Ah, milk. The wonderful drink that is has it all in one glass: vitamins, sugars, minerals, and protein. You've probably seen the aggressive marketing campaign to encourage us to drink more of it. You know, the one with all those fabulously fit celebrities, sports stars, musicians, models, moms, and even superheroes touting creamy white mustaches on their upper lips?But what are we REALLY drinking? Have you ever thought about it?
In 2008, the US dairy industry's produced 9.3 million cows produced about 190 billion pounds of milk. Let's put that amount in perspective: if every person in the United States (and there are over 300 million of us) produced 6 gallons of milk per month, we still wouldn't make 190 billion pounds! And for the past 7 years, our milk production per cow has been increasing by 0.1 gallon every year. Today, the average cow will produce 2,752.5 gallons (~17,000 lbs) of milk in a year...roughly 7.5 gallons per day, over ¾ of a gallon more than 10 years ago!
(Data Source: USDA)
The average American drinks about 23 gallons of milk per year. But there are dozens of choices we have to make when it comes to the grocery store's dairy section: do I want...
Whole milk?Vitamin D?
2%, 1%, or Low-fat?
Skim?
Flavored?
Lactose-free?
Organic?
Hormone-free?
Pasture-raised/grass-fed?
It gets a little overwhelming...so most of us just grab the gallon that's cheapest and has the latest expiration date, throw it in the cart, and get on with our grocery lists. It doesn't really matter that much anyway, right? Milk's really good for us, isn't it? I mean, just look at all those idyllic-looking farms and happy cows on the label...
PROBLEM:
All milk is not what it seems. In fact, there's some downright scary stuff that might be hiding in it...
Feed: Cows are supposed to eat grass. A lot of it. And unfortunately, it's expensive to feed cows the 167 pounds of grass they need to consume every day. So many large-scale dairy farms have switched to a cheaper, high-energy food source: soy and corn pellets, supplemented with grass crops like alfalfa. Feeding bovines a food source their stomachs were not designed to digest causes bleeding ulcers, which require high-power antibiotics to rectify.
Cows eating feed In order to remain profitable when the public is clamoring for milk that costs less than $2 per gallon, many dairy farmers turn to an even cheaper food source for their herds. The most common solution is supplementing pellet feed with fillers called “by-product foodstuffs”. This is created from the waste products generated during human food processing. A 2008 University of Wisconsin study of cattle diets in the Upper Midwest found these disturbing items as “common ingredients”:
Sterilized city garbage
Candy and bubble gum
Floor sweepings from bakeries and pasta factories (including plastic wrappers)
Potato waste (cooked fries and chips, or rotten potatoes not suitable for processing)
Blood, feather, poultry, or fish meal (waste blood/feathers/carcasses collected at slaughterhouses; cooked, dried and ground into powder)
Growth Hormones: There are two major hormones used in dairy cows to boost milk production: BGH (bovine growth hormone) and rBST (recombinant bovine somatropin). These hormones cause an insulin-like growth factor in the milk called IGF-1 that survives pasteurization, and is then absorbed into our bodies through our bloodstream. There is much debate about the effect these hormones have on our bodies, if any, but some research indicates that IGF-1 promotes the mutation of normal female breast and colon cells into their cancerous form.
Yes, the USDA and FDA approved this hormone...and claim it has no harmful effects on humans. Canada, Japan, and the EU, on the other hand, banned the use of BGH and rBST in dairy cows in 1999.
These countries banned BGH and rBST because they make cows more susceptible to disease, thus requiring more antibiotics to stay healthy. BGH and rBST make dairy cows especially prone to a disease called mastitus, a very painful udder infection that causes open, infected sores that can emit pus into the milk. Any infection is allegedly destroyed during pasteurization, but still...sounds appetizing, doesn't it?Additionally, treating cows with hormones and high-energy feed to improve milk production decreases the quality of their milk. Think about it: cow milk is designed to nourish the calves, same as breast milk nourishes our children...and so it is a very dense source of necessary vitamins, minerals, and fats. But as a cow's milk production increases, so does the dilution of the those vitamins and minerals. And since today's cows are producing 20 times more milk than they need to sustain a healthy calf, and farmers are being encouraged to increase milk production every year...what kind of product quality are we REALLY getting?
Antibiotics: We want healthy cows, because healthy cows produce more milk than unhealthy ones. So it makes sense to medicate them when they are sick. But it is illegal to give a lactating cow antibiotics of any kind. In fact, farmers are required by law to dump an entire tanker truck's contents if the milk inside tests positive for antibiotics or other drugs. But studies like this one from the Journal of Dairy Science suggest that anywhere between 20% and 30% of milk tests positive for common bovine antibiotics like penicillin.
Like hormones, antibiotics are not destroyed by pasteurization; they accumulate in our bodies. And persistence of antibiotics is getting a lot of attention these days; we are becoming immune to them, and bacteria are becoming immune, also. But then the ethical issue of animal welfare comes to mind: if cows fed on corn and soy pellets have problems with bleeding stomach ulcers, and growth hormones increase the probability of lactating cows contracting the mastitus disease, shouldn't a farmer want to treat cows with antibiotics to keep them healthy...no matter what the law says? Something doesn't make sense here: growth hormones and synthetic feeds are legal...but administering medication while the cows produce milk is not. Either there are a lot of sick cows being removed from production, or there are a lot of sick cows producing the milk we drink. Or, even scarier, there are a lot of high-power antibiotics floating around in our milk...
SO WHAT CAN WE DO?
Don't cut back on your milk consumption; Americans aren't getting enough as it is. Do research instead. Know where your milk comes from, and what went into its production. Or, try organic or grass-fed milk! Trust me, there is a difference!Advantages of USDA Certified Organic Milk:
Organic feed. This means the products in cow's feed have not been exposed to fertilizers or pesticides. The feed may still may contain more corn/soy pellets than grass, and has the slim possibility that “by-product foodstuffs” may also be in the feed...but this can be averted by looking for a “vegetarian fed” label on the milk. When in doubt, check the farm's website for information about their product handling policies.
No genetic mutation. This means BGH and rBST cannot given to the cows to increase milk production. No hormones for cows means better health for them, a more nutrient-dense milk, and better health for us.
No antibiotics. If a cow is ill and must be treated, she cannot be returned to the milking herd for 1 year to ensure the antibiotics are out of her system. (This rule exists for non-organic milk also...but it's not followed as strictly)
- Access to pasture. Organic cows must have time to graze freely in the pasture, but there's a loophole: what is “acceptable access to pasture”? 10 minutes? 10 hours? 10 days? Again, this is the perfect opportunity to check the farm's website for information about their product handling. A good/reputable farm or distribution company should provide this information openly. If they don't, look for another company that places a higher value on transparency.
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| Dairy cows grazing at the grass-fed Trader's Point Creamery, Indianapolis, IN |
Disadvantages of USDA Certified Organic Milk:
Requires consumer research. All organic dairy farms/distribution companies are not created equal. Some producers take their organic certification very seriously and even go above and beyond the USDA requirements, but then there are others that give the term “organic” a bad name. Fortunately, research agencies like the Cornucopia Institute have produced this “report card” for the most popular national organic milk brands. Try finding your favorite!
Cost. Organic milk is more expensive than non-organic. There's no way around it. There are thousands of reasons for this; most of them have to do with Farm Bill subsidies, tax incentives, feed prices and availability, economies of scale, market demand, etc. But the price of organic milk has become more competitive over the past few years – more people are demanding it. Grass-fed milk is more expensive than organic because it's a relatively new industry, and so has more local, small-scale producers.
But I firmly believe that, when it comes to food, you get what you pay for.
Nutrients. There appears to be no nutritional difference between organic and non-organic milk. But if you're looking for a nutritionally superior milk product, go for the grass-fed milk. Cows fed a grass diet spend nearly 100% of their lifetimes in pasture, and produce milk richer in antioxidants, beneficial fats (like Omega-3 and conjugated linoleic acid-CLA), Vitamins E and C, Vitamin B, and beta-carotene. Grass-fed milk is also richer in trace minerals like calcium, magnesium, and potassium. For more information, check out this site about the human and animal health benefits of a grass-fed diet.
My husband and I started this whole journey because of milk. We didn't think there would be difference between organic and non-organic...but our bodies knew better. After just a few weeks, we felt lighter and had more energy. And it was then that we knew there was no going back to the old “conventional” way of thinking about food.So if you don't change anything else about your diet...spring for the organic or grass-fed milk. Your body will thank you!
