Hopefully this move will help smaller organic dairy farmers compete with the big guys (Dean Foods – Horizon Organic Milk and Aurora — private label organic milk for Target, WalMart, etc.).  Those two producers, who sell 70% of organic milk in our country, were following the letter of the law to be labeled organic, but were pretty far from the spirit of the law.  Now cows will be required to be pastured for at least 120 days of the year, with 30% of their feed coming from grass.

This is great for a number of reasons, one of them being that cows who eat primarily grass produce milk that has a much better ratio of essential fatty acids — more 3’s, fewer 6’s.  Not to mention that an animal who is allowed to act the way it evolved to act will likely be less stressed and [theoretically] get ill less often.  Any dairy farmers out there that want to weigh in on that?

Here’s the whole article in today’s TC Mix.  I buy milk from 100% grass-fed cows, it comes from a farm in New Prague called Cedar Summit Farm.  It’s also non-homogenized so you have to give it a good shake to incorporate the cream.  It reminds me of drinking milk right from the milk parlor on my grandpa’s farm as a kid.  After years of drinking pasteurized homogenized skim milk, it was a little challenging for me at first.  But I’ve gotten used to it pretty quickly and our kids don’t know the difference.

I’m starting to realize that skim milk isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  A little fat can be a good thing.  Moderation is the key, as in everything.