The Cornucopia Institute Visits Horizon Family Farms in Idaho
The milk is coming from primarily confined, grain-fed cows living in less-than-pristine conditions. It's no wonder the dairy industry and the CDC is so adamant that milk be uber-pasteurized and denatured...covering up the dirty dairy industry takes a lot of manipulations. But the Organic dairy industry is far superior, right? I'm not convinced...and I hope you aren't either.
Check out these dairy CAFO photos and then google some more. As others have pointed out before me, USDA Organic dairy usually comes from "big dairy" factory farms.
As shared in a blog post from the New England Cheese Making Supply Company:
In her wonderful book, "Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages," Anne Mendelson makes four points about organic milk:
[Don't forget that ultra-pastuerized means ultra-dead (no enzymes), ultra-deficient (in nutrients) and ultra-indigestible.](Until now, the regulations referred vaguely to "access to pasture" without spelling out how much or how little. Recently, this regulation was clarified to require that the cows spend a minimum of 120 days outside during the growing season. There is some question about if and how it will be enforced.)
- The vast majority of organic milk comes from 3 or 4 large producers owned by vast agribusiness conglomerates. Each one has several thousand cows. The milk travels thousands of miles from these places to your supermarket.
- Most of these farms depend on the same breeding and feeding methods as their conventional counterparts- the cows are fed high energy rations to increase production, they are milked 3 times/day, and they are given as little grazing time as they can get away with.
- The milk is separated and homogenized the same way it is done in the other large companies-traveling through miles of pipes to have its fat molecules broken up into tiny pieces.
- Worst of all, most organic milk is ultra-pasteurized so it can be transported long distances without spoiling. By the time it arrives at the store, it may be a week old. (Of course, this hardly matters because there is virtually no good bacteria left in it to cause it to spoil.)
The above post was written two years ago. Do you think the dairy industry, including USDA Organic dairy has gotten cleaner since then? Do the cows below look like grass-fed, clean, well-cared-for cows from which you will receive nutrient-rich Real Milk?
The government tells us that raw milk isn't safe. Well, in part, that's true. Raw milk from the conventional dairy industry is NOT safe. They know it, regulators know it, and we should know it, too. No one should drink raw milk coming from unnaturally raised, grain-fed cows confined in their own feces. But the kind of family farm raw milk we Real Foodies recommend is not dairy industry milk. When the CDC, FDA, USDA, et al. tell the public that raw milk is dangerous and should be illegal, they are lumping together all the known dirty milk from the dairy industry with the good, Real Food grass-fed raw milk from small, responsible producers. And that, my friends, is cheating. Isn't it interesting that the only farm crop more legislated than raw milk is marijuana? Milk...marijuana...milk...marijuana. Really?!
The government tells us that raw milk isn't safe. Well, in part, that's true. Raw milk from the conventional dairy industry is NOT safe. They know it, regulators know it, and we should know it, too. No one should drink raw milk coming from unnaturally raised, grain-fed cows confined in their own feces. But the kind of family farm raw milk we Real Foodies recommend is not dairy industry milk. When the CDC, FDA, USDA, et al. tell the public that raw milk is dangerous and should be illegal, they are lumping together all the known dirty milk from the dairy industry with the good, Real Food grass-fed raw milk from small, responsible producers. And that, my friends, is cheating. Isn't it interesting that the only farm crop more legislated than raw milk is marijuana? Milk...marijuana...milk...marijuana. Really?!
The only safe, nourishing, Real Milk available is raw, grass-fed whole milk (yes, drink it with the cream) from small family farms. If you can't get it, you really shouldn't be drinking milk. The alternative is not going to do your body good.
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Photo Courtesy of CARE, Washington State.
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| Photo by High Country News |
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Photo Courtesy of CARE, Washington State.
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