Chewing a hay lunch, Svetlana, Viola and Leah display a bored calm in their wide, brown eyes. Their glazed looks belie the burgeoning legal war over the product of their udders.
These unassuming dairy cattle have become symbols of a growing international food rights movement fuelled by mistrust of the industrial food system.
A Newmarket justice of the peace is scheduled to decide today whether raw (unpasteurized) milk produced by the cows - heritage Canadiennes bred near the town of Durham, Ont., by activist farmer Michael Schmidt - can legally be distributed to the small network of consumers who have bought "cow shares" from Mr. Schmidt in exchange for access to the animals' unprocessed milk.
Although it is not illegal to consume raw milk in Canada, selling or distributing violates laws that require pasteurization of most commercial milk products.
The Schmidt case, which began when his farm was raided in 2006, has captivated food rights academics and advocates in Canada and around the world who argue the court's decision will ripple well beyond the raw milk community. At its crux, they argue, the case is really about the extent to which consumers should be free to buy foods, however rarefied, and whether constitutional rights stretch as far as the grocery basket, farmer's market and the people who own shares in - but do not live on - food producing farms.
"This is not just about raw milk, this is about people's rights to choose whatever foods they want. I advocate for choice," said Joseph Heckman, an organic farming expert at Rutger's University in New Jersey who has consumed raw milk since childhood and now studies it.
Raw Milk Fight Becomes a Symbol of Food Freedom
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Raw milk fight becomes a symbol of food freedom
Court ruling could ripple far beyond Michael Schmidt's Ontario farm and set the tone for consumers' right to buy the food they want
By Jessica Leeder
The Globe and Mail, January 21, 2010
Straight to the Source
