Sad Day for Maine Organic Milk (Bangor, Calais: buying, school, inspectors)

[BrokenTap]

I kind of suspected that the economic disaster was going to kill the organic market and unfortunately it seems like this is coming true. The highly regulated, and creamery dependent organic milk market was poised to go first I suppose, but I wonder what the farmer's markets and organic veggie markets are going to do this summer.

Organic milk boom in Maine going bust - Bangor Daily News

[ADSLubec]

Originally Posted by BrokenTap

I kind of suspected that the economic disaster was going to kill the organic market and unfortunately it seems like this is coming true. The highly regulated, and creamery dependent organic milk market was poised to go first I suppose, but I wonder what the farmer's markets and organic veggie markets are going to do this summer.

Organic milk boom in Maine going bust - Bangor Daily News

That is very sad news indeed. We purchase produce and meats from Tide Mill Farms and knew that they produced milk for Stonyfield. It will be tough for them for a bit but they are smart and resourceful people and hopefully will make it in the long run.

We only purchase organic milk for our daughter and the price differential is worth it.

Alan

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Is there an old dairy in Washington County that could be brought back?

To answer the question above; I think local farm fresh vegetables and eggs will sell well this summer. Whether they are organic, natural or chemical free means a lot less than local. I had fresh local eggs on corned beef hash for supper. I blew out the driveway for an old guy and he brought out a dozen eggs. Works for me.

[starwalker]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

Is there an old dairy in Washington County that could be brought back?

To answer the question above; I think local farm fresh vegetables and eggs will sell well this summer. Whether they are organic, natural or chemical free means a lot less than local. I had fresh local eggs on corned beef hash for supper. I blew out the driveway for an old guy and he brought out a dozen eggs. Works for me.

I think there will be a lot more of that trading skills and produce going on this year. And just plain sharing... The Master Gardener class keeps talking about a program called "Plant a Row" where folks plant a row in their garden and donate the produce to local food banks. I plan on doing that, and also sharing with friends and neighbors, as they have done with me in the past.

BTW, I beeped and waved as I drove by your place this morning, NMLM, about 10:45, on my way to Waite and Calais...

[Northern Maine Land Man]

So many "beep and wave".

So few stop. We have coffee y'know.

Of course this morning we wouldn't have heard the beep in all that wind. Not many cars went by today.

[tcrackly]

I buy locla eggs for neighbors anf nearby farms 9 months out of the year. I would buy what I need for milk locally too, if I could. We used to go to a self-serve dairy for raw milk in nearby NH years ago until they closed. I'm sure the market will still be there if the farmers can hang in there long enough to find other dairy processors.

[BrokenTap]

It kind of makes me mad as well. Last week the local creamery (non-organic and not Hood) called up because we were late getting our milking done which delayed the milk truck by a half hour. They needed the milk apparently as the woman was yelling about it. It kind of makes you mad as they are paying us all-time lows for milk...down from $22 cwt to $9 cwt (all non organic prices) and yet they need every drop of non-organic milk they can??? If you need the milk that bad..pay us.

As for the organic stuff...oh yeah...they tried to get us to convert many, many times so yes I know they pushed for hard to get dairy farmers to jump on the organic side of things and are now walking away from them. It will be tough for them tough to go back to non-organic milk prices. It's hard for us at these rates.

We'll lose the remaining 340 dairy farms in this state though first, then start buying milk from Chile and wonder why the price of milk shot up from $3.50 a gallon to $8.00 a gallon.

[Deborah Caldwell]

Natural and local are the really healthy ones. Northern Maine Land Man is correct. The cost of sending milk to New York is the cost of ruining the milk, but it is the demand of the Organic Overseers, the Federal Inspectors, the people who demand that the milk be boiled to death, ultra-pasteurized. homogonized, which actually changes the shape of the milk molecule. When I say boiled to death, I mean boiled to death. It is natural milk before it gets to the boiled homogonized stage. After that it is called organic. You cannot even make good cheese with ultra-pasteurized milk. Because of the Dairy Industry's ads which are put out by those people who do not farm, but act as middle men for the farmers and consumers, people just do not know the diffeence bwtween natural/local and organic. Those ads have been going on since I was in grammar school and saw the food pyramid charts fifty years ago. Fifty years of dumbing us down. If the farmers can hang in there until the public understands the difference in definition between natural and organic, the market will be saved. I use raw milk, which is a different product from boiled milk. Natural is better than Organic, and cheaper. Ultrapasteurization is a gimmic used to allow double-the-shelf life. Spoiled ultrapasteurized milk is enough to prompt throwing away the contaminated refrigerator. Rotten raw milk is still a food product. We do not need slick and incorrect pyramid charts any more. The web is free. We can tell everyone.

[frogcreekwoods]

While I don't know much about the milk business, I do know that I HATE anything ultrapasteurized. It tastes awful. I used to buy organic milk, and it tasted wonderful. We had to stop for financial reasons, but things are little better for us know, so I think I will go back to organic milk. I would like to support the industry.

That's it ~ I'm going back to organic milk today!

[Deborah Caldwell]

Hood doesn't sell plain old organic milk. they take organic (natural) milk to New York State and ultrapasteurize it. Hood has many many varieties of milk products, all ultrapasteurized.