A Three Dairy Tour

Yesterday Jayita and I joined a Bay Area Green Tours led tour of three Marin County dairies.  It was a long day but we enjoyed seeing the beautiful green hills and learning a lot about animals, milk, and cheese!  Photos on picasa...

The farms we visited are all protected by MALT (Marin Agricultural Land Trust) which means they can't be subdivided and sold off.   Even with the financial help that MALT provides, its very hard to make ends meet for these small scale farmers.

One of the most interesting things was hearing the perspective these farmers had on organic farming.  They all used sustainable practices, but when it comes down to certified organic, they all said the same thing.  If an animal gets sick - they do want to give it antibiotics to help it get better.  Once they do that, the animal is no longer organic.  We met one farmer whose grasslands are certified organic, but their milk isn't because they don't believe in letting the animal suffer and possibly die when it gets sick.  Another farmer keeps two separate groups - if an animal needs antibiotics - it becomes non-organic.  But the rest of the herd is still certified organic.

Something else I realized I've been taking for granted.  Milk.  It seems obvious - but I hadn't really thought about it.  An animal has to have a baby in order for there to be milk.  So every year, every animal on the farm (hopefully) has a baby.  And all those babies end up somewhere.  The cute little lambs we saw were soon headed to an expensive restaurant in San Francisco.  This helps me understand veganism better.  If you're vegetarian because you don't like to see animals killed, then how can you use dairy products?  We only have the dairy products because of the babies - and many of the babies end up as food.

Finally - the tour gave a chance to learn about different groups of people who are working to preserve the slow, local, sustainable way of life.  When you feel like the world is changing so fast, everything is scaling up, and there's nothing we can do about it - hearing about all these local groups working to keep things local gives hope.  One of the groups mentioned was Slow Money, which is encouraging people to invest in keeping food production local.  After hearing how hard these farmers struggle to make ends meet - I'm interested in learning more about what it would take to make small farming economically sustainable.  Is it possible?

Here's a list of the places we visited.  You can make your own tour by following the Sonoma Marin Cheese Trail Map!  (More info)

• Nicasio Valley Cheese Company (Store is open to the public)
• Marin French Cheese Company (Store is open to the public.  Tours available)
• Toluma Farms Goat Dairy  (Offers tours once a month)
• Barinaga Ranch Sheep Dairy  (Not open to the public, but you can find a list of places to buy their cheese on their website)