Here’s one kind of conversation about milk between a consumer and producer:
Hi Terri,
Did you notice the milk has been tasting different the last few weeks? It has an almost “grassy” flavor & it even smells different. Has there been a substantial change in what the
cows are eating? My son doesn’t notice but I haven’t really wanted to drink it when usually I love it.
Just wondering why it’s so different (BTW, I’ve been buying your yummy milk for about a year so I have lots to compare)
Sabrina
Hi Sabrina,
Yes, I’ve noticed the taste has been very different. Part of it is that the fat content is going up because of the season and then also it is because of the grass the cows have been eating. They have been eating lots of fox tail and also some pigweed, which have strong tastes.
Now they are on canary grass and the milk seems much smoother than the past few weeks, but it isn’t the same as when everything is fast growing, like the season we just left.
-Terri
Sabrina and Terri are real people. Sabrina is a consumer, but a consumer of raw milk produced by Oake Knoll Ayrshires Farm in Foxboro, MA. The exchange above occurred on Terris listserve, and to me is a reminder of how wonderful the producer-consumer relationship can be–the kind of conversation Milkfarmer, in a comment on my previous post, encouraged.
Contrast that exchange with this “case study” from agribusiness giant Cargill, (previewed in a half-page ad in last Sunday’s New York Times):
A dairy company with a mission of creating healthier dairy products wanted to introduce a heart-healthy milk. They asked Cargill to help them develop it. Cargill supplied them with CoroWise Naturally Sourced Cholesterol Reducer plant sterols, and worked with them to develop a way to incorporate it into dairy products without negatively affecting tasteNow the dairy sells a product with a uniquely successful niche in the marketplace, while consumers can choose to reduce their cholesterol with a naturally healthy drink
Think the Cargill dairy would/could be amenable to the kind of conversation Sabrina and Terri had?
A dairy company with a mission of creating healthier dairy products wanted to introduce a heart-healthy milk. They asked Cargill to help them develop it. Cargill supplied them with CoroWise Naturally Sourced Cholesterol Reducer plant sterols, and worked with them to develop a way to incorporate it into dairy products without negatively affecting tasteNow the dairy sells a product with a uniquely successful niche in the marketplace, while consumers can choose to reduce their cholesterol with a naturally healthy drink
Or, perhaps, there would be nothing at all, since just because an issue is raised, does not mean that it is to be dignified with a response. Depending on the nature of the inquiry, this last is the most likely result.
After a successful career at the manufacturer (or, perhaps before that successful career at the manufacturer), some of the executives involved would move over to the regulatory side, and adopt the same tactics (see, e.g., previous topic entitled, "It Sure Would be Nice to Have a Discussion….").
BTW, when I first started asking more questions a few years back about Trader Joe’s Company various foods and food sources, I was cheerfully given a little card with the Customer Relations number, fax and corporate mail address (PO Box). No problem with the 3-4 calls I made asking about various products over a half year to year period. Then I made another call about something else and was told that the stores weren’t supposed to be giving out those cards anymore and directing questions to Customer Relations, because they were getting too many calls; the stores should handle questions on the store level.
Hmmmm. That was about the time I started buying raw milk, from a dairy that answered my emailed questions right away when I couldn’t find answers to my questions on their website, with answers from the top, not a CSR. And not long afterward, we stopped by the dairy on a slight road trip detour and were given a tour by the owner. Where’s the transparency at TJ’s? The store level people don’t know the answers to my questions and the corporate level won’t talk, so it’s like looking through a brick wall.
I don’t mean to pick on just Trader Joe’s for lack of transparency, either. At other conventional grocery stores, the answers I get to my questions about whether the organic milk comes from pastured herds or not are just as bad. They answer back with bland, standardized statements about how organic certification means that herds get lots of fresh air and clean bedding, blah, blah, blah, and sidestep the issue of if the herds get pasture time outdoors or are confined in huge concentrations eating (organic) grain rations all the time. I still shop at TJ’s for some things (dark chocolate), but for a lot less of our staple foods, like produce, milk, and meat. I now source nearly all of those foods more directly, from places that answer my questions. I stick to TJ’s for wine, chocolate, olives, maple syrup, mustard, and such.
I’ll go to the website and read more about it, but my instincts are telling me this isn’t the healthiest option.
You can see some pictures from our picnic at http://www.ohiorawmilk.info/picnic2008 . (My youngest son is in the green & blue shirt, my oldest is in the red t-shirt and I’m wearing the white t-shirt.)
Is silicone added to the boiled dead milk here in the US, if so why and what are the health results suffered by our fellow citizens that consume this adulterated product?
Of course, one reason I have so few comments is, I always hand out a detailed, 4-page FAQ to new customers that spells everything out, from how I feed and milk the animals to how to handle and store the milk when they get it home, plus how to make their own butter, kefir and soft cheeses, as well as what to do should they ever find the milk less than satisfactory.
I must be doing something right… in five years, no one has ever been unhappy.
Any chance you might want to share that document with me? It might be helpful for new producers here in Colorado. You can email me offlist -info@rawmilkcolorado.org .
Thank you!
Don – thanks for the wonderful pictures- beautiful farm & family!
I love the connection to local farms, and news about what’s going on – one dairy had a calf-naming contest – winner got a free half-gallon of cream – and I won!
That’s a connection you can’t break.
-Blair