Eighteen months ago, one gallon of organic milk cost $5.49. Last month I paid $6.99.
The cost of organic milk has gone up $1.50 per gallon since October 2013 and I wouldn’t be surprised if it kept going up.
There are a number of factors that fall into play here, including:
- the general cost of raising organic animals, so that they produce milk according to USDA organic standards
- the gain in popularity of organic milk, creating an increase in demand and a supply that can’t quite meet it
- droughts that plague fields that produce the feed for organic animals
By no means are these all the reasons, but you can see how one blight in the food chain can cause a disastrous domino effect far down the line.
But the bottom line is this: If the cost of organic milk goes up anymore, I won’t be able to afford it.
Anyone who ventures on a real food journey will be in this spot sooner or later. You’ll have to split hairs and get to the nitty gritty between the quality of the food you buy, possibly making a decision of the lesser of two evils… Because there isn’t room in the budget for both.
Do you buy organic from the store? Or non-organic from the farmers market?
Do you buy eggs fed a certified organic vegetarian diet? Or eggs from cage-free chickens supplemented with a conventional diet?
There is no right or wrong answer to either of those scenarios, yet that’s where I find myself today in terms of milk. I need your help in determining which direction to go.
I’ve outlined below the possible options we could take, and even more ideas that crossed my brainwave at some point in time. I’m laying it all out here for your guys, in hopes of finding a practical solution to the issue of the cost of milk being on the rise. But also in case you ever find yourself in a similar situation, you’re ready to really consider all of your options. Including the ugly ones.
Here’s our current situation: We buy two gallons of milk each month and as it is, we don’t drink it.
I use it to make yogurt, to make kefir, as a creamer in our coffee and in cooking. But even in cooking, I can name the recipes I use it in on one hand (biscuits, creamy squash pasta and a macaroni and cheese recipe I’m working on).
We certainly don’t waste milk in our house.
Even with our consumption being low, there’s got to be a way to fight against the rising cost of milk. $3 doesn’t sound like much, but it’s little expenses and increases like this that sneak up on you over time and suddenly become budget-busters.
What do we do?
Do we consume even less? Stop cooking with it altogether? Make non-dairy alternatives? Possibly switch to conventional milk?
Yes?
4 Ways to Fight Against the Rising Cost of Milk
#1 – Consume Less
Mr. Crumbs and I are starting the last week of our fiscal fast. We ran out of milk several days ago, meaning we’ve been without creamer in our coffee. Neither one of us has died yet.
He’s been drinking black while I’ve been adding coconut cream concentrate (a.k.a. coconut butter). Is it as good as half-and-half or milk?
No. But it’s not that bad either.
Could I give up creamer in my morning coffee in order to avoid paying out the wazoo for organic milk and keep my grocery budget in check?
Yes, I do believe I can.
#2 – Stop Cooking with It
We’ve been testing the waters with this tip, seeing if homemade coconut milk tastes just as good in dinner biscuits as regular milk.
Know what? We couldn’t tell the difference.
I made a batch of cinnamon vanilla rice milk last week and the kids drank it up without hesitation. In fact, they thought it was a pretty nice treat considering they haven’t been allowed to drink milk unless it was raw and from the farmer’s market.
Which hasn’t happened in well over six months…
Choosing coconut milk or rice milk over whole milk will vary depending on the recipe we’re making, but switching to rice milk will create the most savings over the long run. For each cup we substitute, we’ll save 41¢.
That seems small now, but that could really add up each week.
#3 – Make Non-dairy Alternatives
As I just mentioned, we’re already making homemade coconut milk and homemade rice milk again. My goal is to make a batch of each at the start of the week so that it’s readily on-hand for when I need it.
Homemade almond milk is an option too, but we don’t have any almonds and haven’t been able to buy them with the fast. A cup of almond milk costs 35¢, which is more than a cup of milk, so I’m not entirely sure that’s the option we’ll take.
#4 – Possibly Switch to Conventional
I don’t like this option… I mean, I REALLY don’t like this option, but it is on the table, and here’s why.
On page 35 of Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon writes,
If you cannot find good quality raw milk, you should limit your consumption of milk products to cultured milk, cultured buttermilk, whole milk yogurt, butter, cream and raw cheeses.
I can’t find good quality raw milk for less than $14/gallon. Which, as you might have guessed, is very much so not in our grocery budget.
At least not right now.
Ms. Fallon doesn’t distinguish between organic milk and conventional milk. She only calls out raw milk, and not raw milk.
While her opinion isn’t the end-all be-all, it does make me wonder if it even matters that my not-raw milk is organic? And even more so, if I’m culturing that milk anyway?
But then I take issue with all the little things that show up in our food that aren’t supposed to be there, like antibiotics, hormones or pesticides.
Thank you agribusiness.
I know not every conventional farm is bad, and not every organic farm is good. But with the label of organic, there is somewhat of a standard in place that has to be met.
But is there really safety behind the little green and white label?
Other Ideas to Consider
Making Room for Raw Milk
This might sound crazy, to consider adding raw milk to the mix when we can barely afford organic milk, but hear me out.
If Mr. Crumbs and I continue the road of no coffee creamer, and I use homemade rice milk in our cooking, and we only buy one gallon of organic milk at $6.99/gallon for culturing and ADD a half gallon of raw milk to the budget ($7), would we really come out ahead?
I know raw milk has a crazy amount of enzymes, vitamins and nutrients, so I’m wondering if we gain nutrition from raw milk and absorb the cost thanks to the rice milk?
Is this where we re-evaluate our grocery budget and make raw milk more of a priority? Possibly cutting out something else in the budget instead?
Finding a Better Price
Trader Joe’s sells organic milk for $5.99, but it’s definitely out of the way. We would have to purposely make a trip out that way at the start of the month, buy two gallons (one for yogurt, the other for coffee/cooking/kefir) and make do if we run out.
All things considering, that’s not too bad of an idea and we’d definitely save $2 over our current system…
But the current price of gas out here is around $3.75/gallon. We’d use up at least a half gallon getting there and back, which essentially negates the savings.
But we’d still be consuming organic milk and not conventional.
I could always keep an eye out at other stores, but to be honest, I don’t think they’re any better than what I’m paying right now.
Unless…
We Settle for Ultra-Pasteurized
I don’t want to do this either, since UHT milk is essentially void of anything good, but it can still culture and it wouldn’t have antibiotics, hormones or other stuff that shouldn’t be there. And compared to regular-temp pasteurized milk, it’s affordable.
Do you see the conundrum? Which of the lesser of the two (three?) evils do I pick? Where does milk fit into your grocery budget? What would you do if you were me?
What about the milk from Aldi and Trader Joes that claim they don’t use hormones? I know its not organic but isnt that a step in the right direction?
Hi Amber – by law, milk is not allowed to have added hormones. Any claims of “no added hormones” is just a marketing ploy to get you to buy that package over any other.
Have you ever considered buying your own cow (or even goat) to help produce your own milk? My husband wants to go that route when we can buy a home with at least an acre of land. Just a thought….
I have! But Mr. Crumbs isn’t too keen on a goat, and we rent a townhouse right now. Although, it’s not out of the question if we someday own an acre too. 😉
Just sharing what we do in our house. 🙂 I have looked at this issue over and over and over again and I am finally at peace with where we are and what we can afford. I buy 3-4 gallons of whole, local, non-homogenized (pasteurized, but not UHT) milk a month and mostly for cooking. It costs about $4.60/gallon. We really don’t just drink it or eat cold cereals so it goes in coffee, makes kefir, and goes into things like waffles/pancakes/pasta dishes. It comes from a smaller dairy farm about 20min away from our house but is sold in local grocery stores. If I couldn’t afford that I would probably buy conventional cream only and water it down for cooking. That is the best I have come up with. I hope you find an affordable solution to the milk dilemma soon!
Wow! Am I spoiled with raw milk at $5.50 gallon from the Amish. They are strictly regulated as they also sell other dairy products as well as beef, pork, and turkeys. I must say that the two of us drink a gallon of milk a week through yogurt, kefir, puddings, and our fav tapioca. Sometimes we add in an extra gallon when we’ve depleted our yogurt and kefer too soon before the next delivery. You can tell we originated from Wisconsin. 😉
UHT milk can’t be cultured! It’s completely dead. Raw milk is worth the extra cost cause organic milk doesn’t necessary mean healthy. The cows could have been only fed organic grains and they need to be eating grass.
I don’t think that’s accurate Teresa – I’ve turned UHT milk into kefir before. I haven’t tried yogurt though, so maybe that’s the culturing you’re referring to? But I do agree that there’s very little (if any) nutritional value to UHT milk.
We are so lucky in Canada that our conventional dairy products are free of antibiotics & growth hormones. Some of these growth hormones are legal for use in the US. I know we cannot control GMO feed in conventional dairy, while I would love to see an end to GMO products I have to draw the line in my budget somewhere. I would have to pay almost the same amount for 2 litres of organic milk as I do for a 4 litre jug of conventional milk in the grocery story. When I am feeding two hungry teenagers in my house, organic milk at twice the price of conventional is not an option for me.
I stopped consuming dairy (cow milk, cow cheese) as a result of a lot of joint pain that I had. Then a friend of mine told me that in Europe they don’t feed cow milk to their kids after age 2. I don’t know if that’s true. So what I’ve done in my home is:
1) my kids still get cow milk (regular)
2) they eat cow cheese
3) I drink almond or other milk and make every effort to consume a lot more dark green leafy vegetables.
4) I’m working on introducing dark, leafy green vegetables into my kids’ diet because I understand that they have more calcium than cow dairy products.
5) We’re not becoming vegetarians but we are making a serious effort to eat a lot more produce with our meals and reduce the dairy and meat and chicken while still maintaining the nutrition.
Yikes! I thought I had it bad at $10/gallon for raw milk! Raw milk is something I make a priority in my grocery budget as often as I can. Currently we go through about a gallon a week. A couple years ago my oldest had four cavities and the dentist wanted $800 to fill them. Besides the question of “what kind of toxins are they wanting to put in my young daughters mouth permanently?” I was not interested in that price tag. I started her on a routine of raw milk and cod liver and butter oil, and at her next check up, six months later, she didn’t have a single cavity. So, at $200/filling , I figure I can provide my family with 20 weeks worth of the good stuff! And between my three kids, I’m sure I’m saving with the preventative care that the raw milk provides. Good luck with your balancing act! And thanks for the rice/coconut milk idea! I can definitely sub those in for cooking milks!
To clarify my last comment: I do understand that many small farmers who feed their cows on pesticide-free pasture, or otherwise incorporate organic principles are not “certified organic.” In fact, I purchase my milk from just such a farm. If possible to purchase from a local farm and get to know your farmers, that’s great. When that is not possible, the report from Cornucopia Institute is very helpful.
I jump on the “organic is not better” bandwagon. As small time farmers, we know how expensive it is to file the paperwork to become (and maintain) that status. It also means that instead of using local, non-GMO feed that we know where it was grown and ground for our meat chickens, we would have to pay way more in feed to get certified organic feed from out of state, where I don’t know the farmers. The costs are just too prohibitive for many small operations.
I had to laugh at the vegetarian diet for chickens though. My birds are out running on grass, eating a plethora of bugs. So even though their grain is vegetarian, I sure wouldn’t call their feed as a whole vegetarian!
While we have fresh eggs and milk from our farm the majority of the year, there are times when we need to purchase these items. We dry our Dexters out for three months between milking seasons, and the chickens molt and don’t lay as well in the winter.
We cut egg consumption during this time, and dairy as well. I am usually able to buy eggs from a neighbor when that happens, but occasionally I’ll have to buy at the store. I go for cage free since I’d rather eat eggs from a chicken that was allowed to run around then from one fed an organic diet that spent its whole life in a tiny cage.
For milk, I struggle. When I’m milking my Dexters once a day, we go through 7-8 gallons a week easily. I let the kids drink all they can, we make yogurt and ice cream and some cheese and whatnot. When I’m buying it (like now), I buy regular old whole milk from Costco, or the local Safeway. We cut consumption down to 2 gallons a week, so I don’t worry about it too much. Divided by nine people, 2 gallons a week isn’t that much in the grand scheme of our diet.
I won’t buy raw milk, as I don’t know any of the farmers who are licensed to sell. Buying raw in the winter also doesn’t make sense to me since one of the major benefits of raw milk is when cows are on pasture eating fresh grass. This time of year, any local dairy will be feeding hay which doesn’t have as great of an impact.
Sorry for such a long comment, your post just got my brain going this morning.