I need to make a confession about my coverage here of Canadian raw dairy farmer Michael Schmidt over the last dozen years or so.
I had assumed any number of times that his struggle with the courts and public health establishment would recede when the establishment pulled back in embarrassment over the super aggressive enforcement against a committed biodynamic farmer who had, via a perfect safety record, long ago proven his conscientiousness and commitment to healthy food. I had assumed the situation was akin to what we have observed in the U.S. any number of times via enforcement efforts against Amish farmers who sell raw dairy products—the establishment will start off aggressively, haul them into court, and then pull back some when public sympathy builds for the farmers, leaving them to continue operating. Or that it was akin in a number of states, wehn attacks on raw dairy farms led to the legalization of herdshares, cowshares, and off-the-farm sales.
In any event, I was wrong about Michael Schmidt. The Canadian establishment has never pulled back, not a single inch, over the 25-plus years it has targeted him for removal and extinction. It never opened up to any kind of compromise or alternative approach. Sure, it has gone into hibernation for even years at a time, perhaps as new public health officials and prosecuting attorneys have replaced older ones in the bureaucracy. But in the end, the commitment to defeating Michael Schmidt remains as strong today as it was in 1994, when the public health establishment launched its campaign against the idealistic biodynamic farmer from Germany.
I came to that sad conclusion while reading Michael Schimidt’s riveting new book about his experiences fighting the recurring crackdowns on his tiny raw dairy in rural Ontario several hours north of Toronto. The book has the intriguing title, “Raw Milk and the Search for Human Kindness: Overcoming Fear and Complacency.” In addition to his expertise as a dairy farmer, Schmidt is a classical music afficionado, who produces beautiful summer concerts in his barn, and the book is written as an opera, with an “overture,” four “acts,” and a “finale.” There are “interlude reflections” and “musica viva.”
It’s difficult to imagine that a 400-plus page book primarily about court proceedings involving raw milk could be riveting, but it is. As I said in my endorsement on the book’s cover, Schmidt “takes readers on a gripping and often lonely journey through Canada’s legal and regulatory system that has more twists and turns than Alice in Wonderland. In the process, he introduces readers to a cast of characters more colourful than those in The Wizard of Oz.”
For regular readers of this blog, you’ll learn what was going on behind the scenes during Schmidt’s court trials, his more than 30-day protest fast, the case of the disappearing sheep, and who his favorite judge was, among other recollections. You’ll also learn how the legal battle continues, and shows no sign of ending soon.
There are only a few regrets about the book from my position as a reader. For one, I would have liked some background about how it was that Schmidt decided in the early 1980s to move from a family farm in Germany to start a new one in Canada, especially in light of the reality that Germany was much more tolerant and permissive about raw milk than Canada. I would also have liked more information about how the battles he fought affected his family life. Finally, it would be nice if, perhaps in a future edition, he includes an index, to guide the reader who knows about some particular events or people, and doesn’t want to search the whole book to locate information–there are so many names and places mentioned that it cries out for a way to easily locate them.
As I said at the start of this post, I came to a conclusion about what was going on that is somewhat at odds with what Schmidt suggests. He sees his struggle as part and parcel of a global move toward factory farming, together with ever more restrictions on our overall freedoms. I agree that those are factors, but there is one that gets surprisingly little attention in the book: the commitment by Canada’s dairy cartel—the government-sanctioned supply management system that controls dairy farming in Canada—to maintain its monopoly position. That is the only way I can see to explain the nearly endless crackdown, which is an ongoing public relations disaster, on a small farmer; in other words, the only way to explain it is that Michael Schmidt represented potential competition to the cartel. No, not Schmidt alone, but the precedent he represented. With raw milk growing in popularity in the U.S. and Europe, allowing a Canadian producer who had demonstrated it could be done entirely safely was opening the door to a serious competing product. There is nothing a monopolist hates more than competition, or even the threat of competition.
The best comparison I can offer is Microsoft in the 1990s. It came to control the operating system used by nearly all personal computers. Any time a small company cropped up with some software that added functionality to the operating system—say a cool calendar or contacts system—Microsoft would soon build in the same functionality to Windows, with the effect that the small company would be put out of business. Microsoft was determined to maintain complete control of the operating system market, and did so by throwing its business weight around without hesitation, surviving numerous court challenges and even surviving an antitrust challenge from the U.S. government.
Of course, small software companies were welcome to produce software that didn’t directly play off the Windows system. Just as Michael Schmidt is welcome to sell his raw milk quietly, underground, without any official legitimacy. And as he points out near the end of Raw Milk, more and more Canadian dairy farmers are doing just that.
It might seem from the journey Schmidt describes that he fought a losing battle. But that’s not how he sees it. I’ll let you read through to the ending to learn what I mean.
Raw Milk and the Search for Human Kindness is only available directly from the author as a hardbound book, via this link: https://form.jotform.com/201585414305247
I enjoyed reading your thoughts of the book Raw Milk and the Search for Human Kindness Overcoming Fear and Complacency.
I have one of the special editions bearing the autographs of Michael Schmidt and Beverley Viljakainen. When I saw that a book had been written I wrote to Glencolton Farms for a copy faster than I have done anything in the past while.
One of the ways this book has changed my thinking is of the judicial system: visualizing Michael looking people in the eye during proceedings and before daily proceedings shaking hands and greeting others who were involved in a case showed me that courts and the justice system is not meant to be adversarial.
Excellent point, Dianne. Michael repeatedly states that he simply wanted some kind of meaningful discussion with the authorities, to try to work out an approach that worked for everyone. And as you state, he practiced that mantra when he went to court, never allowing himself to harbor animosity and bitterness. Unfortunately, it takes two to tango, and the other side would never allow itself to be drawn into something so simple, and human.
just the opposite, Dianne. The power of the Courts of Her Majesty the Queen continues from the day Moses sat down on a rock and started judging ancient Israel. His father-in-law advised him that the task was too much for one man. So when they went in to old Caananland, the Israelites were governed by local judges, for centuries. We – Caucasians, white people – are those same people today. Descendants of the man Jacob whose name was changed to Israel so = regardless of what the hirelings in the pulpits of Churchianity tell you lately = the Law of our God pertains to us here and now. Milk and honey are our birthright
Although most people in Canada have no idea as to our history ... to this very hour, authority of British Courts is predicated on the Oath avowed by the High & Mighty Princess Elizabeth at her Coronation. That day, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland handed her the Bible, saying "this is the most precious thing the world affords. Do you promise to use the Royal Law in all your Dominions?" to which she replied "I do"
De jure, a British Court most certainly IS an adversarial mechanism. It can work fairly when the Tribune plays his role properly, as did JP Kowarchuk at the bottom rung of the system. The root of the problem with such outrageous mis-treatment suffered by Michael Schmidt, is : Her Majesty's Judges have forgotten... if they ever knew ... that they are only Her Deputees, bound to the Coronation Oath.
Yes Gordon S Watson I can understand your presentation from a Christian perspective; however, I didn’t mention a specific court or justice system.
Yes David Gumpert I identify with the simple and human.
The word authority is an interesting one coming from the root author.
Read it and weep
Instead of more money, let’s try a different policy
By Alan Guebert For the Telegraph Herald
It turns out that the old Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times,” is neither Chinese nor a curse.
According to multiple sources, the adage’s roots reach back to a late-19th century member of Parliament commenting on how Great Britain’s expanding empire had made for “interesting times.”
True enough for the empire’s builders; not so much for their subjects.
Parallels abound in the powerful reach of today’s corporate empires. For example, Apple Inc.’s share price rose 10 percent, or $172 billion, July 31 on news that the company would offer a 4-for-1 stock split.
The staggering rise is, incredibly, more than two times the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s estimated value of the 2020 U.S. corn and soybean crops combined.
Such are today’s interesting times: the expense, sweat and risk required to grow America’s two biggest field crops this year are but half the value, about $85 billion, of a single corporation’s one-day stock rise.
The “times,” however, aren’t the culprit. American agriculture has been headed in this high-yield, low-value industrial direction for decades. This year’s pandemic, piled atop unwinnable trade fights and a renewed U.S./China shoving match, just moved up the arrival date.
Two other ag sectors, poultry and pork, are already industrialized, and a July 2020 report from the USDA’s Economic Research Service confirms that a third, dairy, has joined their ranks. According to the ERS:
• In 1987, half of all U.S. dairy cows were in herds of 80 or fewer animals; half were in herds of 80 or more cows. In 2017, that midpoint was an incredible 1,300 cows.
• “In 2016, total costs of [milk] production fell steadily as herd size increased, from $33.54/hundredweight in the smallest herds (10–49 cows) to $17.16/hundredweight in the largest herds (2,000 or more cows).”
• That difference made all the difference. The cost to produce a gallon of milk “in the smallest herds” was about $2.89, or almost twice the cost, $1.48 per gallon, for “the largest herds.” (One hundredweight equals 11.62 gallons of raw milk.)
That wide gap was jet fuel for dairy’s expansion. Since 2002, says ERS, almost every dairy with less than 500 cows has lost money while most dairies with over 500 cows have remained profitable.
As the report makes clear, there is almost no possibility that family-operated dairy farms will survive another generation of today’s rapid industrialization without major changes in dairy policy and large government subsidies. Few, however, are advocating either.
In many ways, it’s 2002 for grain and soybean growers. Years of rising global competition, improved technology and fair weather have brought nearly a decade of increased stockpiles, falling prices and rising government intervention.
Those trends — especially rising government interventions — now appear semi-permanent. Indeed, a July 29 farmdocDAILY post sees this year’s nearly $30 billion in “ad hoc,” government farm payments as a “new plateau” that likely will “then be incorporated into the farm bill safety net.”
It’s happened before, its writers explain. The 1973 Farm Bill devised a target price/deficiency payment scheme that increased annual farm subsides from $1.5 billion per year in the 1970s to nearly $9 billion in the 1980s.
After Freedom to Farm became law in 1996, “average payments … increased to $15.9 billion per year” from 1998 to 2006.
In 2019 and 2020, “farm payments [are] averaging $23.2 billion. Eighty-four percent were ad hoc.”
The question now, they ask, is are these payments “a statement by policy that market-based farm prosperity remain(s) an attainable aspiration in the near future … [or] an acknowledgment by policy that market-based prosperity is not attainable in the near, perhaps intermediate, future?”
Here’s a more different way to ask the same question: Because raising the farm payment plateau in the 1970s and 1990s never brought “market-based farm prosperity” either time, why would a third increase work?
Maybe the answer isn’t more money; maybe it’s a different policy.
At least let’s consider it before independent corn and soybean farmers become as endangered as independent hog, chicken and dairy farmers.
Good article… however, I would suggest that rather than engaging in a scheme that caters to and manipulates the overall consumer’s desire for cheap junk food, “let’s try a different policy”. A self-limiting policy of government involvement in the process of food production. I realize that this may be wishful thinking in a world where the modus operandi appears to be all about CONTROL…
Revision… “cheap adulterated junk food”.
Michael didn’t come to Canada specifically with the idea of starting to distribute raw milk. His interest in doing so occurred after people started coming to him and asking for it. At one point, he was actually in the quota system for cream, but then they dismantled that.
Anne,
I am honored by the visionary team work of Alice, Katerina, dr Whitehead, and Bry and all the great people in BC Canada that created the learning and teaching conditions in BC to engage farmers into the RAWMI mindset. By removing the underlying rational ( illness and food safety concerns ) for banning raw milk…. we have won the defacto war against raw milk. There is more work to be done. But the bloody engagements of yesteryear are subsiding for sure.
This was the vision and goal at RAWMI. Congrats on the local raw milk warriors and pioneers in BC! Brave souls that they are.
I think John Lewis said it best.
Good Trouble! Yes… we Got into Good Trouble! But we have changed the discussion and the paradigm through hard work and intelligent food safety diligence!
Raw milk is Good Trouble!
Mark
Raw Goat Milk
Organic Pastures Dairy has launched a new brand.
It’s RAW FARM! We realize that Organics has sold out to UHT snd other highly processed dairy products. Plus…. the huge CAFO operations don’t pasture their “organic cows”.
That’s not Opdc… that’s not Raw Farm.
Organics was based on unprocessed but evolved into huge CAFO green wash.
We still have all of our soils and pastures certified organic but we went Local and Non GMO on the rest.
Mark
Mark, are you saying your milk and other dairy products no longer certified organic?
It wasn’t me! I didn’t report it. I’ve been way too busy. However, as long as I’ve been following the company “formerly known as OPDC,” that company did not meet the acreage requirement for organic. Its purchases from milk brokers never did allow following the chain required under certification requirements. I don’t see this as a change in product, just in a rebranding that should have happened at least fifteen years ago. I’m still not sure it’s legal to outsource for raw product, comingle it with raw milk and such, but I do know that the customer confusion that has resulted from OPDC claims over the years is at least immoral, including the current claim implying that the McAfees “still” follow organic. They haven’t followed it for years! I find the “green wash” statement to be particularly precious. Indeed!
David,
That’s is correct. We are now a hybrid of CCOF certified organic on our pastures, field crops and soils. But we dropped our certifications on final products.
We are certified Non GMO and test all feeds. We have been certified organic for more than 20 years. What we found was this. Organic has become a green wash CAFO non pasturing UHT world dominated by Aurora and other huge CAFO operations.
We are committed to local, restorative, non gmo and yes organic certified for our crops we grow and feed and our pastures
We are committed to organic practices no antibiotics or hormones. No Roundup or pesticides. We pasture our cows every day !!
Last December we made the decision to exit after earning our Non GMO certification. We started testing our very expensive organic feed sourced from far away. Like Utah and even international! Half were hot when tested for GMO ( Roundup mostly ). That was it. We did some consumer interviews and discovered that our true value added was being “Raw and Tested” and yes pasture grazed.
Dr Rose is speaking with zero facts. We exceeded USDA pasture rule requirements and went far beyond. We continue to pasture our cows on lush pastures
I don’t think Dr Rose is a friend of raw milk. At very opportunity she hates on anything positive about raw milk.
Opdc continues to thrive and now has a new brand… RAW FARM owned and operated by Opdc.
Our ethics are beyond reproach. If you did some homework you would see that most raw producers have either left Organics or never were certified. Sally Fallon and Joel Saladin come to mind. Neither are certified!
We should have done this years ago. Better feed that’s local and Non GMO tested. Carbon footprint has shrunk massively. No more imported grain or out of state poor quality moldy alfalfa.
Going local is the best thing we have ever done. We grew 17% since last year ! We were able to invest even more into our cow comfort and Food safety pathogen testing.
If you want organic. The stores are filled with them. All UHT, all from Unknown sources. CA lost 50% of its organic dairies in the last four years. Cheaters like Aurora with no pastures and 12,000 cows killed the market.
We have never commingled raw milk from another farm into our milk. Amanda…. get your facts straight.
Butter is a class four product. It is it raw milk.
Getting pretty sick of your attacks. They are baseless. Do your homework. Stop hating. Opdc has selflessly assisted hundreds of other farmers to start raw milk production and has given much to RAWMI.
I believe in taking the high road but there are limits when someone starts to lie or make false unfounded accusations.
Ethics and consumer connected integrity matter to us.
When you buy RAW FARM or Opdc that milk came from our dairy.
On rare occasion we have bought outside milk from organic producers to make some butter. That was many years ago. We have never hid this fact.
We are transparent ethical tested and 100% legal.
Mark, can you please clarify. With all the raw milk cheese you make I just assumed you outsourced milk to make the cheese. So your cows produce enough milk to meet the demands of your milk sales as well as producing cheese?
cows and acreage is a kinder math question. It also brings up an interesting point: Just how many cows are pastured in Kerman and how many cows produce enough product to be distributed all over California and into other states? I expect these core issues play into rebranding of the company that is “formerly known as Organic Pastures Dairy Company.”
To whomever reported the company formerly known as Organic Pastures Dairy Company: Well done.
Rodale said : “it’s not organic to produce organic milk and then pasteurize it!”
Organic has become known as UHT. Not a living whole food.
We produce all of the milk used in our products. We milk about 2 cows per acre. That’s 700 cows on 500 acres of organic pastures.
We are not buying milk from others. If we do in the future it will be disclosed and they will meet all of our standards. Every one of them including Test and Hold and Non GMO and pasturing. Not an easy task. That’s why we do it ourselves
I have worked as an educator in food and health for 35 years in Canada, and engaged in numerous projects and campaigns at a grassroots level. I must conclude that I still have no idea how one actually and systematically effects change at a bureaucratic level in Canada? Or if such a thing is even possible? I am not just talking about Raw Milk .
Canada was a colony of the UK til 1948 , and still retains vestiges of that . To the extent that Canada has reduced its dependence on the UK , in practice, it has phased in “vassalhood”, if that is a word, or servitude, to the US deep state, and now it would appear , in the Covid shamdemic, also to UN institutions, that are also in service to the same deep state. In short, the legal process here can be best described as a ‘crapshoot’ for any issues of substance with the odds , ever and always, tilted ridiculously towards preserving the status quo and current power structures .
In practice it would take not 50% of the population but 90% or more of the population to request a certain change for the government to even begin to notice. But this kind of unity is a virtual impossibility. The average man , overwhelmed with debt and stresses, not knowing where or if he will obtain his next paycheck for food and rent does not have time for subtler and more refined cultured food offerings from Michael Schmidt . Sure there will always be a small elite group , for example the various Rudolph Steiner organizations and Waldorf schools, that Michael is associated with his whole life, that do understand and do get it, but other than that the technocratic monoculture children are offered and exposed to in Canada in schools ,from parents, from TV , offers nothing to nourish the soul, only noise, disinformation, lies and consumerism.
Fortunately, the government does tolerate his groups and farm’s tremendously uplifting ‘ Symphony on the Barn ” music festivals .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdlmPrMZu9g&t=2621s&fbclid=IwAR2ydCHFoy-mvf16Nm4dsmTqbZDbwRiKaylUnCClL1DgdIixLG6i6Dj2m4k&app=desktop (Here we have the most recent Aug.1, 2020 musical festival in honour of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary).
I can not imagine that would be a threat to existing power structures, the deep state , dairy cartels or monopolies of any kind ? Even there, after 25 years of successfully hosting in their Glencolton barn these lovely musical concerts and performances , they were suddenly told it was unsafe to do that and a ‘fire hazard’. So now they only have a few months in the year to compete with the elements and weather out in the open field while they aspire to build a formal ‘Symphony Barn” opera house. https://www.facebook.com/symphonyinthebarn/
The message being that the government has to increasingly regulate everything and be in our faces with any kind of creative, cultural or innovative endeavour and even retain the power of veto over that as evidenced with the current Covid Plandemic , where the public can not even attend to their places of worship or attend any kind of cultural gatherings at all for going on 6 months . All the while we are inundated with contradiction, misinformation, disinformation , contradiction, lies, nonsense, social engineering, psyops (psychological operations) , brainwashing, propaganda, vaccine sales pitches from Bill Gates, and any all forms of persuasion to be paralyzed in fear and obedient to whatever non-democratic edicts emit from the technocracy. The point being that courts and democratic processes are just an old appendage now that are brazenly bypassed . What remains is just a hollow shell of institutions for democratic participation .
On a personal level , I have been deeply enriched by the cultural offerings of Glencolton Farms, by the culture, teachings and friendship of Michael Schmidt, and the people he surrounds himself with, the Waldorf institutions, the Steiner schools, the alumni and faculty, and even the the old age homes for retired Waldorf school teachers. Like a small oasis in the desert , they are a breath of sanity, in an increasingly chaotic world. We must work hard to preserve and nourish such oases so that others may benefit and have a refuge from the matrix and materialistic machinery now overwhelming and dominating more and more of ordinary life. Seen in that context ‘raw milk’ is simply a vehicle for connection and community , and an important and vital one at that, given its organic and health implications. But we must not lose sight of the overarching goal of building community , in ANY way we can , and this may take many other forms like cohousing, ecovillages, intentional communities and schools , supporting organic farmers and farming and increasing food security, and healthy lifestyle alternatives .
In this statement titled, “Biosecurity and Politics” Giorgio Agamben describes very well the inevitable result of this outrageous biosecurity madness… Raw milk consumers beware!
https://medium.com/@ddean3000/biosecurity-and-politics-giorgio-agamben-396f9ab3b6f4
It is evident — and government authorities themselves do not cease to remind us of it — that so-called “social distancing” will become the model of politics that awaits us, and that (as representatives of a so-called “task force” announced, whose members are in an obvious conflict of interest with the role that they are expected to exercise) advantage will be taken of this distancing to substitute digital technological apparatuses everywhere in place of human physicality, which as such becomes suspect of contagion (political contagion, let it be understood). University lessons, as MIUR has already recommended, will be stably online from next year; you will no longer recognize yourself by looking at your face, which might be covered with a mask, but through digital devices that recognize bio-data which is compulsorily collected; and any “crowd,” whether formed for political reasons or simply for friendship, will continue to be prohibited.
atom-ization, to ensure that no critical mass of an intelligent political movement gets traction
God Almighty holds them in derision
I haven’t read Michael Schmidt’s book yet, and only familiar with what has been going on in Ontario via news articles and blog posts such as this one, but I wanted to update you about the situation over on the left coast of Canada, in British Columbia. Face-to-face discussions with the BC government have been taking place since Jackie Ingram first met with then-Premier Christy Clark in 2011. Christy arranged for Jackie to meet with her Agriculture Ministers, first Don McRae and then Norm Letnick. Subsequent meetings also took place the Ministry of Health staff and the BC Dairy Association. Correspondence is ongoing. See details at http://bcherdshare.org/about/bchas-advocacy-log .
The BC Herdshare Association, founded by Jackie Ingram and Alice Jongerden, has been active since 2014, a legally incorporated non-profit. The BCHA has brought RAWMI training to farmers in BC via events such as workshops and on-farm training. It coordinates the “BC Fresh Milk Project” at http://tinyurl.com/bcfm-project to gather data proving that raw milk can be safely produced – some of the data was published in Drs. Berge and Baars’ article at https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/epidemiology-and-infection/article/raw-milk-producers-with-high-levels-of-hygiene-and-safety/ACCC5FD0AC2CEAB12379DFA902491115/core-reader . It also hosts a “Raw Milk BC” Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/rawmilkbc/ which helps consumers connect with local farmers – this group has 742 members as of today.
What is the current situation? A big change from ten years ago: RAWMI-trained herdshares are quietly operating with the full knowledge of health authorities — the same health offices which might have tried to shut them down in 2010. If a complaint is made to a regional health authority office that a raw milk farm exists, then health inspectors are bound by law to do their due diligence and visit the farm. But these inspectors are now visiting farms and then leaving the farms alone after that. On these RAWMI-trained farms, inspectors can see that no-one is getting sick or is going to get sick as they can immediately see the farm’s test results, spotless equipment, and HACCP plans.
Of course, hope is that the governments of BC and Canada will change their respective laws to legalize raw milk distribution, and plenty of lobbying is still happening to try to achieve those goals. The big obstacle is organized opposition from conventional licensed dairy farmers via their lobby groups the provincial marketing boards and the Dairy Farmers of Canada – they don’t want competition. But until the law changes, the milk is still flowing. In fact, one could surmise that with health inspectors refusing to shut down farms, de facto legalization of raw milk in BC perhaps has already taken place.
An add on certification to USDA Certified Organic is the Real Organic Project: https://www.realorganicproject.org/
The Real Organic Project is good on following the pasture rule, no hydroponics, and soil fertility.
Some raw milk dairies are certified both as USDA Certified Organic and the Real Organic Project.
I have tried to get the Real Organic Project to come out and make a statement of support for raw milk as the standard. But only silence.
If the Real Organic really cares about organic food quality and health they would come out and support raw milk. See my publication why they should for both science and history of the organic movement as the reasons:
Securing fresh food from fertile soil, challenges to the organic and raw milk movements
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/renewable-agriculture-and-food-systems/article/securing-fresh-food-from-fertile-soil-challenges-to-the-organic-and-raw-milk-movements/18325E375E068A538E07EF4E6F6ABA22
I will invite Dave Chapman from the Real Organic Project here to comment on raw milk within the context and standards of the Real Organic Project.
China agricultural crisis worse than trade war
For the past months the Peoples’ Republic of China has been subject to one after the other devastating shocks to its agriculture sector. A deadly outbreak of African Swine Fever that halved China’s huge pig herds in 2019, was followed by infestation from a plague of fall armyworms (FAW) which reached China in December, 2018 and now threaten China’s corn belt. Now the worst floods in some 60 years is wiping out major rice and other crops in central China along the Yangtze and other rivers. Food Security is one of six national priorities for national security. President Xi Jinping has just issued a call to citizens not to waste food or face penalties, a sign that the depth of the food security threat is far worse than thought.
While any of the several problems would be manageable in normal times, the combination of agriculture disasters combined with the economic consequences of the China outbreaks of coronavirus are presenting challenges that could well impact global food security in coming months
https://www.globalresearch.ca/china-growing-agriculture-crisis/5722238
the Parable of the Prodigal Son is not > future. It is upon us today. Jesus Christ predicted that in this circumstance, we – white folks, Israelites – will be jostling with the swine for something to eat. There won’t be anything to be had at Big Box stores with their just-in-time deliveries. Truckers won’t go in to cities where the police have been de-funded/ told to stand down in the face of Black Lives Mania. Line up your own supplies with local farmers, now
Legitimate and honest organic food producers are seeking to differentiate themselves from the Corporate GreenWash so called Organic. Dave and The Real Organic Project is a great example.
Be aware of those dangerous Organic Peaches !!!
Food safety issues are a direct reflection of our depressed and weakened immune systems.
https://corporate.aldi.us/fileadmin/fm-dam/Press_Releases/ALDI_Voluntarily_Recalls_Assorted_Peaches_from_Wawona_Packing_Company_LLC_Due_to_Possible_Salmonella_Enteritidis_Contamination_Update2.pdf
What’s driving America to do crazy things right now.
https://www.minnpost.com/eric-black-ink/2019/09/need-for-chaos-theory-focuses-on-a-subset-of-trump-supporters/
It’s a theory being called the Need for Chaos.
A small subset of unhappy people in America want to see it “all burn down” So it can be survived by a few to rebuild again. All very conspiracy theory. It’s a cult.
Very sad really. When 17 year old right wing extremist are driven to a rally by their mom who provided him with a gun…. who then kills two people…. then Fox Need praises him !
That’s really crazy. That’s what Trump is encouraging.
He just spent $8 billion we don’t have. He just killed 182,000 people because of sheer moronic sociopathy.
Looking forward to We the people voting in droves so we can put the devil genie back into the dark bottle.
it must be excruciating being a Never Trump-er, now 4 years after your prediction was so far off the mark, Mr McAffee. You’ll need a much stronger anti-depressant, this time, as the IN-evitability of a Trump victory, looms. Your fellow-traveller celebrity Michael Moore predicts that Donald Trump is well on his way to winning the presidential contest. Even he can tell that … faced with nightly images of the commies burning down the countries’ cities … white Christian Americans will turn out in droves to vote for law and order. I’m old enough to remember that images of American boy soldiers coming home in body bags, is what changed public opinion so as to end the in-sanity in Viet Nam. Lyndon Johnson was enough of a realist to see he couldn’t win. Biden + Harris et al. will find out that their fantasy is not shared by the majority of the electorate
before typing- in the ridiculous-ness = “He just killed 182,000 people…” ….you should’ve checked your facts : the admission by the Centres for Disease Control that only ~6000 of those deaths actually were from Covid. A paramedic with a grain of integrity would admit the science of the matter, versus the HOAX propaganda
the way he fell asleep in the midst of a live tv interview, is good for some precious comic relief but it’s ominous … your boy Biden’s chances of making it alive to November 3rd are only 50 / 50. Look at the creases in his earlobes …. overdue for a heart attack. I’ll lay you 2 to 1 Joe Biden cannot locate the testicular wherewithal to debate Donald Trump, live, on the same platform. He’ll make some excuse to hide out behind Harris’ skirts
Watson, you keep us chuckling quite regularly, keep up the humor!!
I am comforted by the observation that Trump and his supporters are a cult. Facts do not matter. They create their own facts. When given hard facts they say the magic words used to hypnotize them. “Fake News” or “ its a hoax”. And ignore the facts.
I just don’t know how the gun toting ultra Right Wingers can ignore Trumps love of Putin or Trump calling soldiers Losers and Suckers.
That’s tantamount to spitting in the face of a Gold Star Family Mom.
The power of cultism is extreme. Jim Jones convinced 600 people to drink Coolaide laced with Cuanide and die.
Dear Watson you have guzzled the coolaide and you are not even a citizen of the USA.
Makes me wonder about you. Trump has turned loose your inhibitions and you have lost it. In Trump you have found your long awaited racist sexist totalitarian Putin loving cult leader. Finally a leader you can love ❤️
Is that so Mark… Then consider these facts delivered by Vernon Jones a Democratic politician from the state of Georgia.
No clue as to what triggered your Trump Derangement Syndrome this time, Mr McAffee… did it dawn on you that most of your milk customers – white people who are actually eligible to vote in the Great State of California – will be voting for Donald Trump on November 3rd? It must be so painful = biting your tongue whilst doing business with milk customers who hold a very different political opinion that you do.
Finding out what triggers you could help MILLIONS of Americans who are similarly-afflicted, recover and lead ( fairly ) normal lives.
Dr Watson recommends > find a nice big water trough full of COLD water and go soak your head
rumor has it that, at home openers, NFL teams will display a photo of PRESIDENT Trump on the JumboTron. The crowd will then be invited to stand for the National Anthem, or take a knee = bowing down to their President
LMAO Watson!!!! What planet do you “Really” come from, were you hatched from an egg?? LOL!!
one of the elements for testing intelligence, is ; ability to distinguish satire from reality. Your cows could tell the difference about that rumor, but, having failed that particular aspect, you just gave thy-self away, Mr Dutcher.
10 things being done to ensure leafy greens safety
https://vegetablegrowersnews.com/news/ten-things-being-done-to-ensure-leafy-greens-safety-this-fall/
Even I with my limited knowledge of viruses clearly understood and predicted that these lockdowns, restrictions and masking was a colossal waste of time and destined to cause more harm than the so-called anticipated good…
“Numbers show lockdowns didn’t help contain COVID-19 — opening up didn’t boost it”
https://nypost.com/2020/09/02/numbers-show-lockdowns-didnt-help-contain-covid-19-opening-up-didnt-boost-it/?fbclid=IwAR2sFFjTk9OBxjRRtR8W5FRXXDMKQLjbq8xoMPSWxKKcZuXcdzLlUqgkGd8
“Given the high economic costs and well-documented long-term health consequences beyond COVID-19, imposing lockdowns appears to have been a large policy error. At first, when little was known, officials acted in ways they thought prudent. But now evidence proves that lockdowns were an expensive treatment with serious side effects and no benefit to society.”
Sourced from, We are Your Ontario Doctors…
Video from Ivor Cummins of Ireland, created on September 8, 2020, for a detailed review of the science and logic with a critical analysis of the global data regarding COVID-19 and respiratory viruses. The media and political hysteria is harmful. Facts over fear is what will enable us all to safely return to normal.
https://www.facebook.com/concernedontariodoctors/videos/1234545816878242
So sorry Ken, But we do NOT believe “Anything” that comes from Facebook, it is the Russian go to for posting lies.
“We, Belgian doctors and health professionals, wish to express our serious concern about the evolution of the situation in the recent months surrounding the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We call on politicians to be independently and critically informed in the decision-making process and in the compulsory implementation of corona-measures. We ask for an open debate, where all experts are represented without any form of censorship. After the initial panic surrounding covid-19, the objective facts now show a completely different picture – there is no medical justification for any emergency policy anymore.
The current crisis management has become totally disproportionate and causes more damage than it does any good.
We call for an end to all measures and ask for an immediate restoration of our normal democratic governance and legal structures and of all our civil liberties.”
https://www.aier.org/…/open-letter-from-medical…/
Ivor Cummins has a website called TheFatEmperor.com, as well as a twitter account of @FatEmperor. He has immersed himself deeply in the study of COVID-19. This is the link for the video Ken recommended https://thefatemperor.com/viral-issue-crucial-update-sept-8th-the-science-logic-and-data-explained/. Since the link is directly from Ivor’s website, I hope John and everyone else will consider it to be from a suitable source and watch it.
The genome project is producing some revealing results… say goodbye to “junk DNA”.
As the article points out and states with respect to the authors conclusion, “‘An interleaved genomic organization poses important mechanistic challenges for the cell. One involves the [use of] the same DNA molecules for multiple functions. The overlap of functionally important sequence motifs must be resolved in time and space for this organization to work properly. Another challenge is the need to compartmentalize RNA or mask RNAs that could potentially form long double-stranded regions, to prevent RNA-RNA interactions that could prompt apoptosis [programmed cell death].’
“This concern for the safety of so many RNA molecules being produced in such a small space is well-founded. RNA is a long single-strand molecule not unlike a long piece of sticky-tape—it will stick to any nearby surface, including itself! Unless properly coordinated, it will all scrunch up into a sticky mess.
“These results are so astonishing, so shocking, that it is going to take an awful lot more work to untangle what is really going on in cells.”
Yet the supercilious fools who are hellbent on producing a genetically engineered RNA corona vaccine and injecting it into every man woman and child seem oblivious to the potential harm that could potentially and likely result.
https://creation.com/astonishing-dna-complexity-uncovered?fbclid=IwAR0D_5PsyZm4pFHtYMEWpvo8RgKSSwUl3fKBlLD4QYQxPe0TvA4Nk7Pn4hU