Glass Option: Before reading the Slate article I assumed glass was best, we brought home a gallon Twin Brooks Creamery milk in 2 glass bottles from the Food Coop on Capitol Hill (In my mind this will always be Madison Market). You return the bottles for reuse each time you need more. That seemed simple, but kind of expensive although I'm realizing I previously had little idea of what we were paying. Twin Brooks milk was $7.78 for the gallon of milk (2 half gallons), and $3.90 for the 1X bottle deposit for both bottles. Twin Brooks Farms is 102 miles from Seattle. Note, the bottles have think plastic tops.
Cardboard: Then there is milk from Smith Brothers Farms. Smith Brothers Farms is somewhere near Renton, which is less than 15 miles away -- but later I realized their organic milk is from Oregon. One of the articles main concerns about the cardboard cartons was that sometimes they are not recyclable which was a surprise to me. Smith Brothers Farms customer service responded with this information:
"Our cartons are lined with low density polyethylene (same as they mention in the article) and they are made from wood fiber that is sustainably sourced (certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative). The cartons are both recyclable and compostable – you can find recycling facilities here, but I also checked the City of Seattle’s website for recycling and verified that you can recycle milk cartons there.
Our organic milk is processed and packaged by Sunshine Dairy in Portland, since we are not certified organic at our plant in Kent. They process their milk using the same low temperature method that we use, and all milk is sourced from local, organic Oregon dairy farms. Our milk at Smith Brothers is sourced through farms that are members of the Northwest Dairy Association, which is a co-op of farms in the Pacific Northwest. Much of the milk we use now comes from farms in Grant County where we sold our dairy cows back in 2006 after federal and state regulation made it too expensive for our company to both own production animals and own processing facilities. In total, I believe we typically source from 2-4 farms at a time – the specific farms can vary, though, depending on the quality of milk that we receive.
There are a few main differences between our organic milk and conventional milk, aside from the certification. One is that the organically raised cows are given access to pastures for grazing for about six months out of the year (grazing season is roughly from April – October in Oregon where the cows are); conventional regulations do not require the cows to be given pasture time. Another key difference is that organic dairy cows are given certified organic feed, which is guaranteed to be herbicide and pesticide-free, whereas that is also not regulated with the feed given to conventionally raised cows. A last difference is that if an organic cow needs to be given antibiotics it is taken out of dairy production completely; if a conventional cow is given antibiotics it is removed from dairy production until there are no more antibiotics in its system, and then it is allowed to go back into the dairy stream."
We are either going to get the Sunshine Dairy milk (from Portland) delivered to us or I'll find it in a grocery store that carries it. Or, I'll look for any non-plastic fully recycle-able option. It looks like Organic Valley comes from either California or Idaho as the closest farmers and they also have plastic spouts.
Meanwhile, I noticed Spud (Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery), a home delivery service that delivers a lot more than produce. This interests me . . .
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