Obtaining quality milk from contented cows
Re Milked, July 6 What I take from this article is explained at the start. “While fewer people are drinking milk overall, organic milk is holding steady.”
Seems to me that the conventional milk industry is worried about losing market share. Your comments that organic milk is no different than conventional milk is the same argument the agricultural industry states to deride organic produce. Maybe the tests being used are not the right ones to detect subtle differences.
You should be more concerned that Canada will lose in its NAFTA negotiations and allow U.S. dairy in Canada, because then our stores will be flooded with milk products from cows injected with bovine growth hormone.
Your article refers to Canada’s milk not having these hormones. Don’t you think Americans are being told their conventional, bovine growth hormone milk is scientifically equivalent to organic? Maybe their tests can’t detect subtle differences either.
If supply management gets scuttled, maybe we would even see milk products from China. Melamine, anyone?
I personally will proudly support our organic dairy industry, especially in the threat of questionable foreign dairy practices. Nancy Moysiuk, Etobicoke You concluded, prematurely, that regular and organic milk are the same, healthwise, stating the “Star didn’t test for hormones because all milk has them,” and hormones are not given to animals in Canada. But an unhappy cow produces within itself high levels of the same stress hormone we have — cortisol — as well as others.
Consumers want to know the full list of what we’re eating and that animals are cared for humanely. From your photos, the cows allowed outside look much happier than the caged ones.
Complete the lab analysis, please, to substantiate your conclusion: test for hormones and stress markers — and this will tell us once and for all, definitively, whether the caged cows are content like their caretakers say. Denny Hall, Toronto Absolutely great report on the milk business and its marketing.
There used to be a rumour that farmers weren’t very good at marketing. Clearly some of them can play on agricultural and food mythology to scam gullible consumers with the best of them. Douglas Taylor, Edmonton This article by Michele Henry leaves me very sad. The title suggests anyone who has been buying organic milk or milk products is basically an idiot.
The contents of that milk container are not the sole reason for an organic choice. For some of us, animal welfare is important. Along with free-run eggs (not cage free — big producers are abusing that now), I try my best to buy from a company or a farmer who cares enough to treat a cow as a living, feeling animal, not a milk machine.
I hope those trying to relieve animal misery with their shopping choices continue to do so.
How about an article on how to shop ethically for animal products? Some of us care. Rochelle Hatton, Sudbury, Ont. I buy organic dairy products for the cows, not for myself. I do not believe it is automatically “purer, more natural or old-fashioned.”
Canadian milk is well-legislated. Animal welfare, not as much.
I want cows to experience pasture feeding, to walk on grass and to not live in tie stalls. So I’m more than willing to pay the extra money.
I couldn’t in good conscience do otherwise. Maxine Sidran, Toronto On our organic dairy farm, we choose to have different parameters for management: our heifers are older when they calve, our cows do not have a calf every year and they get numerous chances to get pregnant and, most importantly, we do not feed for high milk production. Our objective is healthy and long-living cows.
The higher price for organic milk is due to a well-deserved premium to the farmer to help with higher production costs, for example organic feed (which means GMO-free and grown without chemical fertilizers and pesticides and is three times more expensive to buy) and because of small volumes, higher costs for transportation, processing, distribution and retail. Mathilde Andres, Harmony Organic Dairy Products Inc., Listowel, Ont. There are only two differences between organic and conventional foods, according to research done at Stanford or Harvard universities a few years back: 1: the price; and 2: people crazy enough to pay it. Both, I think, apply! Douglas Trollope, Mitchell, Ont. The differences between organic and mainstream dairy are real and supported by data.
The crux of Michelle Henry’s milk investigation was a single, non-scientific test done at a time of year where nutritional differences between organic and conventional milk are minimal (cows can’t graze in February).
A 2016 meta-analysis from Europe yielded different results: there are clear nutritional differences between organic and conventional milk. Henry’s piece glosses over this research.
It’s true that many conventional farmers let cows graze amply and are concerned about animal health. But that’s different than following a thirdparty standard that ensures cows graze continuously during grazing season, contains specific rules for animal welfare, doesn’t allow genetically engineered seed or feed, or feed that is produced using systemic herbicides and pesticides. Carolyn Young, executive director, the Organic Council of Ontario, Guelph Send email to lettertoed@thestar.ca; via
Web at thestar.ca/letters. Include full name, address, phone numbers of sender; only name and city will be published. Letter writers should disclose any personal interest they have in the subject matter. We reserve the right to edit letters, which run 50-150 words.