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product of their choice. Furthermore, a certified system means that for the uneducated
raw milk consumers there would be no concern about raw milk safety for them as there is
now.
12. Uncertified direct sales
Mandatory pasteurization laws were introduced in response to health hazards created by
the modern dairy industry, i.e. milk pooling in off-farm processing for retail sale and
intensified farm operations by farmers who knew their raw milk would be pasteurized.
Examples of the latter are visible particles of fecal matter in holding tanks and shipping
the raw milk from infected cows, both of which would be of great concern to any farmer
who supplied raw milk strictly for drinking. And we agree that pasteurization is about all
you can do with unsafe raw milk, unless you implement a system to produce safe raw
milk in the first place, shown to be feasible in 1947 in section 10 above and shown in
operation today in the certified sales section below.
But, the law went further and applied mandatory pasteurization not only to off-farm
production of pooled milk for retail sale, but to all milk distributed. There was no
justification then and the Senate evidence shows there is no justification now, to apply
mandatory pasteurization to on-farm direct sales of raw milk. The effect has been to
create an oligopoly for off-farm dairy processors by wiping out on-farm competition. The
presumed justification was the hazard of consuming any raw milk, which as we have
shown is false – the true hazard is contained in the limited context of off-farm processing,
milk pooling and retail sales. Health Canada even today seems oblivious to this important
distinction and maintains an unjust law, touting the hazards of direct raw milk
consumption, already shown to be “safe” by its own Senate evidence.
We therefore challenge Health Canada to produce incident statistics showing that direct
raw milk consumption exceeds the acceptable safety threshold of 1,500 reported
Canadian cases. We also challenge Health Canada to produce incident statistics for other
foods and products now freely available and as well to demonstrate that tolerances for
safety are uniformly applied across all products and acted upon in a consistent manner.
Section 15 of the Canadian Charter states that every individual has the right to equal
benefit of the law without discrimination. Should any person of any age acquire
uncertified raw milk, by any means, legal or illegal, even say from a US border state, he
is free to consume it anywhere in Canada, anytime, anyplace and in front of any person.
However, the present law prohibits some forms of acquisition and not others. If you own
a cow or a part of one (otherwise called cow sharing) and collect and consume your own
uncertified raw milk, this is perfectly legal. Any other form of acquisition is illegal for
the distributor but not the recipient! There is no other consumable product we know of
which is legal to possess but illegal to sell under any circumstances. This is also
discriminatory and therefore violates the Charter.
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