as profit from our investment. As we divvy up such produce, we are taking possession of our own property. I say that we ought to be able to take that dividend home from the farm, to use and enjoy without fear of the “milk police” coming ‘round and hauling us away to be prosecuted for breaching some ignorantly-contrived statute. What do you say ? Gordon S. Watson ````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` May 14th 2001 A. D. Minister of Health for British Columbia, Parliament Buildings Victoria Enclosed please find a copy of a news article about raw milk, along with a print-out of the information at the internet site mentioned therein. This article is a classic example of propaganda ... Big Brother using the lapdog press as its ventriloquist dummy for merchandising a cover-story to prop up the communist monopoly over the essential means of production. The purpose of my letter is three-fold: first, to have an official response from your Ministry right away on the questions posed; second, to put into your hands material telling the other side of the story about raw milk so as to have a scientific basis for changing the law in B. C. ; third, to have your ministry retract the misinformation currently posted on the website. Whereas your website @www.hlth.gov.bc.calhlthfile/hfileO3.html. states "There is absolutely no evidence to support the contention that raw milk is more nutritious than pasteurized milk." "There is no scientific evidence that raw milk makes you more resistant to disease." "There is no scientific evidence that raw milk better promotes the development of teeth." Each of those is demonstrably false. I find it appalling that government "experts" on health are unaware of the work of Weston A. Price, Pottinger and Steinman who did some of the basic research in human nutrition, particularly, teeth. In light of their work, and many more scientific studies since, your official statments are utter nonsense. Herbert Spencer said "There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all argument, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. That principle is condemnation without investigation. " Enclosed find a copy of The Milk Book How Science is Destroying Nature's Nearly Perfect Food" by Dr. Wm. Campbell Douglass; ISBN # 1-885236-04-2. Anyone with intellectual integrity who reads it will find out how stupid your ministry's statements about raw milk are. With this book now in hand, your Ministry has the duty of care to correct the false advertising I bring to your attention. As explained below, unless the law is changed so that British Columbians choose their own food without interference from an ill-informed, meddling government, there is the distinct possibility of a Constitutional Challenge to the law which outlaws commerce in raw milk. To prepare for that eventuality, and pursuant to the Freedom of Information & Protection of Privacy Act Revised Statutes of British Columbia, I require and hereby demand copies of the following; all material in the possession of your Ministry concerning the assertions on the above-mentioned website under "For example", 5 members of a family became ill with Salmonella from raw goat's milk. On Central Vancouver Island, 9 out of 13 kindergarten children became ill with Campylobacter after drinking raw milk while on a school visit to a local farm. In Vernon, numerous cases of Campylobacter were traced to the consumption of raw milk. In the Kootenays, a 35 year old woman needed surgery and a long stay in hospital due to Brucella infection She had previously consumed raw milk from several sources. In Ladysmith, a 4 year old girl developed neck abscesses due to Yersinia Infection. The family had consumed raw milk for many years. The older brother previously had a similar abscess in his neck and lip. On the Queen Charlotte Islands, 2 people developed Toxoplasmosis after consuming raw goat's milk. You will be aware that Regulation 181/88 of the Health Act Revised Statutes of British Columbia defines "health hazard" as "milk for human consumption that has not been pasteurized ...", Thus it is an offence for people to buy, sell or trade in fresh, whole, raw cow's or goat's milk. On the ground that it is far-superior to my health, I believe that I ought to be able to enjoy fresh whole raw milk without interference from government. Therefore this letter is the opening salvo in a political campaign to have the Health Act and the Milk Industry Act changed so raw milk is lawfully available. My own personal experience, along with many people I know, bears out Dr. Douglass' assertions. In a nutshell, what he presents is that . properly produced and cared for, whole raw cow's and goat's milk are some of the very best sources of nutrition for human beings; . the substance currently marketed as 'milk' is far-removed from the real thing; . by the time the substance being sold today as 'milk' reaches the consumer, it has been so altered that most of its nutrients are unavailable to human metabolism. Pasteurization destroys essential enzymes. Homogenization causes artheriosclerosis ; . arguments concerning the 'unhealthfull-ness' of raw milk are calculated mis-information originating with the dairy cartel, as part of a criminal conspiracy to restrict trade so as to prevent competition for its much-inferior product. Aside from the scientific studies showing it to be nutritionally far-superior, the legal situation wherein fresh, whole, raw cow's / goat's milk is so maligned that simply handing it over the fence-line is an offence, is absurd. To illustrate just how absurd, contrast the situation where, today, I can walk into the liquor store and purchase a quart of gin, go out on the sidewalk and gulp the whole thing down. Of course I will then go into shock very likely leading to death. Exercising my "choice" to kill myself by alcohol poisoning is not illegal. But should I purchase a quart of fresh, whole raw milk from this morning's milking, your government will come down on me and the farmer like a ton of bricks, arrest us, then put us through a criminal trial. Not only does the government NOT interfere in my freedom to choose my own alcoholic poison, it actively promotes the booze industry. Everyone knows that alcohol abuse is a major problem, yet your government happily regulates and promotes a substance known to cause harm, alcohol. Every session the legislature grovels still lower to the liquor interests, re-writing regulations to enable alcoholics to get their fix easier. To a government addicted to deficit-spending, the income from booze taxes outweighs genuine concern for the Public Health. But what used to be known as good and proper and healthful- i. e. fresh, raw, whole cow's and goat's milk - the most natural, life-giving thing on earth, which, according to the Bible is our heritage - is categorized as a "health hazard"! Suffocating state-interference turns that which is right, i. e. production of food, into a crime. Meanwhile, what used to be well-understood as vice, the booze racket, is now carried on under color of law. People who, during Prohibition, were demonized as 'gangsters' and 'merchants-of-death' are now seen as up-standing members of the community... as long as they split their ill-gotten gains with government. Today, people like me who simply want to get back to basics in order to regain our health, after awakening from the deceptions of the food corporations, are outlaws. Regulation 181/88 was enacted upon a bogus premise, i. e. that milk cannot be produced / delivered clean enough to be disease-free unless it is pasteurized. Searching the laws of the United States on the topic of the sale of raw milk for personal use, I've located twenty states which permit it to be purchased legally. Perhaps the Minister will explain how 400 million people in the European Economic Community get away with drinking raw cow, goat and sheep milk, without major problems, yet, supposedly, we in British Columbia can't manage to do it? I remind you of the recent newspaper interview wherein former Health Minister Evans said that he enjoyed un-pasteurized apple juice. Regarding apple juice, he was quoted "British Columbians should be able to make a choice." Yet on the same website as your scaremongering about raw milk, we find the Ministry's official stance that raw juices ought to be outlawed. Why not Mr. Evan's common-sense approach to whole, raw, fresh cow's milk? I remind all concerned of the criminal prosecution of Jim Strauss, charged in Kamloops last fall with "practising medicine without a licence" for selling his heart drops. I buy and use Mr. Strauss' product. I aver that it certainly does have a genuinely therapeutic affect on me. When Mr. Strauss brought a Constitutional Challenge to the law under which he was charged, Crown Counsel stayed the charge. I think the Crown did that because they sensed the position they were called to argue was untenable. Similarly, I believe that a constitutional challenge may succeed in deterring the Crown from trying to justify both a] - Regulation 181/88, and b] - the relevant sections of the Milk Industry Act. If I start supplying my fellow health-food fanatics with raw milk, and a charge against me of breaching those laws does go ahead, then I could make a good case for having the Court strike the Regulation down. In such a Constitutional Question the validity of the entire Milk Marketing Monopoly will necessarily be canvassed. I urge everyone in your Ministry to reconsider this issue from the perspective of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I believe that, out of section 7 of the Charter one can extrapolate a right to choose what foods he or she prefers to eat. And that that idea can be extended to trade in foods / medicines. Preparing for such a Constitutional Question, and pursuant to the Freedom of Infonnation & Protection of Privacy Act, I require and hereby demand . all material - scientific studies, government investigation, etc. - upon which your Ministry relies to justify Regulation 181 / 88 of the Health Act . all material which was before the Executive Council as it considered the Order in Council by which Regulation 181 /88 was enacted. . a copy of the Order in Council 822/88 by which Regulation 181/88 became part of the law of British Columbia. In my investigations I spoke with Jim Presley, assistant Program Manager for the Washington State Department of Agriculture, phone number 360- 902-1875. He tells me that sale of whole fresh raw cow's milk is legal there under special permit. He gave me the names of several people who currently hold such permits. Pursuing the idea of getting raw milk from over the line, I called the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency border station at 1-800-461-9999. I was told that one may bring into Canada 20 dollars' worth of dairy product or 20 kilograms, for personal use, duty-free. They pointed me to the "exemption list" at internet site. [www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca] Type in 'I declare'. When I put the direct question to the border people, "what about raw milk, which is legal in Washington but illegal in B. C.?" I was told that if it is for personal use, they (Canada Customs) won't interfere with me bringing it into B. C. When I put the direct question to them "what about if I get a letter from someone designating me their agent for the purpose of purchasing some raw milk in Washington and carrying it back to them in B. C.?" their reply was that they 'have no problem with that, and would not interfere.' Canada Customs recommended I call the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-888-732-6222, which I did. I was told by "Kent" that 'if it's for personal use (the raw milk) that shouldn't change that ( the advice the CCRA had told me)'. I need a statement in plain English stating your government's policy on the points set out above, as soon as possible. Such statement ought to declare whether or not your government has any legal justification to interfere with me, or others, bringing whole raw fresh cow's or goat's milk into British Columbia for our personal use. I need that statement to show Canada Customs, or the RCMP, in order to protect myself from unnecessary expenses caused by delay because of confusion / incompetence on the parts of government officials. Yours truly Gordon S. Watson D
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