What's the difference between organic milk and regular milk?

What’s the difference between organic milk and regular milk?

Nothing.  The products are the same.  If you have a glass of organic milk and a glass of regular milk, there’s no test that says – yes, this is one, and this is the other.  They have the same nutrients, neither of them have antibiotics, and neither of them have added hormones.  They are both GREAT.

It’s not just me saying it. There have been many studies – like by the USDA and the American Dietetic Association – that show organic and regular milk are equally nutritious and safe.

(Please see articles about how there are no antibiotics and no added hormones in your milk.  There are none in organic milk or regular milk.)

The difference is in the process, not the product.

Organic farms produce organic milk.  This means:

-The cows must eat organic feed, except minerals and vitamins.
-The cows must not be treated with antibiotics or added hormones or during their lifetimes.
-The cows must be allowed outdoor access for at least 120 days a year.

(You can read the regulations from the USDA here.)

Conventional farms produce conventional milk.  This means:

-The cows eat feed that benefited from technology, including fertilizer and weed and pest control.
We grow corn and alfalfa and sudax, plus we have our cattle on pasture, and we take pride in our crops!  It takes a lot of work to grow food for hundreds of cows.

-The cows are treated with antibiotics in the rare occasion one is sick. 
The milk from a cow treated with antibiotics never goes into the tank, and there are many, many safeguards to prevent this from happening.  NO ONE wants antibiotics in the milk.  Read about it here.

-The cows can be indoors or outdoors. 
We personally have our cows on pasture as well as indoors, but lots of farms have their cattle indoors in well ventilated barns, using all the latest technology on how to keep your cattle comfortable.  (Sand bedding, misters, fans, waterbeds.)  Conventional farms also adhere to strict government regulations and frequent inspections.  There's a small sampling here.

So the result is … milk!  

Some organic and some regular milk have longer expiration dates, and the reason why is because they are ultra pasteurized.  This isn’t because it’s organic, but instead because heating it up hotter for longer makes milk shelf stable for a longer period of time.  You can read all about that here.  Some is more expensive, but don't feel like you have to pay more.

Again, the milk that comes from farms, both organic and regular, is the same.  It still has nine essential nutrients.  It has the SAME amount of vitamins, minerals, and proteins.  It still has no antibiotics and no added hormones.  And most important to me … it tastes great.

If you’re one of those people who doesn’t like milk, please enjoy cheese, ice cream, or yogurt!  Or just pick some up for me.  We buy skim, 2%, and whole and right now we’re out of ALL THREE.

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What’s going down on the farm? Questions you’d ask a farmer if she were your best friend.

Seriously, what’s going on with GMOs?  What are GMOs, anyway?

GMO stands for genetically modified organisms.  If you’ve ever grown a garden, you know that it’s not easy.  Now, imagine that your garden crop is your field and your job.  Imagine that you’re responsible for providing food for your country. (If this were my garden, we would all starve.)  Guess what?  People keep trying to do a better job. 

For about 10,000 years, farmers have been picking desirable characteristics of plants and crossbreeding them to get better plants – ones that grow better or taste better.  Now, lab technicians insert genes from one plant into another to speed the process along.  They can also be more precise this way.  For an in depth view from Popular Science, read: How to genetically modify a seed, step by step. 

GMOs allow farmers to use less water, land, and pesticides to produce more food.  For instance, we grow corn to feed our cattle.  The corn seed we buy has been genetically modified to be more resistant to drought.

From the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance page: “Since 1995, food from GM seeds has been commercially available and has been proven safe for human and animal consumption. No other crops have been more studied or subject to greater scientific review. GM seeds undergo testing for safety, health and nutritional value – and regulation is overseen by The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).”

But!  None of that matters if people think that GMOs are evil and killing us all.  I’m a firm believer in choice – I think we all are – but I also want people to have a deep understanding of what GMOs are, why farmers use them, and why they were developed in the first place.  Farmers are consumers just like you – we only want the best for our families, too.  My family has been farming here for 135 years.  We care about our land, our water, our animals, our product, and ultimately – you!

   

What’s the difference between organic milk and regular milk?  What’s up with antibiotics and hormones?

Good news for anyone wondering!

Conventional and organic milk have no antibiotics in it.

Conventional and organic milk have hormones in it.  (All milk has natural hormones.)

All milk is tested repeatedly on the farm and at the lab to ensure that it is antibiotic free.  We don't feed any antibiotics to cows.  We only give them medicine when they're sick, and then we don't milk them into the tank when they have the medicine still in their systems.  Then when they're better and the medicine is out of their system - only then do we begin milking them again.  No one wants antibiotics in the milk - the farmer or the consumer.

As for hormones - in Michigan, farmers don't give their cows hormones to help them produce more milk.  (We never have on this farm, either.)  When farmers did it in the past, there was no way to tell the synthetic hormone from the natural hormone, because cows already produced it.  (So there was no test for it.)  But when consumers didn't want it, farmers stopped using it.  In Michigan, that happened in 2008. 

I’m hugely in favor of capitalism and choice, and it's easier to make a decision when you know all milk is healthy and nutritious.    

So what is the difference, then? 

The difference is in the farm practice, not the product.  Organic milk comes from cows that are on certified organic farms.  They are fed organic feed, they are not treated with medicine when sick (they are sold or put into a traditional herd), and they have mandated outdoor access.

On our farm, they’re fed feed we grow, given medicine when sick and not milked into the tank until it’s out of their system, and are out on pasture.  We take fantastic care of our animals – just like all farmers try to do. 

There have been many studies – like by the USDA and the American Dietetic Association – that show organic and conventional milk is equally nutritious and safe.

So, once again – it’s America!  You can choose whatever you want in the land of the free and the home of the brave!  We have giant grocery stores at our disposal!  Just know that all farmers – organic and conventional – are trying our best to provide for you.

Isn’t the manure part of farming kind of gross?

Yes.  But only when it’s wet.  Dry manure just seems like dirt.

Here’s a little fun fact for you … many dairy farmers I know have a separate entry to their houses!  Many of them also have separate showers!  Many of them are also in the basement, for good reason.

Farms each have their own smell.  One day Kris came home and I said, “Where have you been?  You smell different.”

(Note – this is the exact opposite of a scene when a wife smells another woman’s perfume on her husband.  I smelled someone else’s farm manure.)

But the truth is - we need manure!  We save it up and spread it on our fields so we can grow well-fertilized crops to feed our cattle.  Our cattle all - with no training! - spread manure on their pasture themselves!

Do our boots have manure on them?  Yes.  Do our barn clothes smell like manure?  Yes.  Do we have a really good washing machine?  Yes.

Manure is just part of working on a farm and living on a farm.  But that’s where we keep it – on the farm.  We don’t ever go out in our work boots and clothes.  

Not even the boys … no matter how much they want to wear their barn boots to the library.

Any questions for me?  Let me know!   You can like the page on Facebook, follow me on Twitter@carlashelley, or sign up to get the blog by good old, old-fashioned email - the form is on the right side of the page.

Spreading the milk life

My friend Julie has been affected by knowing a dairy farmer.  (Just like I've been affected by her family's business - Magline, Inc.  Founded in 1947, they're the world's leading manufacturer of lightweight aluminum hand trucks.  Hand trucks!  You may know them as dollies, which is what I called them before I met her.  I never call them that any more.)

One day Julie told me I needed to post about the millions of crafts people could make out of plastic milk gallons.  Her daughter was supposed to take one to school for a project, and she was really pushing the milk-drinking with her kids because she needed it emptied before school.  She thought that if people were making the crafts, we could increase milk consumption.

"Are there a lot of milk gallon crafts?" I asked.

"I'm sure - just check Pinterest," she said. 

Sure enough, there are billions of milk gallon crafts.  Later that week in the paper I saw a woman in my town had built a milk gallon igloo for the community center.  Are you inspired?  Getting crafty?

Then today she called to tell me she saw Live with Kelly and Michael at the gym.  She told me they were talking about how the slogan 'Got Milk?' ad campaign is being replaced by 'Milk Life'.  She said they were also surprised to hear that milk consumption has gone down - Michael responded to that by saying that he used to drink a gallon of milk a day and said ... "How do you think I got this body?"  as in, he's super fit.

We talked about how if she didn't have me as a friend, she would never think about these milk-related issues!  When you know someone who is personally affected, it changes your worldview.

Which brings me back to this weekend ... we went to a wedding with people we hadn't seen in a really long time.  Some since before we became dairy farmers. 

- Our first friend asked us about organic milk.  We had a long discussion.

- Another guy came over to the table and said, "Are you guys the people with the dairy farm?  I have some questions about ultra-pasteurized organic milk."

Our friends laughed and one said, "Carla, do you just want the microphone?"

- Then a friend came back from tending to her baby and her husband said, "Now tell her about organic and conventional milk."

What our friends had questions about were buying organic milk vs. buying conventional milk.  They wanted to know what we bought.  We told them we buy conventional.

We explained that ...

- conventional and organic milk have no antibiotics in it.

- conventional and organic milk have no added hormones in it.  (All milk has natural hormones.)

We told them about how milk is tested repeatedly on the farm and at the lab to ensure that it is antibiotic free.  We told them we don't feed any antibiotics to cows.  We only give them medicine when they're sick, and then we don't milk them into the tank when they have the medicine still in their systems.  Then when they're better and the medicine is out of their system - only then do we begin milking them again.  No one wants antibiotics in the milk - the farmer or the consumer.

We told them about how in Michigan farmers don't give their cows hormones to help them produce more milk.  (We never have on this farm, either.)  When farmers did it, there was no way to tell the artificial hormone from the natural hormone, because cows already produced it.  (So there was no test for it.)  But when consumers didn't want it, farmers stopped using it.  In Michigan, that happened in 2008. 

Of course we're in favor of capitalism and choice, and it's easier to make a decision when you know all milk is healthy and nutritious.    

The reaction from our friends was exactly the same.

"No one knows this."

"I've never heard this - ever."

"You need to do a better job of telling people about this."

"Does your industry try to publicize this at all?"

This made me laugh, since I feel that's all we do - through US Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, National Milk Producers Federation, the Michigan Ag Council, farm tours, events, blogs ... We're trying.  I guess we're not always reaching the people that we're trying to reach.  That's why personal connections mean so much.

But if we all tell a few more friends ... talk at a few more weddings ... and make some more Pinterest crafts, maybe we can spread the word about living the milk life.  To the milk igloo!