Gents,
I've had a debate going with myself for a while now about how to weigh the different options for my weekly milk purchase, so I thought I'd seek some input.
I generally drink just shy of 1 gallon of milk per week. Prior to my latest real-food kick, I just bought whichever brand had the cheapest gallon in a plastic jug, figuring that milk is milk. But lately I've been trying to eat local and/or organic as much as possible within my weekly grocery budget of about $65. Hence my current dilemma: when it comes to milk, how can I best weigh the benefits of local/organic against the huge price difference.
I have three main choices for brand. I shop at Dillons (a Kroger store), and the Kroger brand of normal skim milk is usually $2.99/gallon. The organic milk I've bought is a private-label brand called Private Selection, which sells for $2.99/half-gallon, so $5.98/gallon. Then there's a truly local brand that comes from a nearby farm called Iwig, which sells in glass bottles for $3.70/half-gallon, so $7.40/gallon.
My main reasons for choosing organic/local have more to do with supporting small business and sustainable environmental practices than they do with what goes in the milk. For this reason, I prefer the local milk, which also happens to be the most expensive. It tastes incredible, and because it's so fresh it has a much later expiration date than the standard brands without resorting to UHT pasteurization like the organic brands often do. But at $7.40/gallon, it really eats at my budget.
The private label organic is a possible price compromise, but many of these private label organic brands source their milk from the organic equivalent of factory farms - still thousands of cows packed in terrible conditions and minimal grazing, with the only difference being that they eat organic feed instead of regular. Kroger refuses to disclose the dairy source of their private label brand and won't answer questionnaires regarding dairy conditions, so it's a bit of a crap shoot on that one.
Finally, there's plain old Kroger brand milk. Cheap and tasty enough. Kroger has eliminated the use of rBST in all of its dairies, so at least the cows are probably less prone to growth-hormone related maladies like mastitis, but odds are they are still raised in the factory-farm conditions I oppose.
This is certainly a personal decision, but do you gents have any suggestions for how best to weigh the price/quality/responsibility factors?
I've had a debate going with myself for a while now about how to weigh the different options for my weekly milk purchase, so I thought I'd seek some input.
I generally drink just shy of 1 gallon of milk per week. Prior to my latest real-food kick, I just bought whichever brand had the cheapest gallon in a plastic jug, figuring that milk is milk. But lately I've been trying to eat local and/or organic as much as possible within my weekly grocery budget of about $65. Hence my current dilemma: when it comes to milk, how can I best weigh the benefits of local/organic against the huge price difference.
I have three main choices for brand. I shop at Dillons (a Kroger store), and the Kroger brand of normal skim milk is usually $2.99/gallon. The organic milk I've bought is a private-label brand called Private Selection, which sells for $2.99/half-gallon, so $5.98/gallon. Then there's a truly local brand that comes from a nearby farm called Iwig, which sells in glass bottles for $3.70/half-gallon, so $7.40/gallon.
My main reasons for choosing organic/local have more to do with supporting small business and sustainable environmental practices than they do with what goes in the milk. For this reason, I prefer the local milk, which also happens to be the most expensive. It tastes incredible, and because it's so fresh it has a much later expiration date than the standard brands without resorting to UHT pasteurization like the organic brands often do. But at $7.40/gallon, it really eats at my budget.
The private label organic is a possible price compromise, but many of these private label organic brands source their milk from the organic equivalent of factory farms - still thousands of cows packed in terrible conditions and minimal grazing, with the only difference being that they eat organic feed instead of regular. Kroger refuses to disclose the dairy source of their private label brand and won't answer questionnaires regarding dairy conditions, so it's a bit of a crap shoot on that one.
Finally, there's plain old Kroger brand milk. Cheap and tasty enough. Kroger has eliminated the use of rBST in all of its dairies, so at least the cows are probably less prone to growth-hormone related maladies like mastitis, but odds are they are still raised in the factory-farm conditions I oppose.
This is certainly a personal decision, but do you gents have any suggestions for how best to weigh the price/quality/responsibility factors?
) and it also cut back on the food bill. So I think you should take a look at everything you usually buy and see if you can make some changes or compromises to save a few dollars.
I think it's easily justifiable in just about every sense when you look at your own criteria; price is just a number, and a skewed one at that. As Walter said, cheap milk isn't just cheap, it's unsustainably cheap, it's an illusion created by subsidies. If anyone thinks you're crazy for spending that much on milk, they're missing the bigger picture. Besides, whose voice do you hear questioning the cost of it, yours or the voice of consensus?
