Enviro-Girl Does Dairy!

Living in Dairyland, milk is a major staple of people’s diet. Cheese curds, string cheese, sour cream, cheddar cheese, butter, whipped cream, ice cream — we love our milk products. In Wisconsin everyone drinks milk with meals, tall frosty glasses are served up with breakfast, lunch and dinner. (And here you thought we only drank beer with our bratwurst.) Housewives choose their products by the dairy brand on the label — for example, Enviro-Girl’s neighbor sells his milk to Morning Glory so she buys Morning Glory sour cream and butter. The farmer up the road to whom she rents land sells his product to Simon’s Cheese (located less than 5 miles from her house), so Enviro-Girl buys Simon’s Cheese cheese. It’s easy to buy locally produced dairy in the Dairy State–Enviro-Girl’s dairy products travel fewer than 30 miles from farm to store to Enviro-Girl’s refrigerator.

Enviro-Girl draws the line on hormones in cows, however. That means rBGH-free Lamers Milk. (This is okay because when she taught high school, she taught several of the Lamers grandchildren and is happy to support their farms.) Unless a dairy product is labeled “NO rGBH,” this genetically-engineered synthetic hormone developed by Monsanto has been injected into cows to increase their milk production. Studies have linked rGBH consumption to cancer in people, but Enviro-Girl also hears it’s mean to inject cows with drugs to stimulate lactation since it causes health problems for them, too. Finally, Enviro-Girl is no fan of any genetically engineered food, so she looks for the “NO rGBH” label on her dairy products. (Coffee lovers, this also applies to the fancy drinks a barista whips up for you — lots of pressure has been applied to chains like Starbucks to only use rGBH free milk — print out this handy handout and give it to your local shop if they haven’t gone rGBH free yet.)

With a lactose-drinking husband and three growing boys, Enviro-Girl’s family guzzles five gallons of milk each week. (Enviro-Girl gave up milk at meals when nursing Mr. G, she only has milk on cereal in the morning. This means Team Testosterone drinks like COWS.)

Five gallons. Each week.

She’s seriously considering purchasing one of those stainless steel milk dispensers you see in restaurants.
She just hasn’t got the counter space cleared yet.

When Enviro-Girl considers the number of plastic milk jugs tossed into the recycling bin each month (20-25) and each year (260), and the number of plastic jugs that get blown off the recycling truck into fields and ditches (???), it gives her pause.

In her battle strategy to save Planet Earth from further destruction, Enviro-Girl made a different choice in the grocery store’s dairy cooler. She chose Lamers milk in a bottle.

Milk in glass bottles is heavier to haul and costs more because of the deposit, but deposit aside, it’s no more expensive than the milk in plastic jugs. Glass milk bottles make a happy clang when moving from cooler to cart, cart to cardboard box, and cardboard box to refrigerator. Hefting those heavy bottles gives Enviro-Girl a real work out, toning and sculpting her arms for swimsuit season.

Enviro-Girl’s family agrees that the milk tastes just as yummy and admires the retro look of empty glass milk bottles lined up in the laundry room for their return to the store. Mr. T and Mr. B like standing in line at the service desk to return the bottles and collect the deposit.

By reusing rather than recycling, Enviro-Girl only takes the recycling bin out to the road once a month instead of every other week. And that, friends, is a decided victory on the battlefield for Planet Earth.

Milk in glass bottles. It does a body and our planet good. Pass it on.