Know Your Farmer, Know Your Cow

Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food.

Sounds good, doesn't it?
But for a long, long time now, we've become so used to eating what was put in front of us - whether it's on our plates, something we grabbed from a drive-thru, or on the shelves at the grocery store.
If it's set in front of us, or marketed to us in an appealing way, we just go ahead and eat it.

But how many of us really stop to think about where our food actually comes from?
Or if we do think about it, how many of you continue down the same old road and fail to make the change?

I've been trying for quite a while now, and years ago, I started by buying milk straight from the farm where I know the cows personally. ( it's raw, unpasteurized & non-homogenized) I like my cows to have a name, ya know? Not a number.

Flossie, (pictured up above) is simply known as Flossie.

Not VC296178564738

Okay, well I don't actually know that cow, I'm just using literary licence here.

And my cows don't wear lipstick.

As far as I know anyway.

But when actual farm-fresh milk isn't available, I buy Organic milk from the grocery store. (Or rather, my hunky, spunky home-delivery 'Dairyman" Mark)

Did you know that here in Australia, it's a common, accepted, and a fully legal practice to water down the milk? They then use part of it for skim or low fat, and then add additives (called permeates) to thicken and re-whiten the watered down milk, so that it looks like thick creamy regular milk again.

Basically, they take a gallon of whole milk, water it down to make almost 2 gallons of milk - that now looks like skim milk - and then they portion it out as various *types* of milk.

Have you ever poured a glass of skim milk and really looked at it?
It's thin-looking and almost bluish... right?
That's because the butterfat content has been removed.

But now think of the supposedly "whole" milk that you buy. (here in Australia anyway)
In actual fact, it looks almost exactly the same as the skim milk does - or rather it did, before the additives and re-whiteners were added to it.
They dressed it up for ya.

They adulterated it for ya.
They lied to you and they deceived you.
And you bought it didn't you?
You not only bought the milk, but you bought the lie that they sold to you.

Milk prices have gone up, right?
But you probably weren't aware that even though prices have risen, the actual 'milk' content in your carton or bottle, has diminished.

Astoundingly so.

What they're selling to you now, is in fact milk diluted with water.
Plus unknown, not required to be divulged to the public, added crap called permeates.
So prices have gone up, and a big portion of the selling price is what they've charged for milk... but they've actually just sold you probably half water.

And it's legally allowable.

Now butter my butt, and call me a biscuit, but if I wanted water, I would buy it myself and pay water prices.

Or I would turn on the faucet and top my bottle of milk up
I wouldn't buy a carton of milk in the grocery store, and pay their vastly inflated prices for for what is virtually 25-50% water...

I want my milk out of a teat... not out of a tap.

They sell us a water-saturated, water diluted product... and they called it "milk" - and they screw us all in the process.

Or at best... lie to us.

Now... when I started this post, I had every intention of sharing a video from over at Robynn's place... 30 Day Throw Down.

and it's called "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food".

But no matter what I did, what position I held my tongue in, or how many swear words I used, I couldn't get the dad-gummed thing to load ... for life or money.

But it's worth watching.

It's what got me obsessing about the milk stuff above.

So please head on over to 30 Day Throw Down and check out Breaking News From The USDA.

Because I've failed you in the video loading department and I'm ashamed of myself.

Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food... (or Your Cow)

I know, I know...

A government that seems to be thinking the right things, thinking in a healthier, more sustainable way and doing what's best for it's citizens... or at least encouraging us to do the right things...

Well, I found it a bit mind boggling too.

But fingers crossed that they're finally beginning to wake up.