Does anyone else find it weird that milk costs more than gas, and yet we have a basically unlimited supply of milk, whereas oil we don’t?
All my favorite things as I discover them…or as soon as I get bored enough at work to write about it.
Does anyone else find it weird that milk costs more than gas, and yet we have a basically unlimited supply of milk, whereas oil we don’t?
C'est Non Un Blog 
Cows
We don’t have an unlimited supply of milk. Actually, according to the International Dairy Farm Association, we are losing our dairy cow farmers to soy, or healthier alternatives to milk. But one thing about cows, especially milking cows, is that they don’t give milk all day long. They only produce enough each day to be milked once a day. With billions of people on the planet, and not billions of cows, the people drinking milk out number the cows. One holstein cow will produce less than a gallon of milk per day. Less. And in certain climates, somedays, not at all. Their environment plays a huge part on their milking. And not just that, but if something spooks them, or if something is OFF, then the milk can’t be used anyway. It turns. The machines that are now used in the milking process will throw out “bad” milk, automatically. Gas is harder to produce, granted, but it’s not the same thing at all. Since milking is a win some lose some production, it’s costly. And also, there are only certain species of cow we drink from. Not all cows have drinkable milk. Also one more thing, some farmers still milk the cows by hand to not freak out the cows…that is a huge amount of work, believe me. I have milked cows before.
This is why milk, for a gallon, is so expensive. Gas and cows are like apples and bread. Totally different species. 🙂
For more information on dairy production: http://www.epa.gov/oecaagct/ag101/dairy.html
Re: Cows
Wow…that was a much more detailed response than I was expecting. Huh. Wow. Yeah, my point was merely, “Fossil fuels will soon disappear, but cows will (hopefully) be here forever.” Your point is good too, though. Living up in dairy country I definitely know that things suck for a dairy farmer lately.
And hell, when gas is $2.19 a gallon and milk is only $2.99, how long really until milk is cheaper?
Re: Cows
yeah, I have this “weird” connection with cows. I wrote a huge thesis on Mad Cow disease a few years back, so I have a lot of info on cows. lol
But I know what you are saying. Gas here is up to 2.24 now.