Organic Milk For Significant Health Benefits
Why make the move to organic milk? Practical Environmentalist provides a short overview of the reasons why organic milk is better for you than conventional milk.
For those new to organic living and eating organic food it’s fine to start slowly. You many not be ready to go completely organic but consider at least changing your milk. The benefits of choosing organic milk are significant.
No bovine growth hormone is present in the milk. This is particularly relevant if you have children. Do you really want to feed them small amounts of growth hormone on a daily basis. It’s also better for the cow. Non-organic cows are fed artificial hormones constantly to keep the milk supply on track.
Organic cows are only given antibiotics if they get ill, unlike non-organic cows that may be given antibiotics for commercial rather than health reasons. Even then it may take up to a year before a treated organic cow is allowed to rejoin the herd in organic milk production.
Organic cows are only allowed grass and grain foodstuffs, the food they were meant to eat. They must not be fed animal by-products.
As part of the organic certification, organic cows must be allowed to roam freely in pasture, unlike some of their less fortunate cousins who live on conventional farms.
Because organic dairy farming relies on natural foods and farming methods, less energy is consumed and less waste produced.
Although not mentioned by Practical Environmentalist, another point to consider is that organic milk has a greater nutritional content than non-organic. It possesses significantly higher levels of Omega 3 and vitamin D than non-organic milk, as well as other key beneficial compounds. More information on the health benefits of drinking organic milk can be found at OMSCO.
Filed under: Organic Farming
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I always wonder- why go to the trouble of producing organic milk, only to then Ultra-Pasteurize it and kill everything good in it? As a consumer I cannot afford to spend that kind of money for dead milk. It’s a lose-lose situation at most grocery stores! When I can afford it I buy non-organic low-temp pasteurized milk from a local farmer who is organic, but cannot afford the certification…
Also, to be certified organic the cows just need to have access to pasture- not all organic cows are truly pastured animals.