Milk -- Grass Fed Dairies

For many people who know me, I tend to be a strong advocate for cows milk and you all at this point are probably saying "enough already". Primarily from the perspective that it is satisfying! Simply stated, I strongly believe that when you consume milk with meals or snacks, it provides greater satiety and therefore you are not as hungry later. Isn't that the experience that we all want our food to give us -- satiety and nourishment? We certainly know that the complexity of the proteins found in cow's milk can lead to that satiety, but is also balanced out with vitamins, minerals and fats.

Now, with that being said, there is a lot of controversy about milk including health benefits, but more importantly about how industrial dairy farms are operating here in the United States. Again, the horror stories of large industrial farms and their techniques for milking cows, literally makes me ill to my stomach and I do believe many of the stories to be true. So, once again what is one to do? Are you ready and willing to pay $5.00 - $6.00 per gallon of milk?

I cam across a website, eatwild, which is a fantastic resource for "safe, healthy, natural and nutritious grass-fed beef, lamb, goats, bison, poultry, pork, dairy and other wild edibles". The website has a Directory of Farms which lists over 800 pasture based farms throughout the country. We will discuss more about the other farms in future posts, but I want to particularly bring your attention to the ALL GRASS FED DAIRIES DIRECTORY. There are actually only a few grass fed dairies in the United States, which was surprising to me! I was happy to see that Minnesota's Cedar Summit Farm made the list. Cedar Summit Farm's milk is very available in the Twin Cities and is so delicious! There were two other farms listed on the directory in Minnesota, Green Pastures Dairy and PastureLand. You can buy food online directly from these farmers or you can visit the farms. I am already planning out some visits to stock up on supplies!

Grass fed cows produce milk that has higher quality vitamins, minerals, omega 3-fatty acids, I suppose the way "nature intended". I love milk and my clients love milk. Is it worth it to pay $6.00 a gallon to ensure that your milk is coming from happy cows that are humanely treated, are not stressed and are producing a much higher quality product -- I think so!