Today’s focus on local food is wonderful, and if you asked most farmers, has been a long time coming! We’re reeducating ourselves on the importance of eating local, seasonal foods that are grown near our homes, either by farmers or by ourselves.
We love that this is happening. However, there is still one pretty big hole in the movement.
Where’s the dairy?
Colin and I started Perfect Flavor with this question at the forefront of our mission. How can we both get local, healthy dairy products to local consumers and how can we begin the process of reeducating people on the fact that just because a label says “Shenandoah’s Pride” does not mean that it comes from the Shenandoah Valley.
In fact, according to our dairy farmer, Dan Holsinger of Holsinger Dairy Farm in Waynesboro, VA, and our Virginia Department of Agriculture inspectors, most of the milk produced by Virginia’s cows gets trucked South. It’s sad to say, but the wool really has been pulled over our eyes. Great marketing does not an honest company make.
With that said, what do we do now? Where do we go from here? And most importantly, how do we start bringing back local dairy?
There are many steps to take in this very complex process. However, starting somewhere is key. We started at Perfect Flavor with bringing local ice creams, cheeses and yogurts to our Central VA customer base. And while we’re on a break now due to my pregnancy, we realize what a huge impact we did make on our community. Every one of our customers is shouting “Bring Back Local Dairy!” Well, we hear ya!
Here’s how you can help your family: Belong to a milk-share program. The milk you purchase comes straight from a cow that you partially own, that is fed, taken care of, and milked by a farmer raising a very, very small herd. The cost per gallon is more on average than a gallon of store brand milk and about equal to the cost of an organic gallon of milk, but so much better. You can trust this milk in every way, shape and form. The milk is raw, which can often scare off a lot of folks who have been told that drinking raw milk is unhealthy. But stop and think for a second. Where do you think the news of raw milk being unhealthy is coming from? The super large milk processors, of course.
Milk Shares VS. Large Milk Processors
Small dairy farmers have such control over their herd, often do not treat their cows with antibiotics, and never with hormones (like rbst, which encourage more milk production from each cow for the purposes of increasing the bottom line). These cows are often completely grass fed, which is the best option for herbivore cows. Raw milk coming from a milk share does not travel far or long to get from the cow to your fridge. There is, therefore, no need to pasteurize this milk because there are not many risks for the spread of pathogens that could hurt us. And the bacteria present in the raw milk that would otherwise be killed off by pasteurization? That bacteria actually aids in digestion! Why do you think so many people suffer from non-genetic lactose intolerance these days? When we stop eating meat, we lose the enzyme in our stomachs to digest it. The same holds true for when we stop drinking milk that has the necessary bacteria present (or enzymes) that aid in our digestion of lactic acid. It’s a very simple equation.
VS
Large milk processors must pasteurize their milk to ensure the safety of the product. Why? First of all, milk from multiple herds gets mingled together when picked up by the milk tanker truck on its way to the milk processing plant. Once the milk is picked up, it can travel in the tank for up to TWO DAYS, raw and, under refrigeration before it must, by law, be deposited at a milk processing plant often states away from the cows that produced it. Incidentally, the milk that is coming from these farms is coming from herds that number in the hundreds. Most medium-sized dairy farms average in the 150-200 herd range. Larger farms? Try a herd size of 800, give or take. Pile on top of that the fact that in order to keep these cows “healthy” since they are living on top of one another and are not for the most part grass fed and free, they must be pumped full of antibiotics. Most of these farmers also do administer hormones to increase milk production. When you throw all of these components together, and then bring this milk to a large milk processing plant which sees thousands of gallons milk go through its doors every day, it is no wonder that pasteurization is not only a benefit to the public but a requirement. If even one herd had tainted milk, and that milk upon being picked up by the tanker was mixed with the milk of other herds, and then brought to the processing plant and NOT pasteurized, then thousands of households would get sick.
Breath (and drink) easier. Sign up for a milk share today if raw milk is not sold in grocery stores, supplied by local farmers, in your state.
Visit localharvest.org or farmtoconsumer.org to learn more and find a milk share in your area.