Farm raided for raw milk

22.nov.06
Owen Sound Sun Times (Ontario)
Don Crosby

Officers with the Ministry of Natural Resources, assisted by public health inspectors and officials from the Ministry of Finance, conducted a raid on the farm belonging to Michael Schmidt early Tuesday morning for disturbing unpasteurized milk products.
The story says they searched the house and outbuildings, confiscated records and information from computers and seized equipment used to process milk.
Schmidt was convicted of marketing raw milk in 1994, fined $3,500 and placed on two years probation.
Schmidt says he makes no secret of his continued practice for the past 12 years and wasn't surprised by Tuesdays raid, stating, "I was waiting for this for 12 years. I knew it could happen at any time,"
About 20 investigators, including officers with the enforcement branch of the MNR accompanied by West Grey Police, stopped Schmidt as he left his farm northeast of Durham with a busload of farm products, baked goods, produce and milk products.
Ernst von Bezold, who lives in Richmond Hill and has been one of the leaseholders of a cow from the Schmidt herd for the past 15 years, was quoted as saying, "I'm indignant that we are being deprived of our groceries, milk, bread, cheese and vegetables that have been brought to us from the farm for the past 12 years."
Schmidt said that the 30 cows in his dairy herd are owned by shareholders who pay a one-time fee and an annual renewal fee.
Schmidt was further quoted as saying, "I wrote 12 years ago to the ministry of food and the ministry of health that I'm continuing with raw milk. They knew that. They can go on the Internet. It was in the newspapers."
Schmidt said the Ontario milk marketing board, which is the sole agency that buys and sells milk from producers in Ontario, expelled him after his 1994 conviction for selling unpasteurized milk.
Currently he supplies 120 families in the Toronto area and another 30 locally.