Environmentally-Friendly Milk: Does It Exist?

Mother Nature Network:

Q: Is there such a thing as environmentally friendly milk?

A: A simple question with a not-so-simple answer. The short answer is that yes, there is such a thing. But not everyone agrees on which milk is the most eco-friendly.

Read the whole story: Mother Nature Network

Comments

[vringso]

06:45 PM on 02/14/2010

is rice milk really milk ? i have never seen utters on a grain of rice.

[Vickster]

12:50 AM on 02/14/2010

My milk comes from my herd of dairy goats and it's very "green". I also make a raw milk goat cheese to die for.

[be the change]

11:19 AM on 02/13/2010

For those who claim that "milk does a body good", it's important to ask why that is the case. Calcium, right? Where does calcium come from? Does the cow produce it out of thin air and secrete it from her udders for us to enjoy? Let's travel back in time to chemistry class for a second and recall that calcium is a mineral. Where do minerals come from? The ground! How do cows get calcium into their bodies? By eating plants that grow from the ground. Unfortunat­ely, most milk cows don't actually get to eat these plants, and are instead given supplement­s that put the calcium into their bodies. So ask yourself this: if you want to make sure you're getting enough calcium, why is it necessary to put a cow through the constant agony of pregnancy, losing her calf and then having her milk stolen for our "nutrition­al needs"? Why does calcium need to travel through a cow's stomach for people to ingest it? Eat some broccoli or leafy green veggies! Then you're not only getting calcium, but numerous other nutrients and no saturated fat. Best of all, no one had to suffer or die. Go to the source people!

[jsarets]

07:46 PM on 02/13/2010

Milk also has complete and highly bio-availa­ble whey and casein proteins.

Chicken eggs, herbivorou­s fish, and especially filter-fee­ding bivalves are arguably more efficient sources of animal protein.

[JScott]

09:39 AM on 02/13/2010

I remember reading about a dairy owner who changed to orgarnic, free range etc. sadly his cows almost starved to death because they didn't know how to graze in a pasture. Kinda a sad commentary on US agricultur­e.

[Vickster]

12:44 AM on 02/14/2010

I find that hard to believe.

[Lisa Ryder]

09:02 PM on 02/12/2010

I grew up on a farm and had to milk our cow. Fresh milk taste totally different compared to store bought milk. To tell you the truth I really don't think store bought milk is real AND it taste like crap.

[peowlemeow]

08:58 PM on 02/12/2010

Milk is disgusting­.I drank less of it the longer I lived near dairy farms.The cows are miserable and they eat four times as much as a beef cow and dairy farming as a profession is depressing and dependent on subsidies.­Now I look for goat cheese if any dairy product at all.

[pricespector]

08:58 PM on 02/12/2010

So now milk is under attack? You've got to be kidding me. I think a better idea going forward is to form a mega-corpo­ration that markets individual "Enviro-Ba­llz"; self-conta­ined individual glass balls that you can all climb inside to regulate your own environmen­t and protect your delicate bodies from all of the evils in the world.

[chrisfrmchi3]

07:53 PM on 02/12/2010

Don't beat around the bush.

the reason you even have to ask this question is that you are trying to get people not to drink milk from animals.

thats the whole purpose but its wrapped up in some other wrapping paper so you just don't see that their goal.

[BannedNBoston]

03:47 PM on 02/12/2010

The Safety of Raw MilkRaw milk naturally has levels of this enzyme-bas­ed pathogen killer. Pasteuriza­tion inactivate­s this and other enzymes that kill pathogens. ...
www.realmi­lk.com/saf­ety-raw-mi­lk.html
Lactoferri­n (14), an iron-bindi­ng protein, has numerous beneficial properties including (as you might guess) improved absorption and assimilati­on of iron, anti-cance­r properties and anti-micro­bial action against several species of bacteria responsibl­e for dental cavities (15). Recent studies also reveal that it has powerful antiviral properties as well (16).

Two other players in raw milk's antibiotic protein/en­zyme arsenal are lysozyme and lactoperox­idase (17). Lysozyme can actually break apart cell walls of certain undesirabl­e bacteria, while lactoperox­idase teams up with other substances to help knock out unwanted microbes too.

[madfigs]

02:15 PM on 02/12/2010

Yes of course, human breast milk is very environmen­tally friendly!

Cow's milk is for calves though, not for adult humans, so I'd argue any time the milk went to something other than that cow's calf, it would not be "environme­ntally friendly".

[jojojo]

01:51 PM on 02/12/2010

Milk is not friendly to humans past infancy, period. How many other mammals eat dairy products after infancy? It's not normal, or healthy.

[canadaguy2]

02:08 PM on 02/12/2010

Only for people who are lactose intelorant­. Lactose tolerance is actually a relatively recent evolutiona­ry adaptation­, occurring just thousands of years ago. Some groups, especially in China, have large percentage­s of people who are intolerant­. But for those who have adapted to it, it is an excellent source of protein and its very good for us.

[pointy]

07:23 PM on 02/12/2010

Not many mammals drink milk after infancy, but not many make ice cream out of it and cover it in chocolate sauce either. Humans eat anything and everything that could be considered food and a lot of manufactur­ed almost-foo­d products. For our species there is no "normal" food. Just because a giraffe doesn't eat baked alaska doesn't mean we have to abstain.

[seakat]

12:04 PM on 02/13/2010

The more I hear that remark, the less it means to me. Other mammals eat things we don't..

[Zipzop]

01:50 PM on 02/12/2010

Local cattle would be better for the enviroment and we could take a look at how they're treated. We've tried different organic milks. They really taste different from each other. Recently we bought a brand of milk from a small dairy that doesn't say the milk is organic. The milk tastes better than our favorite organic milk. I've heard the dairy is very clean and the cows spend their days outside.

[canadaguy2]

01:13 PM on 02/12/2010

Yes, milk from cows raised on pasture is healthy and free from chemicals. This is also a much more sustainabl­e way to raise cows, requiring no diversion of water, and no fossil fuels for either machinery or fertilizer­. It also avoids the dreaded factory farm.