On the organic vs conventional debate. Of course it won't really be the final word, but this is the best written and most comprehensive article I have seen on the subject. It is long, but well worth the time it takes to read it, as Jackie Anver obviously knows of what she speaks. I wish I could write as well.
Here are a couple of excerpts from her column.
Organic milk certainly is not fresher than regular milk. Regular milk is pasteurized and has a shelf life of about 20 days. Organic milk is ultrapasteurized, a process that is more forgiving of poor quality milk, and that increases the shelf life of milk to about 90 days. Some of the Horizon organic milk boxes I've seen at Costco have expiration dates in 2008! There is a powerful incentive for retailers to put the ultrapasteurized organic milk on the shelf just before the expiration date, so consumers will think the organic milk is as fresh as the regular milk. After all, consumers are paying twice as much for the organic product.
Socially conscious consumers have a right to know that "organic" doesn't mean what it did 20 years ago. According to the Oct. 16, 2006, cover story in Business Week, when you eat Stonyfield Farms yogurt, you are often consuming dried organic milk flown all the way from New Zealand and reconstituted here in the U.S. The apple puree used to sweeten the yogurt sometimes comes from Turkey, and the strawberries from China. Importation of organic products raises troubling questions about food safety, labor standards, and the fossil fuels burned in the transportation of these foods.
I personally will not buy organic produce or food, because I feel that stores are deliberately misleading and overcharging me for something that is at least no different and at worst inferior, to regular, plain old, food. I have gone home without potatoes when our local Price Chopper had only organic on the shelf.
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I find your thoughts on organic food very interesting. I would like to ask you if you buy milk or if you drink from your own herd?
Hi Joni, Actually we do both. I like low fat milk and find farm milk too rich for my taste (although it is wonderful in coffee and chowder). Alan can't drink raw milk because he is exceptionally sensitive to the natural bacteria that is removed by pasteurizing. However about two gallons a day of farm milk is used by the others and in cooking and so on. The ones who drink raw milk hate it when they run out....and yes, we do run out if no one fills the milk jug before the tanker picks up. We run a real low cell count most of the time so our milk is probably exceptionally safe. However, I firmly believe in pasteurization despite having grown up on raw milk.
Your comment to Joni was interesting. We've been so conditioned to be ultra-cautious about UNPASTEURIZED! milk that I was astonished to read that you drink raw milk. But that's the way it'd been done for centuries and seemed to work well for our forbears.
I never buy organic as I've read that it isn't necessarily more nutritious.
We drink raw milk when I have it available. That isn't year round and like right now when the calves are so large and taking so much.
I was happy to read your comment. We know of some dairies that will not drink their own herd's milk. Too much of a hassle they say, I suppose it isn't much different than a wheat farmer buying his bread at the store.
I wonder when the "organic" will be superseded by the next myth... "This was GREEN farming!" when there was no difference between that product on the shelf and the next one.
Gosh, I'm becoming SO cynical of grocery stores and wholesalers... but with cause, I suppose...
Cathy, many farmers do...we strive for a low somatic cell count, which results in milk that is quite clean and good. Still, I am not crazy about all that cream. Sometimes our milk when we sell it tests at four percent butterfat. That is twice as rich as the milk I like to drink
Joni, I grew up on it...a neighbor farmer to my folks sold it to us illegally as it happens. It was good too
Hi Matthew, good to see you. It saddens me how easily people are led astray by hype that is little more than advertising to sell what amounts to a brand rather than an actual better product. Guess we are in the habit.
Ah, a favorite topic of mine. I, like you, won't buy organic milk...or most organic products (unless it's something that I can't find a conventional substitute for). Working in the beef industry for many, many years, I have often been asked about the organic v. conventional products. My response - most of it's a sham. In the US, the laws governing organic or natural labeling are far too vague. People are better off buying for freshness and quality versus organic or natural. However, there will always be those that will buy for what the label says and not for the actual product.
Hi CC, I couldn't agree more.
I agree with CC's comment, and I thought the article was well-presented. I, too, rarely buy anything organic, and I would never use organic dairy products. I know way, way too much about them!
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