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?
