Your Green Review

*Information pertaining to Snowville Creamery’s production methods was obtained through interviews with the Snowville Creamery staff, Snowville’s website, packaging materials and additional sources sited within this article*

The Rundown:

What: Snowville Creamery whole, non homogenized milk

Price: Found for $2.99 a half gallon at Kroger

Materials: Non homogenized whole milk from Ohio cows

What Makes it Green: Contains no synthetic growth hormones. On farm processing minimizes energy and resource consumption. Packages in plastic coated paperboard instead of petroleum based plastics (a non-renewable resource). Cows live and graze on pastures not treated with pesticides. Fluids from the processing plant are recycled back onto the pastures after neutralization.

URL: http://www.snowvillecreamery.com

Pros:

• Tastes Great. Sweet, creamy and rich.
• Free of rbST. Recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST) is a synthetic growth hormone used to increase milk output. Evidence of adverse health effects in bovines has been published and is suspected, though unsubstantiated, in humans.
• Non-Homogenized
• Mostly Pasture Grazed Cows. Most of Snowville’s milk comes from cows living and grazing outside. The cows only enter the barn for milking. While the cows are predominantly grass fed, they have access to grain feed during the milking process.
• Pesticide Free Pastures. Pastures are not treated with pesticides.
• Same Day Dairy Philosophy. All milk is processed and packaged within 24 hours of milking.
• Sustainable Management. After testing and neutralizing ph levels, fluids are recycled from the processing plant to the pastures. Snowville stays away from chlorine-based sanitizers but due to regulations must use bleach to clean its dippers.
• Animal Health. Snowville’s cows generally live between 8-12 years before retiring. According to the Animal Protection Institute only 25% of dairy cattle live past 7 years.
  
• Low Heat Pasteurization. Sonwville pasteurizes it milk at 165 degrees for 17 seconds (the lowest heat treatment allowed by law) which eliminates pathogenic micro-organisms without destroying nutrient content.

Cons:

• Antibiotics. In order to maintain the health of their cows, Snowville holds that antibiotics are at times necessary. Snowville discards milk from cows treated with antibiotics to prevent contamination.
• Shorter Shelf-Life. Because the milk is not super pasteurized at 280 degrees, its shelf life is around 15 days as opposed the the 55-day shelf life of conventionally produced milk.
• Container Leaks. Not a lot but when you go to shake the jug, be sure to hold the lid tight or you’ll lose a little through the spout.

Organic Milk and Alternatives:

The Organic milk industry is booming. This means more access for consumers but also more potential for misrepresentation. Before buying that milk just because it’s got a Certified Organic seal, read up on some of the criteria for certification and recent news concerning Greenwashing. Certifications are useful but they’ve got limitations. There is some room for ‘interpretation’ within the regulations and certification is some times prohibitively expensive, especially to small farmers who may already be meeting or surpassing minimum quality standards. Some farms may offer tours of their facilities-contact your local dairy farmer and see if its production methods are up to par with personal standards.

Additional Resources:

Milk Pro/Con-Professional arguments for and against all things milk (Website)

http://www.milkprocon.org

Wikipedia-rbST Information (Wiki)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_somatotropin

DairyField.com-Warren Taylor on Organic Milk (Article)

http://www.dairyfield.com/content.php?p=12&s=DF/2006/10