Wise Traditions Conference 2012:
- Part 1 – Wednesday
- Part 2 – Thursday
- Part 3 – Friday
- Part 4 – Saturday
- Part 5 – Sunday
Thursday:
Sally Fallon Morell at the Chapter Leader Meeting
Thursday morning the conference started with the Chapter Leader meeting. This had up until this year been held on the Monday following the conference, but they moved it this year.
The Chapter Leader’s meeting, where you might think we learn the secret handshakes and other mysterious stuff, was actually taken up with presentations of information for us to take back to our chapters.
Sally Fallon Morell:
Our first speaker was Sally Fallon Morell (president of the Weston A. Price Foundation and author of Nourishing Traditions). We learned that there are now 15,700 members in WAPF! There are 580 chapter leaders worldwide. Ten percent of them are overseas with New Zealand having the highest number of members per capita of any country. Sally keeps saying; This is truly an international organization now.
Pete Kennedy:
Our next presenter was Pete Kennedy, is a lawyer and president of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund (http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/). The Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund was created by Weston Price people to “Protect the constitutional right of the nation’s family farms and artisan food producers to provide processed and unprocessed farm foods directly to consumers through any legal means.” (read the FTCLDF mission statement)
Pete spoke about membership in the FTCLDF. There are 4 membership categories:
- Farmer – $125/yr
- Consumer – $50/yr
- Associates – $250/yr
- Artisan Producers – $125/yr
The memberships include free legal advice, and the possibility of legal representation (see http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/benefits.html for more info). They provide a 24-hour 1-800 number for members to call in the case of situations such as the health department coming to your door. We highly recommend everyone join this organization.
Chapter Leader group photo
Pete also gave us updates on some recent cases they had taken on. You may have heard about one in particular that resulted in a statement by the FDA that made the rounds on the internet. The FDA went on record as saying that (in their opinion) we have no fundamental right to consume or feed our children the foods of our choice! (see more: http://farmtoconsumer.org/litigation-FDA-status.htm) Wow, and who gave them that power? I say its time to take that power back into our own hands.
Chapter Leader Photo:
Next we took a break for our Chapter Leader group photo.
Elisa vander-Hout-Schmidt:
Next we heard from Elisa vander-Hout-Schmidt, who is the wife of Michael Schmidt. Michael is a raw milk farmer in Canada where it is illegal to sell raw milk. Michael has gone to jail and on a hunger strike in order to forward the raw milk movement in Canada.
Gary Cox:
Gary Cox
What to do during a raid
Gary Cox from the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund gave a wonderful presentation on what you should do in case of a farm raid (We also had in the audience Victoria Bloch, a chapter leader from Los Angeles, who went to jail in the raid on Rawsome Foods. She said she was going to have a T-Shirt made that said “I’ve been strip-searched for Raw Milk!”)
None of us like to think of the possibility of a raid happening to our farmer, but the presentation was very good. I am going to try to get a hold of the PowerPoint to show locally. Contact me if you would like more info.
In case you can’t read the points on the What to do during a raid photo, they are (you can also click on any of the photos to view them larger):
- Read the warrant
- Specificity of places to be searched
- Specificity of items to be seized
- Demand copy of inventory
- Notify all members
- Bring Camera/video recorder / take notes
- Follow course of inspection
- Do not hinder, thwart, obstruct or delay the inspection
- Do not make any statements
And of course, if you are a member in the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, the very first thing to do is call the 1-800 hotline and get some legal advice! Gary talked about situations where the health inspector was in the process of telling the farmer to dump all their food in the trash, when the FTCLDF discovered that the warrant didn’t give them the right to do this at all.
Beef Stew, Herb Roasted Acorn Squash, Winter Greens with Shaved Fennel and Celeriac, Sauerkraut and Butter
Lunch:
Lunch was provided by New Trends Publishing (publishers of Nourishing Traditions and many other great books). We had the first of our wonderful meals at this conference.
We had Beef Stew, Herb Roasted Acorn Squash, Winter Greens with Shaved Fennel and Celeriac, Sauerkraut and Butter. The Herb Roasted Acorn Squash was my favorite! Makes my mouth water just to think about it. For desert we had roasted bananas with coconut. It was way too sweet for my tastes, and I wished I’d finished with a second helping of the squash.
Charlotte Smith:
After lunch we had a presentation from Charlotte Smith of Champoeg Creamery (right here in Oregon!). Champoeg Creamery is the first farm to be certified by the Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI). The Raw Milk Institute was launched last year. Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures Dairy in California was one of the founders.
Charlotte Smith
She gave a touching account of the situation that lead to her creating the Oregon Raw Milk Producers Association. Charlotte told the story of a farm in her area that had a recent serious outbreak of disease. She had heard that this farm wasn’t clean. She felt so helpless to watch this terrible thing happen, and wanted to do something to prevent future outbreaks. So she got the idea of founding the Oregon Raw Milk Producers Association in order to provide safety, structure and education to raw milk in Oregon. Mark McAfee joined her on stage and she and Mark talked about their common goal of responsible and safe raw milk production. We saw photos of her farm, and heard about her experiences with becoming certified with RAWMI. I was very pleased to hear about the work that Charlotte is doing with raw milk producers. She is also the organizer of the Raw Milk Seminar in Junction City (at Deck Family Farm on November 19th).
Sara Pope:
Sarah Pope
Sara Pope is a chapter leader in Florida, and has contributed many videos on the Weston A. Price website. She talked about introducing raw milk to moms. She started off saying that she was from the South, and they have a saying:
“If Momma ain’t happy… Noooooooobody happy”
She said that the mommas she came into contact with are not happy. More moms are having to work outside the home, run single-family households, take care of their families, and their kids are getting more and more sick. The moms she sees have lost their fear of raw milk, and are desperate for anything that will help their children. She gave some strategies for introducing raw milk to moms. She said to talk one on one. Moms are getting more suspicious of “authorities” telling them what to do. Especially when so much of the info is in conflict with each other. Raw milk is helping children recover their health.
Judith McGeary:
Judith McGeary
Judith McGeary is a lawyer and organizer that has been instrumental in fighting back the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). She said that for a history of the farm bureau, etc. a great book was called “Dollar Harvest”. She also said that in the 2008 campaign Obama made a promise to label GMOs. She said there is a good YouTube video of this.
I found this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqaaB6NE1TI
We ended the Chapter Leaders meeting with a panel discussion. In years past we had breakout sessions, in which we meet in small groups around tables, and each table discusses a different subject. I was kind of disappointed not to have one this time.
Thai meal at restaurant in San Jose
After the day’s events my traveling companions and I drove into San Jose to find some dinner. We ate at a Thai restaurant. We had some roast duck, a chicken thing (that I can’t remember the name of), salad, and a couple of sauces. One side dish was a pineapple chutney-type sauce that we figured had traditionally been fermented. Jasmine rice was served in a cup made from a piece of real bamboo.
Wise Traditions Conference 2012:
- Part 1 – Wednesday
- Part 2 – Thursday
- Part 3 – Friday
- Part 4 – Saturday
- Part 5 – Sunday
