Sustainability Hits the Dairy Market

The dairy industry is a powerful, multi-billion dollar business that lies in the grasp of only a handful of firms, most of which are European based. The United States sells eighty percent of the milk it produces to these firms and as a result, these firms  have great influence over the price of milk and the way it is made. Thus, the farmers who work to cultivate the milk have little to no say in how they make their milk and how much they are able to sell it for. Similarly, with America's craving for more dairy at lower prices, farmers are forced to use unconventional and unnatural means to maximize the output of milk and satiate their customer base. 

Enter the use of breeding, unnatural feed, and hormone injections into the dairy industry simply to meet the ever demanding, fast paced American society. The use of these unnatural techniques to increase dairy production has potentially severe consequences both for the animals and those who eat dairy products. First of all, unorthodox breeding and feeding methods have the potential to pass diseases into the animals which in turn, ends up in our dairy. Secondly, the injection of synthetic hormones into cows ultimately reflects on our dairy as well because really, does anybody want to be consuming dairy products that they know are tainted by synthetic hormones? 

I realize that simply going to a grocery store and purchasing the store brand gallon of milk or pint of ice cream is the easiest and cheapest way to get dairy products, however, there are still many small farms across the United States that are devoted to keeping their milk organic and free of the pesticides and hormones present in that store brand milk. Though it may be a bit more expensive and out of the way, it is important for us to keep these farms thriving because the milk they produce is high quality and does not have the potential to carry diseases. When attempting to live more sustainably, sacrifices must be made to obtain the most natural and high quality products available, and buying milk from a smaller local farm seems to be a small change that has a lasting impact. So, make a sacrifice for the cows, yourself, and the environment and research the local dairy farm nearest you because the quality of the product is well worth the time spent getting it.