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Milk, How Much Do We Need?© Bob Ewing
Jan 10, 2001
How much is enough? Or if we put that question another way, how much of something do we really need? Take milk for example, you can't rely on Milk Marketing Boards and the dairy industry to inform you what your actual, if any, requirements are for their product. The reason I raise these question is because I believe it is necessary to know what a society's real needs are for a product before we produce that product in mass quantities and then develop a marketing campaign to convince people to buy it. If nothing else, this manufacture the need as well as the product process, will create waste.
I grew up drinking large amounts of milk. Today, I have begun to have serious doubts about my need for so much milk. I realize that a child's needs and an adults needs differ and that this will apply across other age groups as well. More to the point, it is not so much cow's milk that I am concerned about, but the process used by huge agri-businesses which produce the milk. As with other agricultural practices, I sense that the our dairy needs are better met through small, community-based farms. Another alternative is to consider the the city farm. Once we accurately define our need for milk we can coupled that information with how much milk a dairy cow produces and then determine a cows per people ration. This way there could be a cow or two per city block, for example. I'm just beginning my thinking on this idea of incorporating larger livestock into the urban farm and am open to your suggestion, comments and concerns. I feel that as a society we need to generate a major public discussion on urban farming and urban livestock management, in particular. Urban farming can go along way to solving urban hunger problems and needs to be critically addressed.
It is i portant to realize that there are alternatives to cow's milk and that people who are lactose-intolerant or people who just do not want to consume dairy products have choices. A livestock alternative is goats. Goats provide milk and chees and can trim your lawn for you. If you do not want to consume animal products soymilk is another option. I find soymilk to be great on both hot and cold cereals and for making milk shakes as well.
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