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Neither local nor organic is enough -- alone or in combination. Your cows can be as crowded in a nearby farm as they are in a faraway farm.

If crowding is your concern, what you want is humane food, not local or organic food. Unfortunately, there's no certification program (that I know of) for such a thing.

One of the best things you can do is check out the company and how they, specifically, raise their animals. Or look for someone local who you can personally talk to and find out how they raise their animals. Making informed choices is the most important.

Truthfully, you should get milk that's as close to raw as possible, IMO. If you're in a state that allows purchase of raw milk - find someone who will sell it to you (the Amish and/or Mennonites are good sources)! If not, look for milk that's pasteurized at the lowest temp allowable by law and that is NOT HOMOGENIZED! Homogenization makes it much more difficult - if not impossible - for our bodies to properly process the fats naturally found in milk, which can lead to clogged arteries.

I finished the book weeks ago, but have not been spending as much time online due to the busy holiday season. I was really inspired by this book. I don't drink a lot of milk, but since reading these chapters, I bought some butter from a local farm with pasture/grass-fed cows. I was surprised at what a great deal it was price-wise. Not only was it local AND organic, but it didn't cost more than the organic butter that I usually buy. And it tastes GREAT. (Not to mention that I feel better about buying it).

I wrote a big ole response last week and was dissapointed to see I was the only one that responded to Chapters 5 & 6. Personally, I couldn't resist and finished up the book already. All in all, it was fantastic, and since I plan on starting my own foodie garden in 2009 when I buy a house in Portland, it was full of helpful tidbits that I will refer back to.

Victoria E - I read your response last week and didn't have anything to add because you nailed it :)

I, too, finished the book a little while ago.

This milk discussion reminds me of those commercials I used to hear all the time in the Bay Area:

"Farms?! In Berkeley?!"

First -- Carrier check out certifiedhumane.org. I know that several of the meats and eggs I buy are certified humane. I have not however seen it on the dairy at my store, but it looks like that is an option on their website.

Knowing our supplier personally really is the best way to know our dairy or meat is humanely raised, but I wonder if that is possible on such a large scale? Maybe it would be if we all cut back on our consumption of animal products and ate a little vegetable protein. For example we buy a 1/4 cow from family friends each year (I've seen their grassy mountain pasture) and so, I try to not eat beef when I go out.

As for the bigger companies, I don't know if they've just got a bad rap or if they are really bad, but Horizon (and Aurora Dairies), which supply most major supermarkets with organic milk are supposed to be pretty bad. On the other hand in Colorado one of the dairies that supplies Organic Valley has a cow leasing option for those who live near by and want to have raw milk. If you lease a cow, you can visit it, and know for certain that it is being treated well. I wonder if other dairies have similar programs?

As for the book, I too would like to keep it as sort of a reference for how to improve my own living style over time, so hopefully I can find a used copy, as I borrowed by Aunt's and she wants it back.

I have not yet finished the book...

There's always veganism...it's not nearly as hard as you think it will be.

I wonder how earth-friendly that big open cooler at the grocery store can be.

thank you, waterreflecting, for listing the certifiedhumane.com Web site.

I've been buying local milk for a while now - I haven't been able to visit the maker yet, but am hoping to do so next time I'm in the area. I'd be very interested to see what their operation is like.

Do you have a reference for your homogenization comment, Leonad?

mmadden - thanks for your comment about my response last week :) Tis nice to know that someone read it (wink).

Here in San Francisco, my boyfriend and I buy from Straus Creamery and couldn't be happier with our choice. http://www.strausfamilycreamery.com/ We'll be moving to Portland in June and it looks like we will be able to get it there as well - woohoo!

When it comes down to it, no one but babies really NEED to drink milk, but I haven't been able to find a truly tasty replacement yet (since I'm a big fan of cereal).

I'm relatively new to the whole organic/local movement, but I am really enjoying the book. It is so informative and inspiring. It all sounds great but what about those of us who may not have easy access to local dairies? What if time/cost, etc keeps us from making an extra stop at yet another store to find the most "local" organic milk. I read an article (can't remember if it was posted here) on how eating local may not always be the most "green" thing if we have to make an extra trip to buy 1 thing, which would be my situation when trying to find organic and local milk. I'm just trying to rationalize this in my head and decide where to draw the line. I see the obvious health benefits of drinking organic milk and plan to continue to do so, and would love to find organic and local, but if it's not easy, is it really worth it? I think I may have to stick with my large organics milk corporation...

Victoria, just try different soy/rice/almond milks until you find one you like. Plus, after a little while, you'll get used to it. I find soymilk to be a little sweeter, therefore going well with sugary cereals like apple jacks!

I am reading along with the book club, at chapter 10. I would like to finish the book this weekend, but life gets in the way.

Like Stephanie, I feel a wee bit guilty about buying "organic lite" dairy products. The milk carton even brags about the organic grain that they feed the cows. Do they think that people won't notice that cows evolved to eat grass and not grain?

The grain gives the cows uncomfortable gas and makes them vulnerable to infection, hence the antibiotics in the feed. Kingsolver does a good job, sounding the alarm about the role of industrial farming in breeding and spreading MRSA.

I had a food awakening moment at a work-related meeting last week. The entire blog post is here:
http://badmomgoodmom.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-we-eat.html

I serendipitously walked by poster H41C-0661 at American Geophysical Union (AGU): Tetracycline Resistance in the Subsurface of a Poultry Farm: Influence of Poultry Wastes

* You, Y (you.yaqi@jhu.edu), Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, Johns Hopkins University and a whole bunch of other people, including her PhD advisor.

Ya Qi helpfully told me that tetracycline is fed to chickens to help shorten the time to market (40 days from hatchling to roast chicken!). It is fed to pretty much all 'conventionally raised' animals. tetracyline is so prevalent in our food system that the TcR gene has been found in organic beef (and even flies). The presence of the TcR gene in an animal doesn't mean it has been fed tetracycline. It only means that tetracycline resistance is now a common characteristic in our environment, due to heavy and indiscriminate use in the past and present.

How did dumping drugs and other chemicals into our food chain become 'conventional' farming and not doing so become 'alternative' farming?