As a follow-up to my earlier post about TIME Magazine’s less-than-thorough coverage about the raw dairy issue, here are some photos I took when I went to Organic Pastures last year. The photos are terrible in quality, since I had my camera adjusted to the wrong setting, but you get the idea:
You can see that the cows are eating in the pastures, which is exactly what you want as a raw milk consumer. The second photo shows cows going up the mobile milking barn ramp. I took some photos of the inside of the barn, but they came out really, really dark. You’ll just have to take my word for the fact that the barn was clean, and the milking machinery was clean to the point of obsession.
And here are a couple of photos I took of CAFO dairies in the area. It’s difficult to obtain photos of the operations of such dairies, mainly because they don’t want consumers to see where their milk comes from (so much for transparency). Also, we’ve heard all kinds of stories about photographers that attempt to take these kinds of photos and get shot by farmers; we’ve even heard these kinds of stories from farmers themselves. So, I took them from the car while Ted drove over fifty miles an hour. Here’s the best I could do:
Where would YOU rather get your milk from?
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N. & J. 05.08.08 at 6:32 am
My fiance and I are lucky enough to be able to purchase raw milk from a very small dairy near town. Prior to purchasing our “cow share” we were able to tour the entire facility, get up close with cows (one was very enamored with J.), learn about their diet, medical care etc. Is it pricey- absolutely! But we think it is worth it both in the quality of our milk but also supporting small farmers that are truly caring for their animals.