How Now, Brain-enhancing Cow

Now and then I get a little mulish

Sometimes I whine about the research that goes into churning out 1000 words a week for the Farm Side. I've been at it since March of 1998 and there are weeks when those words are hard to find. (Funny how it's almost always easy to find something to blog about.)

However, other weeks I encounter a pile of fascinating articles that surprise and delight me, even after all those years.

Here are some from this week's round of treasure hunting.

Surprising ways milk makes us smarter....read this one even if you don't have time for the others. After the death by antibiotics of every good thing that once lived in my innards I have no problem believing the stuff lower down in the article.

Study finds cognitive function improved by drinking milk

More on the same

Cows are not eating your food

Kids doing the right thing without being asked.

Leftover for Wordless Wednesday

From Sunday Stills about liquids.

Sustainability and Moo Juice

Milk came out on top in a survey of nutrients vs climate impact.

And it does a body good!

More Melamine in Milk

Yet another reason to keep it local when it comes to buying dairy products.

More Melamine in Chinese Dairy Products

Story here

And it appears that suing someone who causes you harm is a bit harder there than here.....

MIlk-it does a body good

Here is the kind of story I like to read in the main stream media...rather than blather from anti-food activists that is.

HT to World Dairy Diary

rBST-free milk and why you don't need to buy it

Here is a link to a great article by Dr. Terry Etherton of Penn State. 200 milk samples from across the nation...purchased from ordinary stores. Test them for hormones, nutritional content etc. and what do you find? No difference among the milks. An NO antibiotics in any of them!

However, take the time, do the math, see how much money milk companies are scamming out of the public and the farmers who produce the milk. You will easily see the driving force behind all the hype. Pay careful attention to the way big milk companies pay activist groups to take unscientific stands on food politics that benefit sales of their products. Here at Northview we receive a $.20 per hundredweight premium for not using rBST. The company we sell it to makes around $18 extra dollars for that same milk. Yes, those decimal points are in the right place. Twenty cents. Eighteen dollars. For something that isn't chemically different in any way when it arrives at the store. No different hormones. No antibiotics. Nothing different at all. Is it any wonder that farmers get mad about it?

HT to Trent Loos