You cannot keep me down.

To keep me down -- you'd have to convince me no one cared. And I can clearly see that is not the case -- that more people every day care -- and they seek us out.

And to believe the world is a terrible place: One reacts to that in a non-constructive way. There are terrible things, don't get me wrong -- but people are good and decent -- just underinformed and not ready for certain things. That's all. And they'll get there -- too -- but not on my schedule of needs. All I can do is do the best I can in getting my message out there.

So many friends! How can I feel alone with the encouragement of all of our old and new friends. Thank you from our hearts, it is you that is the fuel of our courage.

I may well get to be friends with a couple people I count as heroes-- innovators, people like me that shake things up. People like us are always going to rub the status quo people wrong. We ask questions -- they answer because "that's the way its been" - time and momentum itself are truth.

I met Joel Salatin at the 2007 Grassworks conference, his talk was the highlight of that entire experience; although Cheyenne Christianson spoke -- another hero -- and Abe Collins spoke -- yet another. I remember so well Joel's first words -- it was straight to my heart -- it was about imperfect is okay when we are talking about our kids and their participation in our work. Don't turn them off by insisting on perfection. I have taken that message to heart. I took several other ideas from that short talk, too -- but the most important was one word: Evangelist. Joel considers himself an evangelist. Hey! Now I have a word for what I am. Me too! And from that moment, I worked that word over in my head, and fit what I was doing into it; like trying on a new pair of pants. How does it feel? Well, maybe a little loose--big pants to fill quite yet. Alright, then let's grow into them. How to grow into them? Educate myself. Gain more experience. Really listen: Find humility in my life and send the arrogance away. Well then: the pants are fitting better, and what do you know -- the crowd is getting bigger, more are listening.

I don't know exactly when things changed for me, and it went from just about my farm to being about all the farms and all the people of Wisconsin. Maybe it was looking at my children, and knowing how much I really could do about their world -- more than the excuses we all give --

But the truth is this farm changed me. My beautiful soils, so lovingly and patiently restored over the last seven years, and my magnificent cows - each a wonder of God's all creation. This farm, and everything we've experienced -- including this challenge -- have shaped me into someone that thinks not about myself, but us, and not about now but the future. That is a true farmer -- and citizen of the world. There is no going back, there is such pleasure, satisfaction here. We are making a difference, and the rate of change, of making new friends that believe as we do is accelerating at an exponential rate --

My wish is only to be seen by my state, Wisconsin, not as the scourge Food Safety needs me to be, but as someone that is wanted here -- needed even -- that for nothing else, we need some fresh thinking here because what's going on is not working. There are solutions -- sensible ones we can do right now. This Raw Milk thing is but one piece of this puzzle.

Patience. To be happy, to be healthy, to refuse to live in fear -- like in fear of my own milk - like they need us to be -- well that is the most radical and helpful thing I can do.

So ends today's sermon, other than to deliver on a previous promise of the world's most simple explanation of how the Raw Milk Laws of Wisconsin work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dym82i7LDeIo&feature=3Dplayer_embedded

Keep those (I mean emails) cards & letters coming, it is YOU that is giving ME strength.

In love and humility,

Scott Trautman, proud Family Dairy Farmer in Wisconsin