For nearly a month now, Canadian rancher Michael Schmidt has been engaged in a hunger strike.
This is only the last chapter of a story that starts over 17 years ago, when Schmidt started crusading for the right to distribute raw milk to a few hundred Ontario consumers who own shares in his herd of cows. In early 2010, Schmidt won the case brought by Ontario public health officials and the Ministry of Natural Resources. The Ontario authorities appealed, though, and an appeals court reversed the decision earlier this month. Schmidt appealed further, and launched the hunger strike.
He claims he has been unable to convince anyone in a position of power to discuss how he and other raw dairy farmers can simultaneously service their herdshare members and abide by public health safety concerns.
He now wants to personally meet with Ontario's premier, Dalton McGuinty, being ready to go all the way in case he doesn't get the meeting. In the meaintime, the strike has awaken many movements in difense of raw milk both in Canada and the USA.
Read the whole article on Grist. More on the Schimdt's story here and here.
27/10/2011
