Commodity Chain of Milk
Milk: Does the body good. That?s about as much as I knew. As a somewhat, well, I?ll admit it- ignorant consumer- I simply thought that milk in the super market came from, well? a big long row of cows somewhere. Oh, how I was wrong! When we were given an assignment to defetishize something, I realized my ignorance and decided to find out the truth about Dairyland Milk, my milk of choice. This paper is my journey from my small Kitsilano apartment building to the cow that potentially produced my milk in an effort to think of milk not only as an easily available healthy drink, but as an embedded set of geographical and social processes. Much to my astonishment, the production of milk involves much more than just the udder.
I drink milk at home mainly just in tea and cereal, to be honest, I?ve never really loved just having a glass of it- even with a cookie. I grocery shop about once a week and drive everything home in my little Toyota Corolla. I buy my milk at Safeway where it?s cooled in the refrigerators along with another hundred or so cartons. Safeway buys their milk from a truck driver whose name is Don. Don delivers the milk three or four times a week to that specific Safeway, he?s been doing it for four years. As the milk enters into the storage room at the back of Safeway, each crate is scanned. The scanning of the milk tells Safeway how much milk Don delivered and thus he gets paid accordingly. An important thing to note is that it is Don who is paid for the milk, not Dairyland.
Don is self employed and has one other person he takes with him to help him load and un-load. He, along with another 40 drivers are contracted by Dairlyland to take milk to the stores. It wasn?t always t...
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...at it was a healthy drink that came from an udder. That?s it, that simple. My attempt to locate a cow that could have produced my milk has made me realize that it is much more than a simple healthy beverage. In tracing milk I have left my apartment, visited the cooler in Safeway, found the driver that delivers it, located the plant which he bought it from, and seen the trucks leaving the plant where it is processed and pasteurized to go to the farms and get more from the udders. Essentially, I have found that the idea of my milk being a simple purchase is a fa�ade for a much more complicated web of processes which provide many jobs and involve many courses of action. Exactly how long does it take for the milk to get from the udder to my fridge? Three days. Exactly how many times had I wrongly assumed my milk was a simple product from an udder? Countless.
The timing of the Hatcher’s change in business model could not have come at better time. The local food movement in the Nashville area was gaining prominence and Nashville became one of the most desirable cities to live and work in. The Hatcher’s close proximity to Nashville allowed them to capitalize on these favorable market conditions and quickly establish a niche market. Currently, over 40 vendors sell or use Hatcher milk in their products. Vendors include convenient stores, restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores, other farm stores etc.
In the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan challenges his readers to examine their food and question themselves about the things they consume. Have we ever considered where our food comes from or stopped to think about the process that goes into the food that we purchase to eat every day? Do we know whether our meat and vegetables picked out were raised in our local farms or transported from another country? Michael pollen addresses the reality of what really goes beyond the food we intake and how our lives are affected. He does not just compel us to question the food we consume, but also the food our “food” consumes.
In the documentary, Food Inc., we get an inside look at the secrets and horrors of the food industry. The director, Robert Kenner, argues that most Americans have no idea where their food comes from or what happens to it before they put it in their bodies. To him, this is a major issue and a great danger to society as a whole. One of the conclusions of this documentary is that we should not blindly trust the food companies, and we should ultimately be more concerned with what we are eating and feeding to our children. Through his investigations, he hopes to lift the veil from the hidden world of food.
The essay establishes the existing United States regulations, which is a huge result of many medical incidents which the federal and state government analyzes for the safety of the people, whom have many concerns that are placed upon raw milk cheese. Bilger also reflects upon the growing market of raw milk products, as well as the potential re-appearance for upcoming dairy farms and artisanal cheese manufacturers, which will at least justify the government cost-charge and cost-benefit analysis examining the safety of all the raw milk
The idea of pasteurizing milk bagan in the 1920s, and later became an aspect of everyday life in the 1950s. Milk that has undergone this process is normally prefered since it is sterilized, therefore lowering the chance of human illness. However, it’s not the 1950s anymore, and the idea of pasteurizing milk has lost its luster for the people that now prefer raw milk. Unlike the milk that most Americans consume, raw milk has not been pasteurized, or quickly heated to a high temperature to kill harmful bacteria. In raw milk, these bacterias haven’t been removed, leaving people at risk. E. Coli, salmonella, and listeria are only some of the bacteria that raw milk carries, all of which can cause sickness, or even death. Common affects of consuming raw milk are diarrhea, stomach cramping, and vomiting, but it's the rare ones: kidney failure,paralysis, and death that causes raw milk to be illegal in half of the states and illegal to carry over state lines in its final form. Nevertheless, people still actively seek out and consume raw milk because they believe its nutritional values to be greater. Controversies surround this topic on whether organic food
Planck, Nina. "I Am Nursed on the Perfect Food." Real Food: What to Eat and Why. New York, NY: Bloomsbury, 2007. 39-44. Print.
When most people think of dairy animals they immediately think of a cow because that’s what they are taught growing up. More recently dairy goats operations have become more and more popular because of this dairy goat products will continue to be product in demand. In 2013 there were three hundred sixty thousand milking goats with Wisconsin being number one with forty six thousand milking goats . In the United States cow’s milk is most commonly consumed milk; but worldwide its goat’s milk that is most widely consumed. Milk overall is known as a natural source of nutrients, goats milk is a popular alternate to cow’s milk with it being easier to digest. Overall goats are much more efficient than dairy cattle. They produce more for their body size, the cost to raise them is much cheaper, and the components in goat’s milk are on a much higher scale than any dairy cattle.
... The routine conversation that is usually conducted when we gather together is concerning the inflated price of milk of which has transpired within the last ten years. With possessing a small child the need for the consumption of milk is not considered an optional luxury but a necessary commodity for small children and their overall development. With inflated prices on necessary commodities, such as milk, for many young families produces an enormous financial burden with monthly demands of milk. Dealing with this issue of inflation is an extremely difficult issue to bring a conclusive solution towards however, the article makes a good point in sharing that there is a vital need to reexamine the present system.
Patented in 1879, the Baldwin milking machine had potentially provided for a faster way of milking. It consisted of a large gutta-percha cup, fitting over the entire udder, and was connected to a hand pump (Vleck). Many were excited to discover that there was an actual milking machine invented. However, using the hand pump created only a small amount of vacuum causing a problem with extracting milk from the cow’s udder. Because it had various problems, the Baldwin milking machine became unsuccessful. Despite its imperfections, this innovation was the start of an evolution of milking machines.
As a result, the majority of dairy farmers have faced to numerous challenges and they decided to sell off the cows to avoid the loss and debt because the price for selling milk was below its cost of production. The appearance of $1 per litre milk in the competition of Coles and Woolworth also contributed to the changing in customer sociocultural behaviour that is one of the factors lead to the dairy crisis in Australia. It is clear that the fresh $1 per litre milk seems to be cheaper than a bottle of water, so it not only
What Makes Human Milk Special? (Mar-Apr 2006). New Beginnings Vol. 23 No.2 , pp 82-3.
Those who are able to do so are proud to tell you how they are glad to not have to use formula. Yet, if you asked her if she would drink it herself, she would probably “no way!” Yet, this article expresses a lesser known and curious prospective.; it opens the door for the question, of: “Is human breast milk as an acceptable food for adults?” It (what?) features a well known New York ...
Breast milk is made for the baby having just the right amount of protein, sugar, water, and fat that is needed for a baby’s growth and development. As breast milk is easier for newborn’s to digest than formal, it prevents intestinal upsets. Furthermore, breast milk includes substances such as immunoglobulin’s...
Since its inception in 2001, Fonterra Co-Operative Group Limited (Fonterra), the largest company in New Zealand, has grown to be the world’s 4th largest dairy company in 2013 (Robobank, 2013). Fonterra is the largest dairy exporter of the world and it controls a third of global dairy exports. Fonterra has huge pool of talents of 16,000 staff locally and internationally to make dairy available every day to millions of consumers ...
The packaged milk category was originated in 1981 by (quaintly named) Milk Pak, which pioneered tetra pack milk in Pakistan. The supply chain involved collecting milk from rural areas across Punjab, processing the milk through UHT (Ultra-High Temperature Processing) treatment, and selling it to consumers in uniquely colored triangular and rectangular packs designed to prolong the milk’s quality. Milk Pak’s “Milk Packs” were very well-received and the brand soon became synonymous with quality milk. Its first real competition came in the form of Haleeb, which introduced distinctively blue tetra packs to the market in 1986.