What is Real Milk?: "The source of most commercial milk is the modern Holstein, bred to produce huge quantities of milk three times as much as the old-fashioned cow. She needs special feed and antibiotics to keep her well. Her milk contains high levels of growth hormone from her pituitary gland, even when she is spared the indignities of genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone to push her to the udder limits of milk production."
Real milk:
- is from cows that eat grass, not grain
- is processed cleanly, instead of using pasteurization to make up for the filth
- in not homogonized
- is high in butterfat (yum)
Rules vary by state, but it's hard to get raw milk in most places.
One way to get it is to own your own cow. Most people don't want to be farmers, so you can hire someone else to care for your cow. As the cow owner, you are entitled to the milk from the cow.
We own 2/1000ths of a herd ("2 herd shares"), which entitles us to 2 gallons of raw milk / week.
If we don't drink it all, I make yogurt, which keeps a long time.
It's a bit more expensive than organic milk, but that makes sense. I'm paying a farmer to work even harder to keep my milk clean. Also, it's a small operation, and the farmer is local, so the economy of scale doesn't factor in.
5 comments:
We are a grade A goat milk dairy in Whatcom County. We are now certified to sell raw milk. We are looking for customers!
Where can one find raw milk in Seattle? Is it illegal or have I not found the right place?
The Campaign for Real Milk maintains a list of sources. See the WA list: http://www.realmilk.com/where5.html#wa.
I own part of herd, managed by Stan Holy, (253) 677-9106, firjer1217@aol.com. Nice guy.
Here in the UK, we can buy raw organic milk from the local greengrocers (it comes from a local farm), and where we used to live we bought it direct from the local organic farm. Not many places sell it, but there aren't any rules against it, provided it is labelled as such.
Thanks for the article, Fred. (Although I do wish you had linked it, instead of copying it here.)
It's a shame, but not a surprise, to see people trying to push raw milk producers and consumers around. The big money doesn't like to see local, community efforts.
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