Would you pay 3 times as much for ecological raw milk?

[havsulen]

I have access to two supplyers of raw milk (it is illegal to sell it here, so I am lucky!).

One is certifed ecological, but the cows do not only graze. They are also given ecological, but processed man made food not really in the original diet for cows. They are also given some hay.

The other farm is not certifed ecological, but I don't think the conditions there are very different from the other one. The cows are out on the field in the months without snow. Both farmers talk to their cows, treat them nicely, medication is not given unless absolutely neccessary (no antibiotics just in case). Both places the cows stand on concrete floors, unfortunately.

The ecological farm charges over 3 times the amount for their milk. Would you be willing to pay for the difference?

If there is not enough information here to really judge the difference in the quality of the milk, what do I need to know? Exactly what the cows are given?

[BeagleMommy]

If the conditions really are much the same, I wouldn't pay for certification. I get my meat from a farm that I consider to be organic because I know how they care for the animals, but it is not certified. And I know it's better quality than the certified organic from the grocery store. That's JMO.

[cristeen]

What does cert ecological mean? If it's anything like cert. organic, that would not be enough for me... what are they fed? what kind of medicines are used on them, what are their living conditons? (man made feed and concrete floors are not good things to contemplate IMO.)

[mamadelbosque]

Nope. If you feel like the conditions are basicly the same but one group is 'certified' and the other is not, then nope. My raw milk comes from a farm that is 'voluntarily organic' - they follow the organic standards, but just can't afford to be certified (and their cows are grass-fed only, and as a result its seasonal so we get frozen milk for the 16 or so weeks when they aren't milking). Thats good enough for me.

ETA: And when you say the cows are on concrete floors, is that just during milking? If so thats pretty standard and really neccasary in order for a place to be nice and clean. It doesn't bother me in the least that the cows are on concrete for the 30-60 minutes a day when they're being milked...

[BedHead]

Based on what you've said above, I wouldn't pay 3 times as much.

[laohaire]

I may have misunderstood, but it sounds to me like the non-certified pastures its cows, and the certified does a mix of pasture and feed? Of course pastured cows must still be given hay in the winter, can't be pastured in the snow.

If I'm reading that right, then the non-certified one sounds better of course.

I agree with the PP on the concrete, I don't think there's many or any places that milk their cows in the dirt and sell the milk for the public. My farm's milking room has concrete floors, the cows poop on them of course but they can sweep/shovel it up. And then they go back out to pasture. It probably really is about 20 minutes a day on concrete, 10 minutes each for the morning and evening milkings.

[chaoticzenmom]

I would ask the non-certified if there's a reason he's not doing the certification. Our "organic" farmer gave up his certification even though he's much better than certified organic anyway. He had good reasons and I keep getting his produce. There was one little thing that made the certification too much trouble for him, so he sent out a little explanation and dropped the organic label.

It may just be some crazy beaurocratic thing that he's rebelling against. I'd want to know what it is, but I'm thinking the non-certified one sounds better.

[Ruthla]

To answer the question in the title, without reading the post at all, I'd say "it depends on what milk you're comparing it to and whether or not you can afford it." If the ecological raw milk was 3X the price of pasturized homogenized non-organic milk in the store, it might be worth it. But if the "certified ecological" raw milk is 3x the price of "non certified but basically the same thing" raw milk, then it's not worth even a penny more!

In this case, it really sounds like the two farms are comperable, except for the certification itself. I have to wonder if the certification process itself is expensive and the reason the other farmer needs to charge so much.