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Got milk?
Raw, organic products in high demand
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
Dairy cows are mooving back to at least one local farm as farmers across the state discover a niche created by the growing demand for organic products.
George and Celeste Albers will launch their raw, “straight from the cow” bottled milk May 11 after receiving permitting from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control and passing a rigorous inspection process. The milk will debut at the Charleston Farmers Market and will also be sold off the farm to individual consumers.
Not all states allow the sale of raw milk, which has not been pasteurized or homogenized.
“We’re lucky to be in South Carolina, where we can legally do it, but we have a more stringent inspection process. Our milk has to be very, very clean,” said Celeste Albers of Green Grocer Farm on Wadmalaw Island.
Raw milk cannot be sold to restaurants in South Carolina or to supermarkets that prepare food on premises, but can be sold straight to the consumer through farmers’ markets and produce stands, or straight off the farm.
Albers said she is tapping into a growing business.
“We have five cows and I expect to be expanding rather rapidly,” Albers said. “There appears to be a big demand.”
Neighbors have already told Albers they are interested in buying Green Grocer’s milk and she has been contacted by local nutritionists including Marti Chitwood, founder of Viriditas Rejuvenation Center, a Charleston wellness center focused on nutrition and natural foods.
“There are more and more people wanting raw and organic milk. I’m pleased to know there’s a resource,” Chitwood said. “There are many problems with homogenized, pasteurized dairy products that sort of dumb down one’s immune system, and our digestive systems really have a hard time digesting it. Raw milk retains Mother Nature’s helpers to digest milk and the immune molecules that are supportive of the immune system.”
Chitwood, a clinical nutritionist and registered dietician, said milk is one of the first foods she removes from many patients’ diets, particularly those who have nasal and respiratory congestion or digestive complaints.
Raw milk contains more vitamins and enzymes to help the body use the lactose in milk. The homogenization process puts milk under tremendous pressure and breaks up the fat globules so that they aren’t used as they should be, Albers said.
“There’s a lot of people who lose weight or feel better when they switch to un-homogenized milk,” she said.
Like any raw food, raw milk can have risks if the dairy farmer is not following the proper processes.
Jimmy Williamson, program manager of DHEC’s dairy division, said S.C. dairies receive on-site inspections quarterly and milk samples are taken about once a month. Williamson said he has noticed more S.C. dairy farmers venturing into organic and raw milk production.
“There have been a lot of people getting interested in it and we’ve had a couple of farms get permitted,” Williamson said.
Tom Tranthom, owner of Happy Cow Creamery in Greenville County, switched from conventional dairy farming methods in 1987 and now grazes his 90 Holsteins on a special blend of high-quality grasses and uses a low-temperature pasteurization process. The milk is not homogenized.
“Homogenization shoots milk through a screen at tons of pressure, destroying the fat cells,” Tranthom said. “Whole milk will actually burn body fat, generate energy and build muscle tone.”
Tranthom’s happy cows also helped him get his dairy farm out of debt. Happy Cow Creamery supplies milk to organics-based grocers in the Greenville area including Earthfare and Whole Foods Market.
“I’m not a rich person like a doctor or lawyer would be, but I live a wonderful life now,” Tranthom said. “I’m not under threat of being foreclosed on. This year we’re certainly going to pay income tax.”
Dairy farming in South Carolina has been declining rapidly for the past 10 to 15 years, said Kelly Smith, executive director of the S.C. Dairy Association. Smith said the state currently has 82 dairy farms, compared with 300 dairies 10 years ago.
“Food costs are going up for the dairy animal, along with fuel costs which are required in the industry with the transportation of milk to the plant,” Smith said. “A lot of dairies were located in municipal areas and growth areas and the value of the real estate was so great that the farmers basically sold out. We had, at one point, 15 processing plants in the state of South Carolina and we’re down to three of them now.”
Smith said the state is producing only about 20% of its total milk needs and importing the rest. A tax incentive program has been created to help dairy farmers when milk falls below a certain price, he said.
“We hope that’s going to encourage the relocation of dairy farms into the state,” he said.
Albers feels she will get a better return on her dairy products as a small farmer producing raw milk bottled on the farm rather than wholesaling hundreds of gallons of milk to processing plants.
“You go from getting so many dollars per hundred pounds of milk to getting the real dollars for your product,” Albers said. “There’s a lot of other people making money on that product before it gets to the consumer. The farmer doesn’t get a big portion of the actual dollar.”
The dairy venture at Green Grocer Farm will supplement the farm’s main business, which is eggs. The farm, which started as an organic vegetable farm, now sells eggs from its 1,250 free-range hens to local restaurants and at local farmers’ markets. In about a year, the farm expects to be selling grass-fed beef.
“We just started milking cows,” Albers said. “Raw milk will be the next piece of the puzzle.”
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@charlestonbusiness.com.
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