I agree that buying locally is really the best option. You may want to look into purchasing organic raw milk also. Raw milk and pasturized milk are very different according to what I have experienced and read. You can find more information at realmilk.org.

Just read this morning (although I already knew it) that Horizon is owned by Dean Foods and their milk is not up to organic standards. This is why Organic Consumers Is boycotting them. They are the corporate bad guys trying to sneak in supposedly organic food by not practicing organic standards. You may as well by regular milk if you by Horizon.

I also agree that buying organic raw milk is the absolute best when it comes to your health. Pasturization kills all the important nutrients in it. I think it's so criminal of our government to not allow citizens to have the right to buy locally owned organic raw milk if they so choose. It's illegal in many states and cowsharing programs are becoming almost obsolete as the govt. is cracking down on them as well. It's ridiculous.

Because I can no longer get raw milk from the farmer I was getting it from (the inspectors threatened him and told him he'd lose his farm if he didn't stop selling it to people off the street), I try to buy local goats milk from the Amish, but their goats dry up at this time of the year leaving me with nothing. I won't buy pasturized milk, even if it's organic.

I agree, Horizon is probably not a great brand for organic milk, because they don't treat their cows as kindly as you might expect an organic dairy company would. Here is a great site to explain it: www.notmilk.com/horizon.html

Whether you buy organic milk or not, the worst milk you can buy is milk that has been homogenized. Homogenization breaks the fat particles down to such a small size that they go directly into your blood stream where they scar the arterial walls, causing the body to produce lots of cholesterol, which blocks the arteries in an attempt to heal the damage done by the homogenized milkfat. The reason that producers homogenize milk is that it doesn't sour as quickly and so can stay longer on the store shelves. If you don't want a cholesterol problem with an eventual heart attack or stroke, do not consume homogenized dairy!!!!!

I'm in agreement with everyone else here, fresh local raw milk is best. If you can't get that the next option is the Organic Valley milk. It's best to look for milk that is NOT ultra-pasteurized.

From the Weston A Price Foundation Shopping Guide for 2008:

Avoid: Lowfat and skim milk; ultra-pasteurized milk; imitation "milk" made from soy, rice, almonds, oats, etc.

They do have a farm listed for the state of Florida called Golden Fleece.

I agree 100% with the previous answers. There may be another (fresher!) option to consider here: buying milk directly from your local CSA, or community-supported agriculture. Community-Supported Agriculture involves a strong farm-consumer relationship in a “shared risk and reward” agreement in which milk, meat, and produce is determined and even invested in ahead of time. There is little or no waste. Fresh food comes directly to the consumer, sometimes available year-round.

Many CSA programs are organic or at least avoid pesticides; this is listed on the CSA site. There are varieties of CSA; resource lists differ, so searching more than one site may help you find a CSA closer to where you live – even in the suburbs! Local Harvest is the most comprehensive resource listing CSA farms in the US – and lists them by zip codes and by market (restaurants, farms, etc). www.localharvest.org

Another great site that evaluates organic milk companies and co-ops is Cornucopia Institute. They also look into what larger companies are buy up smaller organic food brands (i.e. Odwalla is now owned by Coca-Cola, and Kashi is owned by Kellogg).

www.cornucopia.org

In response to Erin's comment, why are rice, almond, and oat milk bad for you?

In response to Audrey's comment, why won't you buy pasturized milk even if it's organic? Isn't organic milk the best? If pasturization kills the nutrients in milk, would drinking milk be harmful to you? I think the worst is that you won't get any nutrients from the milk; you can still enjoy how good milk tastes. So why won't you buy pasturized milk? Thanks

Hi,
I wanted to give you the link to the campaign for Real Milk site where you can read more about milk: www.realmilk.com

pasteurized milk is dead food, and the use of pasteurization allows milk producers to get by with milk that is not very high quality, there can be puss in the milk and you would not know it, when it is pasteurized it allows much lower quality milk to pass into the "food" chain.

I have been purchasing raw milk for 4 or 5 years, when the milk is not right, I know instantly, the color is dramatically different, the taste can be noticed immediately. If you have raw milk, you will NEVER go back to dead pasteurized milk again.

Another issue that is not discussed here is homogenized milk, which contributes to heart disease, you can read more about it in the article written by Mary Enig, Phd www.realmilk.com/homogenization.html

"One widely held popular theory singles out homogenization as a cause of the current epidemic of heart disease. The hypothesis was developed by Kurt A. Oster, MD and studied from the early 1960s until the mid 1980s. In studying and comparing the structure and biochemistry of healthy and diseased arterial tissue, Oster investigated plasmalogen, an essential fatty component of many cell membranes in widely scattered tissues throughout the human body. Plasmalogen makes up a substantial part of the membranes surrounding heart muscle cells and the cells that make up the walls of arteries. It is also present in the myelin sheath surrounding nerve fibers and in a few other tissues. But it is not found in other parts of the human anatomy."

the rest of the article is on the link I provided.

Organic Valley does have a pasteurized non-homogenized milk that they sell, you can take that milk and buy some LIVE kifer grains from the Kifer lady and make some very good Kifer milk to drink, if you cannot buy raw milk this is a good alternative to drinking dead pasteurized, homogenized milk.

Kifer lady: www.kiferlady.com

hello everyone, i think raw milk is the best if you really want to drink milk. although i think milk is all sugar though... if you are looking for calcium, then get tri calcium phosphate. any other forms can\'t be obserbed much...

cheers,