On Friday Dave, Stephanie, Jo and Kevin came over for lunch. Stephanie is pursuing a masters degree in Dairy Science. It was interesting to ask her questions about regular milk vs. organic milk and about the growth hormones that everybody seems worried about. Stephanie was more than happy to answer our questions. I will give you a brief overview of what I learned.
The difference between Organic milk and regular milk:
1. Organic milk costs more $$$
2. To be qualified to use the word "Organic" you have to have been organic for three years.
This doesn't mean you have to treat your cows any different, have them in greener pastures, give them bubble baths, etc. What "organic" does mean is that when they are sick or ill, you can only use certain kinds of medicine. For example if your cow gets mastitus, instead of giving her antibiotics you put garlic up in her udder. I don't know about you, but I would rather have meds then garlic in funny places.
3. Every truck that leaves a dairy is tested, regardless of what kind of milk it's carrying. If it doesn't meet code the farmer has to pay for the whole truck. Not good! No farmer wants to pay for his own milk. So in fact it is not likely that you will get sick or ill from milk, whether it is "organic" or not.
4. Organic milk does come in very cute container and has a smiling cow, so the cow must be happier right?
Growth hormones in milk.
The growth hormones in milk should not be confused with human growth hormones If milk from cows contained human hormones, milk-drinkers would be very big and very sick people (not to mention cows with human hormones would probably be mutants). Hormones in cows' milk are not the same in people - very different.
The most interesting bit of information related to the research she is doing on the feed they give the cows. The farmers add a substance to the plants to get them to produce more (I don't have the correct jargon, but I hope that I can at least get the idea across). A side effect is the growth of Streptococcus-like bacteria in the feed made from the plants when it is processed and stored. She is doing a study on that. This same substance used by the farmers is also used for some of our own foods, but her focus is on the cows. Interesting huh??!
This made me think about how much influence the media has over people. They might be right in some areas, but the reason they are telling us is for the shock value. If it was boring would we listen?? I need to do my own research and ask people who are in the field of expertise. Just something I was thinking about.
What do you think?
Thou Shalt Have Fun...
5 comments:
I find stuff like that facinating! I've never had organic milk, but sometimes the organic fruits look better then the regular counterpart so I get them when they do and the price isn't too bad. Mostly I like local produce and don't really care what they put it as I'm going to wash and cook it myself either way! fupdkvui!
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing - I've wondered what the difference is exactly, besides $. You're kids are beautiful and adorable! Its fun to see your blog and keep up with you this way!
Ha.. I already knew all that... um.. cuz u told me! Hee hee.
mooo moooo mooooooo uh uh mooo.
(Cow)
I love milk and growth hormones. Otherwise I wouldn't be me.
Organic is a misnomer. Organic implies carbon, oxygen and nitrogen. hmmmm!
So I appreciate you filling me in because I like to know this kind of stuff. Richard always thinks I'm weird because I ask questions like that too. So I don't buy organic milk because I'm fine with regular milk, however I have bought organic milk before; and for some strange reason it tastes REALLY good. Like the fat free tastes a lot like whole milk, so I don't really understand why it tastes so much better. (Unless they are lying about the fat content.) So if I were really rich I would maybe buy organic milk because it tastes so good, but then again if I were really rich I might just have my own cow that my butler would milk every morning for my breakfast.
By the way, I ran into Aaron yesterday at Best Buy-he's a lot taller than he was last time I saw him. And I think that he looks a lot like Jared (at least how I remember Jared looking). Weird, huh?
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