Raw milk produced for pasteurization can only be sold to food processors, who pasteurize and bottle the milk to sell under their own label. That means those processors set the price they’re willing to pay, the farmer has no bargaining power.
Raw milk produced and bottled on-farm for sale to you and me directly. That means pricing can then be determined by the farmer – who can then set that pricing according to demand and their needs.
If my farmer needs an extra buck per gallon to keep going and growing, he can do that at his own discretion.
If the farmers bottlenecked by food processors are forced to take what they can get, people start losing multigenerational farms for the sake of that processing corporation’s own needs and profit.
I know which supply chain I’d rather support, and I’m happy to see dairy farmers jump the fence to join our side.
