Editor’s note: This commentary is by Peter Burmeister, who with Katherine Fanelli owns and operates Burelli Farm, a certified organic regenerative livestock farm, in Berlin. They are also the owner/operators of a Vermont state inspected certified organic poultry processing plant. Burmeister has been an agricultural activist and was the general manager of the Vermont Milk Company in the mid-2000s.
[M]uch has been written and discussed in VTDigger, on VPR and in other publications and media outlets around the state about the ongoing problem of pollution from a relative handful of very large dairy farms, primarily in the Lake Champlain, Lake Carmi and Connecticut River watersheds, although none of our waterways and bodies of water is immune. Legislative action, or rather inaction, has been almost totally ineffective and it does not require much imagination to determine that many elected officials as well as the secretaries of several responsible agencies are loath to offend what has been characterized as a leading economic driver for the Vermont economy.
If there is really a statewide sentiment to clean up our severely polluted land, water and air, there is a remedy that is not even being discussed in official circles. We need a grass-roots, statewide movement to boycott conventional milk. That means no more purchasing dairy products at supermarkets, box stores like Walmart and Costco, and convenience stores. What is the alternative? Our hope is with operations like Larson’s Dairy, Sweet Rowan, Kimball Brook, Rogers Farmstead, Butterworks, and other farmer-owned processing enterprises like them. These bold entrepreneurs produce pasteurized organic milk that is minimally processed. It is the wholesome product that those of us of a certain age were raised on in our youth and which contribute to health and longevity (this writer, active farmer and educator is well past 70 years of age). Their agricultural practices are responsible, caring and regenerative. They make little or no contribution to pollution and they continue to strive to be every more conscious of the need to restore our agricultural heritage to health. These small dairies do not have shelf space in the large chain stores. To find their products consumers have to shop at independent groceries, co-ops, farmers markets, or directly at the farm. I implore caring readers of this commentary to take the time to do just that. No, it is not always convenient, but it is well worth the tiny bit of extra trouble.
The sad truth is that Vermont conventional dairy is an economic burden rather than an asset. In order for it to even barely survive requires government to provide subsidies in terms of guaranteed prices, while at the same time government regulations designed to ameliorate pollution are largely ignored both by the farmer-polluters and by the agencies that are empowered by legislation to prevent the abuses.
Almost no one in government wants to take on the conventional dairy industry, which is still falsely seen as an economic driver for the state. In the meantime, every minute of every day, more phosphate and other noxious chemicals find their way into Lakes Carmi and Champlain, the Connecticut River, and every stream, rivulet, lake and pond in Vermont. What kind of a business is it that relies on government subsidies and illegal immigrant labor just to retain a delicate existence from day to day? What other industry gets so many favors from government just so it can produce a commodity that nobody really wants or needs? How can a business be allowed to exist that is a more egregious polluter than many other highly regulated manufacturers?
There are good sound economic reasons for conventional dairy’s decline throughout New England. In the first place, it simply costs more to produce milk in our climate, with its short growing season and high cost of energy. Secondly, the market for conventional milk continues to grow smaller everywhere in America. While organic milk has seen an unprecedented growth in demand over the past decade, the insipid white liquid that we all used to purchase at the supermarket or box store finds less and less appeal to many shoppers.
The conventional (what a bizarre use of that adjective!) milk that we have grown accustomed to from the 1950s to the present bears almost no resemblance to the actual output of traditionally raised cows. First of all, the milk from various farms is picked up by large tank trucks, in which it is co-mingled. Once it arrives at the processing plant, all the cream is removed. Then a specific amount of cream is reintroduced to create 1 percent, 2 percent and so-called “whole milk,” which is anything but whole, instead using the arbitrary “standard” of 3.5 percent. The milk is pasteurized at high temperature (HTST pasteurization) or even worse, it is “ultra-pasteurized” (UHT pasteurization) at an even higher temperature, rendering it tasteless or even giving it a slightly burned flavor and destroying essential nutrients. To compensate, synthetic vitamins are added in. Then it is “homogenized” so that the cream, what there is of it, is dispersed throughout the product, instead of rising to the top as it would otherwise do naturally. Finally it is “bottled” in plastic or paperboard containers and shipped to the supermarkets, convenience stores or box stores like Walmart or Costco. Consider all of the above and you can only conclude that the product is totally synthetic, meaning a blend of various ingredients, as far from being a natural food as can possibly be conceived.
Conventional milk is boring, and it is nutritionally deficient. which is why each year fewer people are interested in using it.
Government has proved to be an ineffectual player in this situation. As a person who came of age in the 1960s, I saw how the anti-war and civil rights movements eventually forced the government to act and to curtail the worst abuses that were brought to light by millions of activists. A similar initiative in our state would entail demonstrations in front of supermarkets, a massive educational effort and a refusal to purchase the conventional dairy products of Hood, Booth Bros. (which is actually Hood with a local label), Garelick and the various house brands. So far not a single one of the NGOs devoted to agriculture in Vermont has taken up this call.
Who will lead this fight, and how many Vermonters will join it? Or shall we continue to leave it to the endless deliberations of spineless elected and appointed officials whose talk appears unlikely to bring about any significant change?