nificantly reduced and their growth slowed by heating wine to 55C for only a few minutes. This discovery will lead to a range of new developments including large-scale wine making, beer brewing, and pasteurizing. Pasteur's germ theory will also be instrumental in understanding the development of diseases such as rabies, cholera, and anthrax, and will lead directly to the development of the first vaccines.Feeding the Future, Anansi Press. 2004
This is my weighing in on the pasteurizing of milk debate that farmer Michael Schmidt is embroiled within. He is now ending his 30 some day hunger strike so that he can be healthy for the legal f
ight ahead.Aside from the elitist take on why this debate is important, for example the high end chefs in Toronto fighting for their right to have unpasteurized milk because it tastes better, I think this debate works more importantly to respond to some of the huge concerns I, and many others, have around the massive disconnect between food and the consumer. We have a relationship here between a farmer and a consumer and that is what should be fought for in my opinion. If we are weighing in on this debate solely as consumers who are looking for the best product and one's right to access it, I think the real point will be lost. If as a consumer one enters into an arrangement about food and how it is produced, then that is what should be respected and fought for.
I wish farmer Schmidt luck, but worry that he is going to get severely punished for choosing to take on the federal law in the way that he has. We need to support our farmers, they feed our cities. I just hope that this farmer, knowingly disobeying federal law, doesn't make it harder for future farmers (and consumers) to fight for the integrity of alternative practices that challenge large agribusiness models.
more on Schmidt case
