Organic Farmer Stands Up For Raw Milk - NewsGrabs 25 May 2008

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Raw versus the law - Canadian Authorities Raid Organic Farmer
Since the 2006 raid on his farm, Schmidt has seen a groundswell of support from raw milk proponents, a land owner association, celebrity chefs, some Ontario MPPs – including former finance minister Greg Sorbara whose family has consumed his milk – and even renowned pianist Anton Kuerti.

Today, the chat between customers is all about the upcoming trial. "It's ridiculous, this whole thing," says Abrahams. "It seems absurd to go to so much trouble to prevent us from drinking milk. I just don't understand it. People have not gotten sick."

Why is it the health authorities believe they have to protect us from our own (allegedly irrational) desires, such as drinking raw milk? Is government not there to serve the people?

The Truth About Milk: Raw vs Pasteurized
Even when produced under the most sanitary conditions, he said, it is normal for milk to contain some bacteria, and human societies have been coexisting and benefiting from these bacteria in the milk for thousands of years. Fermented milks are and have been important foods in many cultures for their nutrient value, McAfee informed the crowd, for their superior digestibility, and for the preservation that fermentation, a bacterial process, provides.

Monsanto's Bullying Increases Sales for Louisiana Dairy
Following the publication of an article in Vanity Fair titled "Monsanto's Harvest of Fear," detailing how the agri-chemical giant attempted to prevent Baton Rouge dairy farm Kleinpeter Farms from advertising that their milk is free of rBGH (an artificial growth hormone injected into dairy cows to increase milk production), owner Jeff Kleinpeter says emails started flooding in from all over the world.

Since the article came out, milk sales increased, says Kleinpeter. Some of the emails he received were from people in other states, wanting to buy Kleinpeter products.

Latest Attempt to Discredit Vitamin Therapies: Is it Criminal?
As was similarly the case with the 2004 Cochrane review and Lancet study, the publication of this latest Cochrane meta-analysis comes at a critical time in the global battle to maintain free access to non-patentable vitamin therapies.

Frankly, we think that the evidence presented here is already too strong for any reasonable person to dismiss out of hand. So much so, in fact, that we are confident the organizers of the “vitamins lead to a premature death” campaign will eventually be called to account for their actions.

Canada: Is Bill C-51 a crackdown on natural health?
“There are good recommendations when you look at it under the lens of the drug industry, the pharmaceutical model,” MacWilliam said via cellphone from a speaking engagement in Montana. “It is when you look at it under the model of the natural health product that it doesn’t make as much sense. It is the equivalent of using a hammer to squash a fly.

Video: Ireland: Save our supplements

This brief (2 minutes) video clip asks a pertinent question: Why is it that, while there are so many legal ways to ruin our health, protecting it by using nutrient supplements should be made illegal?

A world wide push to regulate supplements by the European Union and Codex Alimentarius is clearly afoot to forward such an irrational agenda.

Canada: No label for GM foods
(sorry, link vanished)
A private member's bill giving consumers the right to know if the food sold in Canada contains genetically engineered (GE) ingredients was defeated in the House of Commons today by a vote of 101 to 156. The defeat of Bill C-517 effectively protects the economic interests of GE companies like Monsanto over the rights of Canadians to know what they eat.

Action: Bio-identical Hormones under FDA attack - write to Congress
We have heard that Wyeth is gearing up to fight this tooth and nail. We have also learned that Wyeth is coordinating women's groups, often funded by Wyeth, to write letters in opposition to the above resolution. It is worth noting that Wyeth uses estriol in at least one of its European pharmaceuticals.

Action: Stop the Dangerous and Invasive 'Mothers Act'
Amy Philo reports that more than 7,800 people from around the world and every state in the US have signed her petition. The "Mothers Act" is Big Pharma's latest marketing scheme to peddle powerful psychoactive drugs to new, nursing, and expectant mothers. This piece of legislation provides federal moneys to screen and "treat" these new moms.

UN Criticizes India Gov't for Forcing GMO Seeds on Small Farmers
"The Committee is deeply concerned that the extreme hardship being experienced by farmers has led to an increasing incidence of suicides by farmers over the past decade. The Committee is particularly concerned that the extreme poverty among small-hold farmers caused by the lack of land, access to credit and adequate rural infrastructures, has been exacerbated by the introduction of genetically modified seeds by multinational corporations and the ensuing escalation of prices of seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, particularly in the cotton industry."

Smoked: Chantix May Cause Many Serious Problems
The smoking-cessation drug Chantix is suspected of causing a “wide spectrum of injuries,” including serious accidents and falls, potentially lethal cardiac rhythm disturbances, severe skin reactions, acute myocardial infarction, seizures, diabetess, psychosis, aggression and suicide, the authors write.

FAA bans anti-smoking drug Chantix
The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday removed the smoking cessation drug Chantix from the list of medications considered safe for pilots and air-traffic controllers after a new study linked the medication to mental confusion and other problems that could put passengers at risk.

Critics say drug firms' payments to doctors are conflict of interest
Drug companies have given $88 million in gifts, grants and fees to Minnesota doctors and caregivers since 2002, according to state payment records, including $782,000 to the two University of Minnesota psychiatrists who oversaw Dan Markingson's participation in a clinical drug trial.

A lawsuit over Markingson's suicide, which happened during the drug trial, accused Dr. Stephen Olson and Dr. S. Charles Schulz, chairman of the U's psychiatry department, of coercing the schizophrenic Markingson into the study.

Antiflea Pet Shampoos with Pyrethrin May Play a Role in Autism
Compared with mothers of typically developing children, mothers of children with autismspectrum disorders were twice as likely to report that they had shampooed their pets with pyrethrin-containing antiflea/antitick shampoos around the time of their pregnancy, in a Californian case-control study that looked at household pesticide use.

Japan: Autism Linked to Vaccines
The paper shows not just a "rechallenge" in an entire population sample in Japan, but a dose-response relationship on a population level. "Rechallenge" is one of the strongest methods of proof known in pharmacology to prove a drug causes a harmful effect. Seeing a dose-response relationship on a population level is more unusual.

When Honda/Rutter is compared to Terada it can be seen that ASD numbers appear to have been directly proportional to the total number of measles and MMR vaccines given in any year. In other words, the number of Japanese children who developed autism was directly related to the number who received MMR and single measles vaccines.

Study Shows Link Between Thimerosal Vaccines And Autism
A new epidemiological study suggests that a link exists between vaccines containing Thimerosal and several neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

“These findings are important because they demonstrate that children in a birth cohort with higher average mercury exposure than other birth cohorts had rates of neurodevelopmental disorders that were on average 2 to 4 times higher than the rates in the birth cohorts with lower exposures,” Heather Young, an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services and study’s lead author, say in a statement.

Federal Vaccine Law Challenged By Georgia Family
Seven of eight courts to consider challenges to the 1986 act have ruled in favor of the manufacturers. Last year, the Georgia Court of Appeals became the first court in the nation to rule the act did not pre-empt state law allowing such lawsuits, according to the newspaper. The manufacturers are appealing that decision to the state Supreme Court.

“Did Congress really intend to create an opt-o