MADISON, WISCONSIN (December 25, 2009)– U.S. Connections to Natural Food and Healing and its affiliate members have formed a regional organization named Wisconsin Alliance for Raw Milk, with an acronym of WARM.

WARM is comprised of Wisconsin farmers, dairies and consumers, and those from surrounding states, who are “for the freedom and right to choose raw milk and other foods we want to consume to maintain and restore our health. We are for the right and freedom to farm the land and to share and trade in the bounty of our crops without government or corporate interferences.”

It appears as though the assault on small Wisconsin dairies and farmers have gained the support of their counterparts in surrounding states and more national and international attention, especially in France, Australia and the UK. Other actions are also occurring within Wisconsin and are being simultaneously  conducted by officials in several states, but not with just the raw milk issue. Legal, regulatory and enforcement actions have been taken on farm animal identification (e.g. chicken and cow chips), property registration, surveillance systems and new food and agricultural safety and health programs, with fines and potential imprisonment for non-compliance.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jpYBEvkMxQ]

Marti Oakley is a member of the Wisconsin Independent Farm and Consumers Association, former Op-Ed columnist for the St.Cloud, Minnesota newspaper and frequent guest on The Derry Brownfield radio show. Oakley said she supports the formation of WARM and is encouraging Wisconsin farms and consumers to join with them: “We need to unify for the support of Wisconsin dairy farmers as the state agriculture department and food safety division has begun systematically closing their businesses down and prosecuting those who refuse to comply with provisions  of state codes and policies of the agency.  This is an unelected bureaucracy which granted itself the power to conduct search and seizure of private property without warrant or cause and with no oversight.”

The news of the formation of WARM comes on the tail of a losing court case and a concurrent raw milk  rally in Viroqua, Wisconsin last week over Max Kane over a private raw milk trading club, Michael Badnarik — a 2004 Presidential candidate and an admitted and admired constitutionalist, said that nowhere in the laws of the land does it say or imply the government must or can dictate the types of food we must eat.  Badnarik asked two questions at the rally with a bullhorn on the steps of the courthouse:“Who Owns Your Body? You Do! You Do! Who Controls What Goes Into Your Body? You Do. You Do”!”

Michael Taylor, a farm and food advocate from Cincinnati who attended the court and rally, told the Journal concerning the milk issue, “It is not a question any longer over the health benefits. It is a question of freedom of choice. Do we have the right to choose what we eat?”

America’s Dairyland is becoming laughingstock to peoples worldwide who have enjoyed the health benefits of fresh raw milk from naturally raised cows and goats for centuries. An ongoing national one-minute raw milk survey (NORMS) shows that 98% of the 1100 responders reported some or many health benefits from raw milk, while 30% said pasteurized milk made them sick and some very sick. The real billion-dollar question, then, is why departments of agriculture, food and health at state and federal levels want to suppress this type of information and fight so hard to exploit the rare cases of sickness that do occur with drinking raw milk while protecting the mass production and distribution of an unhealthy product commonly known to sicken many. We think part of the answer to that question is this:  too many people are learning of the difference between the two products and their health effects as well as the huge financial benefits to the milk monopoly–at the expense of the dairy farmers.

If you are in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois or Canada, please visit  Wisconsin Alliance for Raw Milk and consider joining. If you are a key raw milk proponent in any state you are also welcome to join. There is no cost to join currently but those that want to join must be approved. It is a Facebook site.

There is more Christmas Eve raw milk developments in Wisconsin over at David Gumpert’s The Complete Patient with coverage of a man creating some attention at the Govenor’s mansion  in Madison.

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Tags: family farms, Food regulation, raw milk

This entry was posted on December 25, 2009 at 5:42 pm and is filed under Farm and Food Wars, Raw Milk and Milk Products. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.