It's all about the jugs...

Welcome to Raw Milk Mama, a newsletter about food freedom, our food systems, and how to create local food security in our communities. Sign up here for weekly posts, or keep reading...

---

Photo by Mihail Macri

Imagine this…

One of your children wakes up. As they get dressed and meander to the kitchen for breakfast, bleary eyed, you are scrolling through your phone, catching the news for the day.

Another child joins the first one.

They get the milk out of the fridge, pull the cereal from the cabinet, shake some into their bowls, and pour milk on top.

You look up and notice the gallon of milk has less than a cup left.

You make a mental note: pick up more milk at the store today.

As the day goes on, you remind yourself a few times. You pull out a scrap paper and jot down a few more things you’ll need to grab, too.

• More cereal

• Bagels

• Cream cheese spread

• Apples

Breakfast is the hardest meal of the day as you’re all rushing to get out the door.

When you get to the store after work, it is crowded. It seems like everyone in town is here right now.

You rush to the back, pull a gallon of milk out of the fridge, quickly grab the other items on your list and head to the line.

You get home just in time to make dinner and then collapse from exhaustion.

It’s a cycle so many of us repeat over and over.

Now, we’re gonna zoom in on one small thing:

The milk jug.

By now, we all know that the fluid milk comes from a lactating mammal. In the US, that’s usually cows. Sometimes goats.

But what about the jug? 

Let me start with a super quick story. 

I work in direct farm-to-consumer, short food supply chain systems. During the pandemic and since then, many people ask me about the security of our food supply chain. 

• What if the supply chain breaks again?

• Will the farmers run out of food?

• How will we still access what we need?

My answer is usually the same: The food will be there. It’s the packaging we need to worry about.

Now, back to the jug.

Step aside from your normal day to day for a moment and start to think about the plastic supply chain.

• Where and how are the plastic pellets manufactured?

• How do the plastic pellets—used to make almost everything—move around our world?

• Where is this all stored?

• Do you trust the processes and integrity of the manufacturer and those storing the pellets?

• How do the jugs get made from these pellets?

To that last question, here is a short explanation (9 minutes) on how some of these plastics get made.

But then, how do these jugs get to the milk plants?

Remember, milk goes through heavy industrial processing, even if the companies have beautiful fields on their advertising.

In some cases, if the supply is large enough, milk plants mold their own. Here’s an example of that: (less than 1 minute)

But, for operations that can’t or won’t invest in all the specialized and highly expensive equipment that you saw in the videos above, they have to go with the premade milk jugs.

So manufacturers make and store the premade milk jugs and then ship them out by the thousands to farms, dairy plants, etc. Imagine the space and expense needed to store and ship premade milk jugs by the thousands or tens of thousands.

And what happens if there is a glitch anywhere along the line…

So I ask you this….

Is this truly a better system than having small, localized dairies within reach of every community?

Imagine the impact when something happens to the plastic supply chain.

Or a break down in the supply of mechanical equipment used to process plastic pellets into jugs.

Or a shortage in the expertise needed to fix those highly specialized machines.

Don’t think that can happen? Have the last 3 years taught us nothing of these vulnerabilities?

We’re perched atop a slippery slope of, not just centralized food production and processes, but the continued centralization and mechanization of our packaging material. We are completely dependent upon the packaging options we’ve grown accustomed to.

But, I don’t believe it has to stay that way. 

I believe that we can envision new food systems that support our bodies, our ecosystems and build a world that is easier to live in for all of us.

Yes, it takes effort and it takes a willingness to step outside of the “norm” and start to clear new paths.

But now, imagine this:

Local food security.

You no longer think about how much milk is left or when you need to get to the store for more. You no longer stress about the plastic you’re adding to the process. You don’t worry about whether the supply chains will break down leaving you and your loved ones without what you need.

Every morning or evening, you step outside and walk down the street a few hundred feet. You’ve brought with you the ceramic jug you keep milk in. It is cleaned by your own hands so you know you can trust it. The dairy cows (or goats) are in a barn where a small park used to be. The toxic rubber was removed, the soil remediated, and it is now a thriving farmette.

You fill your milk jug with fresh, clean raw milk. A few feet away, you grab a dozen eggs that someone collected the day before and put into cartons. You return home with wholesome raw milk and fresh eggs  for your family. 

Your neighborhood, along with others all over America, looks like this now:

• Cows and goats in our backyards again and on common ground.

• Chickens roaming neighborhoods with coops every few houses so they know where to lay.

• Perennial herb gardens everywhere for culinary treats and medicinal tinctures.

• Food forests at parks and municipalities so we can harvest nutrient dense nuts, seeds and fruits.

• Shared vegetables gardens so we can grow a variety and an abundance, locally.

None of this could possibly be more difficult than creating and sustaining the mechanization, transport, centralization, regulation, enforcement and rampant corruption that we witness in our current food system paradigm that is literally set up for you to fail.

Imagine what it would feel like to participate in a hyper local food system such as described. No more stressful, last minute trips to the stores (unless that’s your thing. There will still be stores.)

But stepping outside the current paradigm long enough to “see” what is possible is the work for our generation.

It is now. It is present. And we can do it.

Roll up your sleeves, my friend. We’ve got some work to do.

---

About Raw Milk Mama: I believe in the freedom to feed our families how we see fit. I also see the direction that our country is going--no one wants to live in a world where food scarcity is a constant reality. It's time to take back our food systems so they serve us, not monopolistic corporations.