Oh, that’s illegal? Darn.

I grew up near a local dairy producer, cows in the field and an onsite processing plant. We’d stop in and get very fresh milk in glass bottles, or pick it up in glass from the corner store.

As I prepared to move our oldest to whole milk and hang up my own milking horns, we experimented with some formula to verify tolerance (we were still in the middle of a cranky hurricane season) and started up with the whole milk when we were ready. It was a rather smooth transition to the brand I’d come to prefer in Florida, but the more I read, the more I was inclined to move our milk over to organic sources, like so many others are.

The first few gallons we tried seemed to coincide with the runs for us. Switched back to standard milk. Tried organic again. Same problem. So we stuck to standard store milk and went on our merry way. Spent more time out and about, picked up “box style” single serving boxes of milk, and had the runs again. Gah.

While it took a while, we determined it wasn’t the brand or type of milk, but more a problem with our compatibility in drinking milk processed in a different way – ultrapasteurization. While some comparison has been done to see what, if anything, is changed nutrition-wise in milk that is ultrapasteurized, all reports I’ve found claim the change is zero to negligible. I think I disagree; but it may be I’ve got the concept of “altered nutritional profile” wrong. But if it goes through me or my children and causes the kind of gastro problems it does, I don’t see how the nutrition available has not been modified. To me, that is a definition of “altered nutritional profile” if it is modified in such a way that it can no longer be processed in our systems as it is for most other people.

The upshot is, we’re weird. And UHT pasteurization and ultrapasteurization and us-all just aren’t compatible. Which stinks, because I would rather support sustainable food creation and economies. So when I can, I stop a the ultra-crunchy store and get milk that is both organic and pasteurized the “old” way, at the same temperatures the rest of the standard corner grocery milk that is available. The rest of the time we muddle through with regular store milk. Through the years we’ve tried soy and rice milks, but they fell flat on taste and flavor (and we had the same gut problems).

I went on and on about the whole milk situation in a friend’s journal the other day, and putting it back in the forefront of my mind tuned my senses a bit more sharply. At my next grocery run, I looked at the store-brand organic milk. And the label said pasteurized. Not UHT pasteurized, or ultrapasteurized, but plain old run of the mill pasteurized. I bought that little bottle and headed home.

To be on the safe side, I decided to contact the folks that legislate this sort of thing in my state. I could have kept it simple, asking if milk that is sold as “pasteurized” must be that, or if ultrapasteurized or UHT pasteurized milk can be marked and sold simply as “pasteurized”. I did not, instead pouring a brief life story into the inquiry. The answers I received were surprising.

First off, my basic worry was unfounded. Milk that is pasteurized can only be sold that way. Any other sort of pasteurization must be indicated on the container label, and other standards with regards to packaging and dating must be met (in addition to transportation, milking, processing, and other guidelines) for all dairy products. So yes, the store-brand “regular pasteurized” milk is exactly what I’m getting. Phew.

But the surprising thing is – this milk is not produced in-state. Nor is the earthy crunchy grass-fed super-floofy organic milk I buy at the crunchy-earthy store. There aren’t any certified organic herds available, according to the state, because the feed isn’t grown or available here. It’s all from out of state. Period. I guess I would have known that if I’d read more carefully at the grass-fed-super-floofy-organic-milk site, but I just put it out of my head after the relief of having found a milk overwhelmed me.

So now we’re at that point. Which is more sustainable? More-local regular milk? Less-local organic milk that’s not owned or run by mega-farm conglomerates? Which should get my dollars since I can afford a bit to drink and server organic?

Do I just buy whatever works? Spend a little more and support the store brand and their efforts to green up and hope they don’t become a front for more mega-conglomerates? Not that all mega-conglomerates are evil, but it’s not quite yet easy to be all wonderfulness and sustainable at that size and level – or perhaps there’s not a point to be greeny sunshiney if there is no demand to find a practical way to do it. Spend even more, and go further out of my way to get the crunchy-grassy milk? At what point do my carbon expenditures for that outweigh going for locally produced milk? At what point of buying organic milk does a ledger sheet balance more towards placing a local organic farm?

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