Michael Schmidt's raw milk operation has been effectively shut down.
The York Region has been granted an injunction under the Milk Act that prevents the Durham-area dairy farmer from distributing unpasteurized milk products.
Schmidt has been fighting the authorities for years on the issue. People wanting unpasteurized milk and cheese, often for health reasons, had become part owners of the farm and the cows, allowing them to acquire the products. Schmidt says the ruling negates that.
"The private rights of the people are basically completely squashed by these kind of rulings and it just keeps going," says Schmidt.
The injunction only allows people who actually live and work on the farm to consume the products. That would be mainly Schmidt and his family. Schmidt says anybody else will have to go underground.
"So anybody who does not live on the farm and work on the farm has no access to to raw milk unless they go to the underground market and there is a thriving underground market," he says.
Schmidt says it's possible some of the co-op members may challenge the ruling under the charter of rights.
