The United States isn’t the only country where the farm-to-table movement has really taken off. In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, farm-to-table refers to a type of food preparation with minimal transportation, storage and preservation. The focus is on fresh, locally grown and recently harvested ingredients.
From South America to Europe and Australia, people around the world are looking for better-tasting, more environmentally conscious meals when they go out to eat, and farm-to-table dining offers just that. Farm-to-table has even become popular in places that aren’t exactly steeped in Western culture — for example, farm-to table and farm-to-store dairy is becoming more widespread throughout India.
Poisonous Milk?
For some time in India, it has been common practice for farmers to put additives in milk to increase the volume. Some farmers will just water down the milk, but others will add potentially harmful substances like liquid formaldehyde, urea (a fertilizer) and detergent. According to a study done by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India in 2012, over 70% of Indian milk does not meet national safety standards.
To give you an idea of how dangerous some milk additives can be, liquid formaldehyde is primarily used to remove warts, and Rochester Pharmaceuticals recommends you contact the Poison Control Center immediately if you accidentally ingest it. Similarly, detergents contain powerful corrosives that can burn through the internal organs if consumed in large enough amounts.
Milk, Nutrition and Religion
The poor quality of the milk does not bode well for the health of many Indians. As the country is overwhelmingly vegetarian, dairy is a large part of the protein people consume. If the majority of milk in India is diluted enough with something as harmless as water, people are likely not getting the nutrients they need.
Furthermore, cows are considered sacred in the Hindu religion — so much so that many have called the dilution of milk sacrilege. This makes milk dilution spiritually as well as physically damaging to consumers. In the states of Odisha, Utter Pradesh and West Bengal, milk dilution is already a criminal offense carrying a life sentence. To make milk safer, the Indian Supreme Court strongly recommends neighboring states enact similar policies.
In India, there is also a certain spiritual benefit associated with eating fresh, undiluted food. Some believe the fresher food is when it’s consumed, the more life force energy it contains. That means people believe they get more out of the food the closer it is to being harvested — both from a nutritional and a spiritual point of view. This way of thinking about food aligns well with the ideology of the farm-to-table movement.
A Pledge for Purity
The religious belief milk should be pure, combined with the inadequate nutrition and poor taste of much milk in the country, has spurred some changes in the dairy industry. More farmers are pledging to only serve organic, unpasteurized milk. To help improve milk around the country, some Indian entrepreneurs have even leased farms to those who have taken the pledge. The milk produced by such farms never touches human hands and is bottled and shipped within a day of when it is taken from the cow.
Similar to other types of farm-to-table and farm-to-store production, the milk produced by these farms is produced in as fair, ethical and environmentally friendly a manner as possible. Just as farm-to-table produce farmers use eco-friendly irrigation systems like motion activated sprinkler systems, dairy farmers treat their cows with love and respect. Cows receive a regular medical exam, and when they’re milked the udders are gently squeezed until they walk away at will. The cows also have ample grazing room and are kept as happy and healthy as possible.
Although farming in such a manner takes more time and money, experts predict the dairy farmers’ efforts will soon pay off. Ethically farmed non-pasteurized milk tastes a great deal better that the other kind of milk on the market. Demand for purer milk is expected to increase the longer it is available. According to the New York Times, farm-to-store milk accounted for only one percent of the market last year, but profits are expected to increase about 20 percent each year.
What do you think about farm-to-store milk in India? If you were visiting the country, would you pay more for farm-to-table dairy?
Image by by Carsten Frenzl