Is there environmentally friendly milk?
The 'greenest' milk may be bought from a local dairy that has only pasture-fed cows, but the milk might not be certified organic.
Editor's note: This story has been updated from its original version to correct inaccuracies.
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Comments
I'm a bit surprised that an article written on a site call "Mother Nature Network" was written by a formula using mom. Formula is most likely the reason for you 'wee one's sensitive stomach'. Interesting that your Doc recommended rice milk instead of cow milk, but didn't tell you to go with the breast when you chose formula.
When my granddaughter was on formula (at about age 6 months) I found an organic dairy in PA (we live in MD, where the state dictates what foods we can eat) where I purchase organic pastured milk from happy Jersey cows. My granddaughter is now 11 months old and thriving on the organix raw milk.
I make kefir from the same milk, which is wonderful and nutritious. It is a very healthy probiotic.
You can go to eatwild.com to find a farm near you that provides organic raw milk.... More
Milk is really good from a mother's breast when you are a baby (the same species as you). I thought you were supposed to drink milk until I realized my health had inproved drastically after I gave it up. I gave it up because In the coarse of becoming informed about my food I learned how cruel the dairy industry is (a large portion of the cruelty is inherent like seperating calfs and slaughtering the males for veal). My skin, allergies, asthma, weight, energy and sinus problems have all been.... More
I hear no one suggesting the ridiculous notion of pasteurizing mother's milk. It is highly healthy and beneficial directly from the breast. So, why tamper with cows milk?
Pasteurization was given the hard sell to a reluctant America because cows had come to be kept in unsanitary, cramped conditions, where they were poorly fed. The resulting milk yields saw a dramatic decline in quality and a carrier for disease for what had been, for hundreds if not thousands of years, an outstandingly.... More
http:///the-raw-milk-controversy-full-version/jacobsonchiropractic.net
Greetings from the NYC Milkshed. We're several thousand farmers who produce the milk for New York City and the rest of the New York Milkshed. For those of you interested in "foodshed" concepts, most US foodsheds, have their own milkshed. This is a surrounding region producing fresh milk. Different methods of milk production occur in the various milksheds of the country. I can only speak for the Northeast that I am so familiar with.
Just wishing that some of you who slam dairy.... More
You completely left out the impact of dairy cattle on climate change! Green eating is about more than organics and humane treatment of animals.
I'm sure glad we got rid of those 100 million bison on the great American prairie 140 years ago -- think of all that methane!
Good grief!
The American dairy industry has reduced its carbon footprint by 60 percent over the past 50 years. The beautiful countryside you see as you drive through many parts of America's milk-producing states is a result of dairying. Give farmers the credit they deserve -- they practice environmentalism EVERY day.
Michael Pollan is a smart,.... More
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Vermont+dairy+installs+biodigester--sells+...
With a setup like this, the farmer captures the methane, burns it, which keeps it out of the atmosphere and lowers his need for fossil fuel energy inputs. Win Win
I run a small goat dairy in Texas and I can definitively tell you that milk can be produced sustainably. My farm operates with multiple bottom lines. First and foremost is animal welfare. We take this very seriously. All the boys born on our place go to a really nice farm where they are raised to slaughter weight on clean grassy pasture. The day comes for them and they are slaughtered humanely. In the wild goats face starvation, dying of thirst, and being ripped apart by predators. On.... More
As a dairy farmer's child who grew up milking and taking care of a 60 cow herd of gentle jerseys. I can only agree with the fact that there is no environmentally friendly way of consuming milk.
As many have observed, there is nothing more tragic than listen to a cow moan for its calf and a desperate calf bellowing for its mother. We used to leave the calves on the cow until the colostrum was consumed and many times we were able to keep the heifers as herd replacements. Frequently,.... More
Cruelty-free, environmentally friendly milk is not commercially available now but could be is an ahimsa standard were adopted. See:
http://vimeo.com/6727496
http://www.thelotustrust.org/ahimsa.html
Although many of these living conditions may be the present throughout much of the United States, where I live in Vermont, it couldn't be further from the truth. On my fifteen minute drive from home to school each day, I pass at least half a dozen farms that I know produce the milk I drink each day. On these mostly non-organic farms, cows are treated like family and the milk they produce couldn't be much better. Thus, those who say that milk production itself is a bad thing needs to realize.... More
...having my babies stolen immediately after birth and having my breasts constantly pumped for everyone but my own kin, then pass the soy milk please! Dysfunctional may be a common term to describe American families, but the family you describe sounds like a horror movie!
Beware of complacency and statements like "that's just the way things are done". There is nothing more dangerous than accepting the horrors other beings must endure because humans "eat meat and always will". I am being.... More
Milk consumption has been linked to obesity, certain types of cancer, and - despite what the well-funded dairy industry claims - is not the answer to osteoporosis.
Milk production (even so-called "organic" milk) causes serious water pollution and has other devastating environmental consequences.
Every time we drink a glass a milk, we are ensuring that a baby cow will be taken from his mother and killed shortly after birth so diners can consume veal.
Dairy cows on factory farms.... More
For those who claim that "milk does a body good", it's important to ask why that is the case. Calcium, right? Where does calcium come from? Does the cow produce it out of thin air and secrete it from her udders for us to enjoy? Let's travel back in time to chemistry class for a second and recall that calcium is a mineral. Where do minerals come from? The ground! How do cows get calcium into their bodies? By eating plants that grow from the ground. Unfortunately, most milk cows don't.... More
While this article brings up some good points, it's impossible to overlook the inherent cruelty meted out to newborn calves. Organic diary farmers here in VT were shocked by undercover videos captured by the Humane Society of the US at Bushway Packing, a slaughterhouse (.... More
I'm not sure it is for the environment because I have to drive a long distance to get it but it is good for me. I am now off all drugs including asthma medication and bone density medication because I drink plenty of raw unpasteurized whole milk. My state allows cow share programs and the Jersey cows are pastured in a different state. While others buy drugs for their health, I buy milk. My lactose intolerant husband is fine with raw milk as it has lactase in it that helps him digest milk. .... More
They'd tell you how important that milk is to them and their babies. They'd tell you how they moan and cry when their new born babies are taken from them immediately after birth, never able to taste the life-giving substance that would allow them to grow up strong and healthy. The cow doesn't care what humans do to her milk after she secretes it--whether it's heated or consumed raw. All she knows is what she has been through for that human "pleasure" and how little she has to show for it.
"I can tell you though that milk does a body good" recent science disproves this. Also, there is NO WAY milk can be produced sustainably. Ask yourself what happens to the baby male claves that are born and how the cows have to continually be pregant and then maybe you can put the pieces together...
