Cocaine

[Cartierusm]

Ok, I'm going to get into cocaine, it's cheaper! Can you feel the sarcasm? Jeez, I called Claravale one of the 2 companies that sell raw milk at whole foods seeing if I can get it wholesale. I can in 2 different ways. I can pick it up fresh at the dairy and they'll fill my container, but I'll spend 5 hours total on the road and about $50 in gas and when I get there 5 gallons of raw milk will be $50. They gave me a name of a distributor in my area milk delivered to my door would be $70!

What is this illegal drugs, come on, nothing has to be done to it, it comes out of the cow and into bottles. Store bought milk has to be pasteurized and homogenized and all that equipment is not cheap but that milk is not expensive.

[Tea]

Well I probably don't need to tell you this as you already know, and you are just blowing off some steam, but on the farmers side it is not just getting milk from the cow either.  There is the cost of equipment, maintenance, vets, sterilising everything, licences, feeds, medications, and the farmers time also, and that's just to name a few of their over heads.
Just remember that when the cheaper brands list their ingredients they are not obligated to list "water", nor inform you of how many dairy's they have sent broke, because they refuse to pay them enough for their milk to cover the farmers over heads.
In our region alone we have gone from having around 150 dairy's to just 3 remaining.  So if they are able to recoop a little of their costs , more power to them.

[Cartierusm]

True. Although Strauss Creamery a local family owned dairy, which Pasteurizes their milk but not Homogenized is half as cheap, literally.

[Cheese Head]

OK I couldn't find a fun picture of milk + cocaine but I did for cheese + cocaine, picture below is big US based Chuck E. Cheese children's restaurant chain's mascot in San Francisco near Carter's house!

[wharris]

Raw milk is really tough to get in California thanks to "AB1735".  That may account for the cost.

"In October 2007 AB1735 was signed into law. Among other requirements, the bill mandated that milk produced by the state’s licensed raw milk dairies (Organic Pastures and Claravale) have a coliform count of 10 or less at the final container when tested. If a dairy’s milk fails three out of five consecutive tests, the dairy’s sales of raw milk are suspended. "

"It basically prohibits raw milk in California," said Mark McAfee, managing partner of Organic Pastures Dairy in Fresno, which produces most of the raw milk sold in California. He sees the standard as a stealth attempt to ban raw milk.

[Likesspace]

Well, Carter it does sound expensive, but I'm pretty sure that I would turn to selling drugs to support my cheese making habit. You just have to ask youself "What's truly important in life?" 

Disclaimer: I have three young daughters and although I've lived a pretty rough (VERY ROUGH) life in my past, I do not condone recreational drug use at all in my current life.
Even though the above is true, at times I really miss the fun I had in the 70's. :-)

Dave

[Cartierusm]

I could sneak onto a field and do a little midnight milking...LOL

Hey if drugs don't affect your life or those around you and you're not hurting anyone, have fun, but that is rarely the case for hard drugs...that's why weed is legal here. I don't mind but I'm still shocked that by law in Humbolt county you can have 19 marijuana plants per person in a household for personal use. I'm amazed that law passed and even more shocked that a year or so after that law passed they changed it from 12 plants to 19 plants. We even had a college in Oakland that advertises on the radio on how to grow weed, sell it, setup shop and pay the proper taxes.

[wharris]

Weed is legal, and milk against the law.....

Jeez.

[Tea]

Goes to show you who is doing more lobbying and making more noise. 

[Cartierusm]

Yeah, Wayne...or at least he was before he became an internet mute...LOL

[Likesspace]

Doesn't make much since, does it Wayne?
And Tea, you are 100% correct. It's all about the power of the lobby in today's world.
Sad, but true.

Dave

[wharris]

It is a commentary on the world at large.

[Frumunda]

The law has very little to do with what's right and wrong,and everything to do with who has the most money and what they want done.It's all about the 'Golden Rule',whoever has the gold,makes the rules!

[MrsKK]

The milk you buy in the stores is cheap because the government subsidizes it, therefore you are paying for store bought milk through your tax dollars.

When you are dealing with a raw milk dairy, you are paying the cost directly to the farmer, rather than paying it to the government, who pays the farmer.

Either way, you're paying for the milk.  At least when you pay the farmer directly, you have some choice in who gets the money.

[CBBaron]

It sounds to that the raw milk is over priced but there are very good reasons for some price difference.
True drinking milk goes through processes on expensive before being delivered to the store. However this happens on a scale such that the cost per gallon for processing is just pennies. And those processes allow for some slop in the production therefore the producers and processors can operate with a less monitoring and control than a raw producer that has to ensure no additional bacteria can end up in the milk. That is in addition to the extra cost of producing organically or "grass fed".

And ofcourse the reason they sell milk for what seems an outrageous price is because they can. Because there is little competition and some people are willing to pay the premium then the farm can charge that premium. That hopefully should encourage competition in the market.

Craig