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Birthday Chocolate Ice Cream

2-3 raw pastured eggs
1/4c raw local honey
1/4c organic cocoa powder
4c raw cream
1T organic vanilla extract
small amount of liqueur, if desired

In Dietary Dangers the Weston A Price Foundation consider chocolate a food to avoid. Cocoa and very dark chocolate may have some health benefits in small qualities but most commercial chocolate is full of chemical additives. If you consume chocolate on special occasions the best options are using organic cocoa powder or organic cocoa nibs. If you must purchase chocolate choose a very dark chocolate from a high quality Chocolatier.

This ice cream is a holiday favorite in our household. If you cannot find raw cream, use a quality organic whipping cream without additives. Using a raw local honey is a great way to help your immune system if you have seasonal allergies, but the honey must be local and raw to be helpful. Blend the honey, egg yolks, cocoa powder and vanilla together and then add the cream. Pour the ingredients into an ice cream maker or use a shallow container in the freezer. For more information about making ice cream without a machine please read Cream, Cream and More Ice Cream.

When ready to serve, put ice cream in chilled bowls. Add a small amount of a liqueur that goes well with chocolate, if desired. Here is a list of liqueurs.

Milk, Milk and More Milk

Patty is into her flush of milk. Even though Patty is feeding two adopted calves, she is producing over 56L of milk and cream a week. It is time to freeze milk for the winter even through it is hard to think about the cold winter months when the summer heat has just started. There are some good reasons to milk seasonally and freeze milk:

1. The best milk is from cows on fresh green pasture which is only available for part of the year in Kamloops.
2. Unless you have a herd of dairy cows and can stagger pregnancies, having fresh raw milk all year round is almost impossible. Milking cows need to be dried off at some point in their pregnancy. The milking cow will be physically stressed by any third trimester milking. This stress may negatively affect the calf’s health and the cow’s longevity.
3. The Milker needs a break from the twice a day labor of milking. Milking in winter, in the dark and cold, isn’t any fun.

Last year, I experimented with freezing milk with and without the cream. Skimmed milk freezes very well and when unfrozen is similar to a commercial 2% milk. Milk with a cream layer has a lumpy texture when unfrozen. Last year, I tried freezing in glass jars to avoid using plastics. This did not go very well. I had some breakages which made me realize that sometimes it is better to use plastics even though I do not consider plastics in contact with food safe.

This year, I will skim off the cream and freeze the milk in 2L rectangle plastic containers. I will pop the frozen milk out of the plastic container, use two layers of plastic bags to protect the milk from off flavors, and date each brick. I will need put away about 110, 2L bricks of milk to make it through Patty’s dry period. This spring, we consumed frozen milk which was about five months old. I could not detect any off flavors, so storing for six months seems possible.

Freezing milk is easy and can save money. My family goes through about 8L of milk and about 1L of cream a week. Of course, I can’t get raw milk from the Industrial Food System but the closest product, organic milk, would cost my family over $2000 a year. My family goes through about two or three pounds of organic butter a week, which costs over $1000 a year. If you are interested in how to make butter please read Making Raw Sweet Butter or Raw Cultured Butter.

Another product we make is ice cream. High quality ice cream is very expensive. During the hot summer months, we make about 1L of ice cream ever day. If you would like to learn some of our favorite ice cream recipes, please read Cream, Cream and More Ice Cream Recipes. Our girls can eat as much of this delicious food as they want. I feel very good about the quality of the ice cream knowing every ingredient that went into the dessert. I know the raw cream is full of healthy fats that will help my girls grow into strong women.

Cream, Cream and More Ice Cream Recipes

Making ice cream at home, will save you money, and the product will be better than anything available commercially. There are so many nasty additives in commercial ice cream. None of these additives are necessary, and some may harm your family members. In fact, commercial ice cream has become an ersatz food and should be avoided. Raw ice cream made at home is a superfood. Do not worry if your children eat a lot of this delicious food.

I have just started using a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker, but a machine is not needed for making ice cream. I do not like the idea that ice cream makers have an inner lining made of aluminum. The Wise Traditions Study Group considers the aluminum used in this manner is “safe”. There is no heat used so no metal is transferred to the food.

If you do not have a ice cream maker, pour the ingredients into a shallow container and place in the freezer. Every hour, remove the container and mix the contents vigorously to break up the ice crystals. This will give a creamy smooth texture to the ice cream. If you forget about the ice cream and it freezes solid, just cut the ice cream up into small squares and blend in the food processor until smooth and creamy. I made ice cream for years with this method.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
4 cups raw cream
3 raw pastured egg yolks
1/4c raw local honey
2T organic vanilla extract
small amount of freshly ground vanilla bean (optional)
This ice cream is an all time favorite in our household. If you cannot find raw cream, use a quality organic whipping cream without additives. Using a raw local honey is a great way to help your immune system if you have seasonal allergies, but the honey must be local and raw to be helpful. Blend the honey, egg yolks and vanilla together and then add the cream. Pour the ingredients into an ice cream maker or use a shallow container in the freezer. The egg yolks gives this ice cream a rich yellow color. You will never look at the “white” color of commercial vanilla ice cream the same again.

Very Berry Ice Cream
3c raw cream
2c frozen strawberries, blueberries or cherries
2 raw pastured egg yolks
1/8c raw local honey (optional)
At this time of year, I am digging into the bottom of my deep freezers, emptying out fruit picked last season. Use a food processor to puree the frozen fruit. If you cannot find raw cream, use a quality organic whipping cream without additives. Add the other ingredients and blend. Pour the ingredients into an ice cream maker or, if you do not have a ice cream maker, pour into a shallow container and place in the freezer. This ice cream will be ready very quickly because of the frozen fruit.

Updated July 6, 2010: Here is a recipe for Birthday Chocolate Ice Cream.

Pastures, Electric Fences and Milking Problems

About 2 weeks ago, Joe and Eric finished the perimeter fencing and one cross fence on the far side of the gully. Joe dug out the spring with a big excavator and there is a 3000 gallon accumulation tank which works as a reservoir for the spring. Joe did some work with a backhoe putting in a road into the middle of the lower four acres.

Shaen worked every free minute he had to get the pasture ready for moving Patty and the calves. Shaen has 700′ of 3/4″ black poly hose running from the spring. There is a filter to reduce particulates in the line. He has about 45psi at the bottom of the hose but this pressure increases as the accumulation tank is drawn down. He finished off the roadway with a backhoe and made a turnaround large enough for us to bring in our big truck.

Shean moved an 8′x12′ tool shed to the property. It was scary for me to watch him move the heavy building but he got it into place without anyone getting injured. This building is a secure storage area for equipment and supplies for the cattle. It will also be one side wall for a hay, feed and chip shed which we will be building this summer. We built a small paddock about 30′x30′ to train the cattle on electric fencing. Shaen called it the ugliest fence he’d ever seen. The fence is pretty rickety too, but we were running out of time and just needed to move the cattle. The idea was to use the paddock to train the cattle on electric fences. Thus, strength wasn’t really needed.

We moved the cattle to the new pasture on May 30, 2010. Patty immediately started eating the wonderful rich forage. The calves started running around, leaping and jumping. But the training on electric fencing in the small paddock did not go well. Patty hit her nose on the electric fence then backed up in a hurry and hit her butt into another electric fence. She was quite upset, having no place to go but up. The calves found ways to break out of the paddock and would walk through the electric fencing taking the shock over stopping their romping. Then Patty walked through an un-electrified gate as we madly chased the calves around the property. It was not an auspicious start!

Shaen was worried we would never catch them again on the property. We stopped chasing and started working to secure the paddock so the calves could not get out. Patty headed up the gully to feast on some delicious forage. The calves leaped and jumped for joy at their new found freedom. After we got the paddock secure we worked together to catch the calves which were tired after all that wonderful play. I caught Patty and we milked her. But she did not want to go back into the paddock. As I led her towards the paddock she took me for a run. I did not let go but instinctively dropped to the ground on my knees. This spun Patty around. I weigh about 125lbs and Patty weighs about 800lbs. After that incident we got her into the paddock but without power to the electric fence. We were betting Patty wouldn’t walk through the fence, even through she likely could. We thought Patty, having been trained to fences, would not consider the idea that she could just walk through our weak fence. This proved to be true and we found Patty and the calves in the paddock in the morning.

The next day’s milking went better. Our netted electric fencing arrived too. Shean worked to get the fencing up and make a new pasture area for Patty and another area for the calves. We also had another problem. Two of Patty’s teats had sores from the vigorous feeding of the calves. One teat was especially damaged. We decided to try two controlled feedings a day. This time we protected the damaged teats with our hands and would allow each calf one undamaged teat to drain. When the calves started to seriously butt Patty they would be pulled off and returned to their electrified pasture area. We carefully milked out the damaged teats. After we were finished milking, we used Bag Balm on her teats and udder. I am somewhat uncomfortable using Bag Balm because of the petroleum product and antiseptic chemical in the preparation. We will shift over to straight coconut oil as soon as possible.

Within a few days Patty and the calves got used to the netted electric fences and the double strand electric wire. We are getting used to the twice a day milking. We are getting about 14 gallons of milk a week, even though Patty is feeding twins. With the fresh forage the cream line is going up from about 10% of the volume to 30% for night milking and 50% for morning milking. Patty’s teats are healing but we have to clear brush in the pasture area because Patty is getting scratches on her udder as she moves around to feed. We are starting to understand why farmers coddled their dairy cows. They do have special needs.

Undated July 11, 2010: After about a week of controlled feeding, Shaen decided to go back to bottle feeding for the male calf. He is just too rough on Patty’s teats. We have to allow the female calf to suckle on Patty or Patty will not let-down her milk. The calves are always in a separate pasture from Patty, though Patty can see the calves throughout the day. We cannot understand why the female calf fights us going to the feeding. We understand why she would fight us when we pull her off to milk Patty. It’s a lot of extra work to manage the cow calf relationship. I hope we will not have to do this for Patty’s next calf.

Krystal, our relief milker, started using an Ouch Cream on Patty’s damaged teat. This cream finished off the healing of this very big wound on one of Patty’s teats.

Patty has been plagued by hordes of flies so we have moved our layers to the pasture. It took about a week for the chickens to realize the wonderful maggots to be found in the cow patties. Our little manure spreaders are enjoying a wonderful meal while cleaning up the pasture. The number of flies on Patty has halved.

Making Friends with Deadlines

When starting any new project there is usually a natural deadline. This is a time where research and development must be stopped and some action taken one way or another. With farming, natural deadlines are the changing seasons. If action isn’t taken during a given window of opportunity, the window closes until the next season. Sometimes the best action is just to wait and do more research until the next seasonal opportunity. But sometimes forging ahead without complete knowledge is the better choice. Sometimes there isn’t a choice.

Since Patty gave birth, we have been doing one to three trips each day out to Elizabeth’s farm. Each trip requires about one hour of work and forty minutes of driving time. We help with milking, general cow chores, and care of the calves. In the last week, we have started cutting fresh grass from the railroad area to feed to Patty because she is not on pasture. She is being kept in the paddock to control the calves feeding. This schedule has been very tiring on top of our regular paid work, household tasks, spring gardening, and home schooling. For more information about our urban homesteading activities please read Terracing a Slope and Planning a Pasture.

We have been given a deadline from Elizabeth to move the cows. She wants to downsize her farm work because she doesn’t have enough help. Family and friends help but it just isn’t enough. This makes me sad, because like many farmers she is aging and doesn’t have some young, energetic person to help out and leverage her wealth of food producing experience. We are trying to get the leased property ready by June 1, 2010 so we can move Patty and the calves onto the new property. I feel a great amount of gratitude for how Elizabeth has helped my family. Without her help, I would have never considered buying a cow, nor would I have a supply of raw milk for my family. Elizabeth has educated Shaen and me about the care of cattle which has prepared us for this next big step.

The perimeter fencing on the leased land is almost completed. Shaen is using black poly hose to run water from the well on the upper property down to the leased area. With the drop on the property, Shaen has estimated that there will be about 80psi of pressure at the bottom of the hose. This will be enough pressure to power a spray emitter to irrigate the pasture. We call it a pasture but it is mostly bunch grass and sage right now. Shaen will have to do some Bobcat work to finish off a small roadway and turnaround area into a central location on the four acres. We will build a hay shed in this area before winter. We think we have enough electric fencing to cross fence part of the four acres so we can move Patty and her adopted calves to the area. The cows will have to learn about electric fences which can take some time. We will be purchasing some Electrified Poultry Netting when we run our boilers later in the summer. The gully screams for hogs, but we may not have the time nor the energy to get that off the ground this year. Nevertheless, the thought of homemade smoked bacon is wonderful incentive.

Here are a few wonderful essays from the Modern Homestead:
Achieving Food Independence on the Modern Homestead
Pasture, the Heart of the Homestead
Managing Poultry on Pasture with Electronet

Patty’s Second Birth

Our cow Patty gave birth on Monday. Our day started at 2:30am and ended at 8:30pm. The birth did not go well. There was no vet available but it was likely too late anyway. We had to intervene in the birth. Patty was in labor for over three hours which is too long for a cow. The vet worker at Kamloops Large Animal Veterinary Clinic gave Shaen a five minute lecture on how to pull a calf.

We tied Patty up and tried to hold her as still as we could. I held Patty’s tail up, which helps control the cow, and Elizabeth tried to calm her with ear scratching and soft talking. Shaen prepared an 8 foot long rope with two quick splices and slip knots on each end. Shaen entered Patty’s birth canal with the end of the rope and tightened the slip knot around one of the front hooves of the calf. The second slip knot was much harder to do. It took a number of tries. I was surprised that Patty didn’t kick my knee out from under me as I held her tail. After the second hoof was tied off, both Shaen and I grabbed hold of the rope and pulled the calf out during contractions. It was heavy work. I got down in the manure and gave artificial respiration to the calf. We hung the calf upside down. Tons of fluid came out. We did artificial respiration again and tried massaging the heart. The calf was a perfectly formed heifer stillbirth. She was a beautiful, totally black Jersey Dexter cross.

We intervened too late. If we had been more experienced, we would have known to intervene sooner. The woman who takes care of our cow asked us to get a calf for Patty. Some cows will adopt other calves, most will not. We were pretty sure Patty would being very maternal. I phoned around to about ten places and found twins. The male and female are a Shorthorn Brown Swiss cross. Male and female twins makes the female a freemartin with a 90% chance of being sterile. I got the pair for almost nothing at $20. A normal calf would be $150-200. The breeds I’m looking for could not be found for sale anywhere. Dairy cows are almost impossible to find now. Government regulation has almost completely eliminated all small family dairies.

We drove to Salmon Arm and picked up the twins from Gort’s Gouda Cheese Farm. We introduced the calves to Patty. The two calves ran around the yard leaping and jumping for joy. It was the first time the calves had been outside in their lives. Patty was very interested in the calves especially the little female. We tied up Patty and tried to milk her down because her udder was tight and hard with milk. A calf would not be able to latch on. Her udder is about three times the size of last year when she had her first calf.

The calves did not know how to suckle. They had been bottle fed from birth. For the twins, food comes from humans not cows. Shaen and I would start the milk flowing, then try to get the calf to suckle on Patty’s teat. We had to do this over and over. The little female caught on quickly but the male seemed to have trouble assuming the correct feeding position and his tongue action was ineffective. In the correct feeding position the calf has a bent neck which causes the milk to be directed into the esophageal groove which goes directly into the fourth stomach of the calf. We got them both fed and left for the night.

In the morning the male was on his side and cold to the touch. He was almost too weak to feed. Shaen and Elizabeth got what they could into him and covered him with blankets. The little female was fine. Patty seems to have totally accepted her.

I called the farmer and said the male wasn’t doing very well and asked if he had any problems. I found out he had been on antibiotics for scour but had been near the end of the course. I went down to the Kamloops Large Animal Veterinary Clinic to get antibiotics and the staff were incredibly helpful. The antibiotics are injected so the drug will not negatively affect the calf’s gut. I was given detailed instruction on how to save the calf. I was told to cover up the calf and use a hot water bottle to increase his temperature. They gave me some electrolyte mix to help with dehydration.

Elizabeth and I heated up water for the electrolyte mixture and hot water bottle. We got the bottle under the calf’s core area and fed the calf the mixture. We tried to feed the calf a small amount of fresh green grass which he ate with relish. After we made the calf as comfortable as possible, I gave the calf an intramuscular injection. This was the first time I have ever given an injection. Elizabeth said to inject in the neck area towards the body. The calf decided if we were going to stick things into him, he was going to get up. Elizabeth was very happy to see him get up because this would improve his circulation. He stood unsteadily for a few minutes. Elizabeth told me to rub him from the front of his body to his back end. She told me mother cows lick their calves in this way to get the calf to pass stool. After a few minutes of massage the calf passed a small amount of stool. We helped the calf down and placed the hot water bottle under the calf’s core and covered the calf with warm blankets.

By the evening visit the calf was looking a lot better. He had a really good feed with Shaen assisting him. He still doesn’t have a very good position to feed and his tongue doesn’t seem to know what to do. He walked around with a little help and touched noses with the Dexter bull in the adjacent pen. Patty still seems a bit wary of him. Patty follows and licks the little female, a good sign of acceptance.

We have five days of injections to do. The vet worker warned us the calf may die if he did not get enough colostrum in the first 24 hours after birth. The calves were four days old when I got them so I have no idea if he got enough colostrum. If he didn’t get enough colostrum, after the course of antibiotics is stopped, he will pick up an infection and die.

We have been enjoying our first raw milk of the season. Patty is easily producing 8L a day plus feeding the twins.

When the calf is born, the rumen is small and the fourth stomach is by far the largest of the compartments. Thus, digestion in the young calf is more like that of a simple-stomached animal than that of a ruminant. The milk which the calf normally consumes by-passes the first two compartments by way of the esophageal groove and goes almost directly to the fourth stomach in which the rennin and other compounds for the digestion of milk are produced. If the calf gulps too rapidly, or gorges itself, the milk may go into the rumen where it is not digested properly and may cause upsets of the calf’s digestive system. As the calf nibbles at hay, small amounts of material get into the rumen. When certain bacteria become established, the rumen develops and the calf gradually becomes a full-fledged ruminant.
Dairy Cattle Science by M. E. Ensminger

Updated May 4, 2010: By Thursday last week the male calf had recovered from his scour. Patty has totally accepted both calves. Unfortunately, the little female came down with scour on Friday. We started electrolyte solution and antibiotics to deal with secondary infection, but we never stopped all her milk consumption. The female calf has not improved over the weekend. Her scour is worse. She has fluid bowel movements that are white with a slight greenish tinge. She is developing a hemorrhoid from all the straining. Shaen and I have been feeling ambivalent about the antibiotic treatment and decided to use Newman Turner’s method of curing scour. His method involves fasting the animal on water for 24 hours or until the scour stops. We are using electrolyte solution in place of plain water. When the scour stops, the calf is given short, controlled feeds of 3 minutes, four times a day to avoid over indulging. Newman Turner considers scour a condition of over consumption with bacterial infection as a totally secondary condition of over-eating.

Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick

A community that can feed itself is free. A community that cannot feed itself is not. It’s that simple.
Joel Salatin

Some people wonder why we go to such trouble to find local producers for our food. I have had people be surprised that we now want to grow our own food. Over the last few years, I have realized that it is getting harder and harder to get quality, unadulterated food. Part of the reason is our population is aging and farmers are retiring. Their children are not taking up farming and the farms and ranches are being sold as ranchettes to the rich. In the farming community this is called “the final harvest”.

Farm land is also being bought up and consolidated into the hands of a small number of food conglomerates. Here is a chart by Dr Philip Howard on the Organic Processing Industrial Structure, just in case you thought your favourite organic brand was safe from this restructuring. Probably the root of why it is getting difficult to get local food is increasing government regulation. Many farmers actually recommend to their sons and daughters not to farm because these rules are becoming so onerous.

As I have been researching this issue, I have found the rules and regulations regarding food production, processing and distribution are, in fact, very onerous and not always sensible. For example, we have the same rules for industrial chicken producers that are slaughtering 10,000 chickens a day as for your neighbour who is killing one chicken in her kitchen and wants to sell it to you. She can sell it to you but she becomes a criminal for doing so. Superficially this appears fair. One set of rules for everyone, regardless of scale. But many of the safety concerns that have made these regulations necessary have been caused by the Industrial Food System itself.

Another example is raw milk in BC. According to the judgment by The Honourable Madam Justice Gropper between Fraser Health Authority v. Jongerden, “there is no provision in British Columbia’s Public Health Act which creates a rebuttable presumption like that contained in s.25 of the Ontario Milk Act… Raw milk is deemed to be a health hazard by regulation… The Transitional Regulation, on the other hand, is quite clear that milk for human consumption which has not been pasteurized at a licensed dairy plant in accordance with the Milk Industry Act, is a health hazard.”

A health hazard. It is written in our laws that raw milk is a health hazard. No proof is required. It is assumed. This is bad news for anyone in BC who feeds raw milk to their children. This case should be appealed to the British Columbia Court of Appeal to get a ruling about whether the Fraser Health Authority has jurisdiction over a private, contractual agreement. If they do, Heaven help us. The arms of government are indeed long.

There has been talk at The Weston A Price Foundation about drafting a Family Farm Bill of Rights. This legislation would allow farmers and their families to grow and consume their own food and sell their products to their community without onerous government interference.

In some areas, this is known as farm gate sales. Here is an example of Legislation in BC called Food Safety Amendment (Farm Gate Sales) Act 2009 which appears to have died during the first reading. Legislation like this might save the family farm from extinction and ensure a healthy local food supply for our children. Unfortunately, history teaches us that the ruling class rarely give up their power without a fight.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
The Declaration of Independence

2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
(d) freedom of association.
24. (1) Anyone whose rights or freedoms, as guaranteed by this Charter, have been infringed or denied may apply to a court of competent jurisdiction to obtain such remedy as the court considers appropriate and just in the circumstances.
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

BC Supreme Court Gives Injunction Against Raw Milk

Fraser Health Authority has won a permanent injunction from the BC Supreme Court against Home On The Range and contracted milker, Alice Jongerden, in Chilliwack, BC. The Abbotford News said:

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper ruled farm operator Alice Jongerden is “willingly causing a health hazard” and must stop packaging or distributing raw milk or related products for human consumption.

Home On The Range argued an Ontario court ruling upholding a similar raw milk co-op there set a precedent exempting operations where members don’t pay directly. Members hoped a victory would effectively legalize raw milk in BC and allow more cow-shares to form. Nor, she said, did it matter that the co-op provides milk to members rather than via direct sale to the public. “The remedy for the respondents is to convince the government to change the legislation,” she found.

Gordon Watson is an active owner and member of the herd share co-operative. He stated that the raw milk with continue to flow. “We’re going to keep on dairying within the letter of the law” said herd share member Gordon Watson. “The threshold is in the milking room… That’s where she’s not allowed to handle milk for sale.”

The dairy herd is jointly owned by the shareholders. The dairy herd must be milked and cared for regardless of the ruling. There are many shareholders willing to come in and care for the diary cows which they all jointly own. Gordon Watson is one of about 400 shareholders of Home on the Range. He said: “The milking is continuing and people are getting the raw milk today. I will be taking responsibility for the packaging and distribution.”

I guess the next step for the government is to get injunctions against all 400 herd share members! I hope you are feeling really safe and protected with our government restricting your rights to co-own a herd of animals and enjoy the products from those animals. Just remember it’s for your own good. You are too ignorant to develop a safe food production and processing system on your own. That’s why they are called Fraser Health “Authority”, because they know what’s best for you. Your personal freedoms are secondary to their “good works”.

For other postings on this issue please read: Canadian Government Appeals Michael Schmidt’s Acquittal, Michael Schmidt, Raw Milk Activist, Acquitted!, and Raw Milk Contamination?.

Here are some links for more information:
The Bovine
Abbotsford News
National Post

As I have been following the raw milk story in the media, I have been surprised at how much misinformation is out there. There are so many factual errors in reporting it is hard to maintain respect and trust for media coverage. I have received an education about how issues are reported and twisted in the media. I have learned that only deeper research on a given topic will allow a person to understand complicated issues such as raw milk.

Updated April 4, 2010: Here is a link to read the judgment by Her Honourable Madam Justice Gropper by the “Petitioner”, Fraser Health Authority and the “Respondent”, Alice Jongerden DBA Home on the Range. Remember, granting an injunction is to restore the status quo ante which is to “make whole again someone whose rights have been violated”. In this case, it is the Fraser Health Authority “whose rights have been violated” and restored.

Canadian Government Appeals Michael Schmidt’s Acquittal

Yes, our fair government has appealed Michael Schmidt’s acquittal. (This is your tax money in action.) The Government of Canada is appealing our rights to jointly own a herd of animals and hire someone to care, milk and pasture those animals. I guess the government is also appealing our rights to choose the types of foods we see as healthy in the name of safety. This is a sad day for food security and food freedom. This sounds more like an issue about control than safety. Here are a few links:
1. Crown Files an Appeal on February 11, 2010
2. Province Refuses to Accept Raw Milk Acquittal
3. Michael Schmidt at Queen’s Park News Conference

Every time I get approached I make it very clear, that the ruling did not legalize raw milk at all. This ruling acknowledged and clarified the limitations of the state’s jurisdiction…We are over regulated, we are over controlled, and we are forced into an environment of compliance through fear… This raw milk debate is about basic rights, which we have lost and which we are losing every time this Government passes another regulation without considering the most important factor of liberty and individual rights… This raw milk battle is about basic food rights.
Michael Schmidt

Where large populations are controlled by a small number of individuals for their own benefit, it would be to the interest of kings, czars, nobles, etc. that the masses be educated in a way that render them slave-like in mentality. The language of wrongness, “should” and “have to” is perfectly suited for this purpose: the more people are trained to think in terms of moralistic judgements that imply wrongness and badness, the more they are being trained to look outside themselves - to outside authorities - for the definition of what constitutes right, wrong, good and bad. When we are in contact with our feeling and needs, we humans no longer make good slaves and underlings.
Marshall Rosenberg

Updated April 5, 2010: If you would like to read the Judgment from His Worship P. Kowarsky Justice of the Peace for Regina V M. Schmidt on January 21, 2010.