Enviro Girl has long bought milk from Lamers, a local dairy, because she supports a family farm locally owned and operated. The milk is rGBH free, which means her children aren’t sipping bovine growth hormones. She buys this milk in returnable glass bottles to significantly decrease the amount of plastic in her household. Every week Enviro Girl hauls her crate of empty bottles to the customer service counter at her local Piggly Wiggly and collects her deposit before she starts grocery shopping. Every week she reminds the person bagging her groceries to load the crate in the shopping cart so they don’t have to lift it twice–glass bottles of milk are heavy. But Enviro Girl’s committed to the environment and local businesses, so she shrugs off the little inconveniences of clanging glass and bottle deposits.
Last week she stopped in front of a cooler in the dairy section to pick up her family’s five bottles of milk for the week. A sign alerted her to a new promotion: Lamer’s Dairy Organic Milk. Organic milk! Enviro Girl had never bought such a thing–it hadn’t been available from a local source before that day. She picked up a bottle and glanced at the price. $4.87 for a quart! It was almost twice the price of regular rGBH-free milk!
Enviro Girl had a small moment of crisis beside the dairy coolers while holding the cold, heavy glass bottle of organic 2%. On the one hand, organic milk is puported to have greater health benefits. Enviro Girl knows that organic milk comes from pasture-grazed cows, which is healthier for the animals. She also knows organic milk comes from cows fed organic feed–this harkens back to soil, water and air quality issues close to Enviro Girl’s heart. The “trickle-down” effects of organic milk means fewer chemicals involved in the production process. It means better care for the cows. A demand for organic milk means a demand for organic feed, which means fields of grain and hay grown without pesticides or herbicides.
But $4.87 a quart!
Enviro Girl weighed the bottle in her left hand and the environmental economics in her right brain. Her family has the means to pay for expensive organic milk. She could cut costs elsewhere if pressed, paying nearly double for her family’s milk every week wouldn’t destroy their food budget. But more importantly, Enviro Girl recognizes her family’s place in the system of environmental economics. Demand increases supply and increased supply decreases cost as a general economic rule. Her family can afford the organic milk now, and by choosing to buy it, they’re choosing to support the production of organic milk. Their support (and demand) will increase the volume sold by Enviro Girl’s local Piggly Wiggly. Enviro Girl’s weekly purchase could help increase accessibility and decrease the cost, making organic milk a viable option for more families.
At $4.87 a quart Enviro Girl paid for more than just milk. She paid an endorsement to the farmer’s efforts, to support the production of organic milk. Her $4.87 a quart paid for pasture-grazed cows and chemical-free fields of feed. Enviro Girl paid that money today in the hope that a year from now the milk costs less, allowing more families the ability to enjoy it.
Tell the Eco Women: have you bought organic milk? Do you pay more to support locally produced or environmentally responsible products?
$20 a gallon! I have enough trouble justifying the extra dollar and change I spend for a half gallon of organic milk. Justifying the price to my husband, not myself. In fact, I buy organic whole milk for myself and regular skim milk for him, at his insistence. When I look at the bottled milk at Whole Foods the sticker shock kills me, every time. I am glad you are doing your bit to nudge the price down.
We bought a dairy herd share. The cost of the share works out to about $5 per gallon. The milk comes from Jersey cows who are always out on grass, eating a bit of feed only when they come into the milk parlor. They are never given hormones, and cows that need antibiotics for acute illness are taken out of the milking herd. If you can find a similar arrangement in your area, I highly recommend it. This way, the farmer gets all of the profit – none goes to the middleman. Also, going out to the farm is a great learning opportunity!
I often pay the increased prices for local and organic and sustainable farmed foods. Especially meat – because I don’t want to eat meat unless the animals were treated fairly in the process. And I save money buy running the A/C as little as possible, and by barely heating my home in the winter. That’s what works for me. It’s definitely a personal choice, but I think that this brings up a great point about supply, demand, and lower prices.
Pretty sure animals are not treated “fairly” when they are raised for the purpose of slaughter.
Ask yourself a better question – as “eco women” should you even drink milk? The answer is no, we don’t need to be the only animal in the world to drink the milk from another species, that is intended for babies.
The grain used to feed cows, that despite how ‘organic’ they are labeled, are fed way too much grain and kept pregnant basically all of their adult life, which is only a few years.
Many websites out there will tell you different.
Chuck:
I have to agree. I don’t drink milk and I don’t give it to my son. Frankly, I think the whole concept of drinking it is gross.
Ohhhhhhhh my food bill is already soooooooo high. I love supporting organic, local and all but I also have a lot of people to support – maybe we’ll be drinking water until those prices go down
This blog is insane – you call yourselves “Eco Women” but have deleted 2 of my posts that were not inflamatory, but did state my (and thousands of others) position on animal cruelty.
Fact: Raising and slaughtering animals is horrible for the environment
Fact: Humans are the only species to drink the milk of another species
Fact: Humans are the only species to drink milk beyond infancy.
Chuck,
Please try to keep your comments civil, all right? We hold comments from new commenters in a queue to prevent spam–a fairly standard blogging practice. Once you’re an approved commentor, your comments will get posted immediately. Unfortunately for you, Recycla and I were busy all day and I’m just now having the opportunity to approve your comments and reply. Yours are not the only comments in the queue and we only delete obscene comments or spam. Healthy debate and dialogue are welcome.
If you read other posts, you’ll learn that all of us at Eco Women are at different stages in our environmental practices. Some are vegetarian, others eat meat, and while I appreciate your points about a vegan lifestyle, I’m a born and bred Dairy State gal and the mom of 3 boys who love milk. We enjoy yogurt, cheese, ice cream and sour cream. I like cream in my coffee and my Earl Grey. We don’t drink milk with every meal as a beverage and my family drinks a very conservative 2 gallons a week. I make no claims about being Super-Crunchy-Granola, but I’m doing my best in many areas. But if you read other posts, you’ll soon figure that out.
Thanks for your comments.
Enviro Girl
Chuck,
Fact: Humans are supposed to eat meat – look in your mouth, the proof is there. Any diet without meat is plain unnatural.
Fact: It is possible to raise and slaughter livestock in ways that reduce carbon and actually improve the land. If you are interested in learning how, check out the writings of Joel Salatin. He also explains how his model can be used to feed the world.
Fact: Primitive northern European humans experienced a gene mutation that enabled them to digest milk beyond infancy. Without it, they would have died out. If your ancestors came from there, that’s probably why you are alive. Humans are also the only ones to do a lot of things, like fly in airplanes. Will you hold that against us as well?
It sounds like you are a vegetarian. If that choice works for you, that is awesome. However it does not give you the right to get up on your soapbox and tell other folks how they should eat. Imagine how you would feel if I told you there is a really good chance that your diet will make you sick and in the coming years, you will be forced to eat meat again to heal your body?
If you expect folks to respect your choices, you must respect theirs’ in turn.
Fact: There aren’t that many farmers like Polyface Farms.
Fact: Eat raw meat, without cooking it – then I’ll agree we were meant to eat meat, just like the other animals do. I’m pretty sure my mouth and teeth look nothing like any other ‘meat eating animal’ other there – it more resembles herbivores.
Fact: Vegetarians live, on average, longer & healthier lives.
From the ADA: Studies indicate that vegetarians often have lower morbidity (1) and mortality (2) rates from several chronic degenerative diseases than do nonvegetarians.
I do not condone others’ choices, I was a meat & dairy eater for a 33 years.
I am sorry about my last post – when I went to the page, my previous post was no longer ‘waiting for moderation.’ I have had a post not shown here.
If others want to eat meat, I’m all for it – go right ahead, I can’t change the world; I only ask that you think about why you eat what you do and the necessity when voting at the grocery store. Understand that well over 95% of the US’s meat & dairy come from factory farms or are the by-product of factory farms which do nothing but her our eco-systems.
Oops – mistype, meant I do not ‘condemn’ others choices
I eat meat because it tastes delicious. And cheese. And frozen custard. I am happy there are vegans and vegetarians because it means more Kopps Never Enough Chocolate for the rest of us.
Ah, this just cracked me up! Three cheers for custard! And butter!
We buy organic milk from Whole Foods, but are currently looking around for sources of local milk. So far, I haven’t been willing to pay the increased price — as you discovered, it’s twice as expensive.
In general, however, I am willing to pay more for locally-produced and/or environmentally responsible foods and products.
I forgot to mention that if you are interested in exploring a herd share, this website, eatwild.com, will help you look in the right direction. It is also great for identifying other locally-produced foods.
Mariaelena, thanks for the link! I actually live close enough to Polyface Farms (Joel Salatin’s place) that I can get beef and poultry from him, but I’m still looking for a dairy share.
Chuck, human teeth look a lot like the teeth of the critter pictured in this article (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-468644/From-myth-reality–meet-chimps-eat-lions.html). He is an omnivore, just like humans, and we are all meant to eat meat. Your choice not to eat it is a moral one, not one based on what is natural.
I agree that not all farmers are as responsible as Joel Salatin, but he is a shining example for what we should strive. He does his part by spreading the word and has been quite successful at helping many others adopt his approach.
I also agree that folks should be thoughtful about what they buy so that we vote with our purchases for a healthier future – both for our bodies and our ecosystems.
Holy cow, my canine teeth are nowhere near that big. Mine are the same size as my molars, which are there to grind vegetables and fruits in order for my body to digest food.
Carnivores have short intestinal tracts and colons that allow meat to pass through it relatively quickly, before it has a chance to rot and cause illness. Humans, on the other hand, have intestinal tracts that are much longer than carnivores of comparable size.
“Although we think we are one and we act as if we are one, human beings are not natural carnivores. When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings, who are natural herbivores.”
William C. Roberts, M.D., Professor and Director of the Baylor University Medical Center, and Editor in Chief of the American Journal of Cardiology
Chuck, the relevant word is OMNIVORE. A healthy balance of plant and animal foods, that is what we humans evolved to eat. Otherwise, we would not have any canine teeth, large or small.
Maria,
Look at those pronounced canines, and tell me we are the same. The picture you pointed me to had huge canines, obviously meant to rip flesh. Their digestive system actual handles raw meat. If we were meant to handle it, why hasn’t our digestive systems “evolved” to eat and digest meat?
Many herbivores actually have canine teeth. You might want to do some research on this topic. I get these questions quite often, but a little research usually leaves the only response of ‘it tastes good.’
Please take a moment and look at this blog I stumbled across when searching for “do herbivores have canine teeth?”
I by no means want to stop you from being an omnivore, but I do want you to be an informed one. Also, the book “The Omnivore’s Dilema” is an excellent read.
If we were meant to handle it, why hasn’t our digestive systems “evolved” to eat and digest [raw] meat?
Because we know how to use knives and make fire?