the mark of delicious

Back in the summer of 2005 we moved to a new home in NE Portland. Almost immediately after moving in I took note of a unique weekly visit to our neighbor’s home by a lanky, gray-haired man driving an enormous unmarked truck, which obscured my view of his activities across the street. This fascinated and to some degree frustrated me as I stewed in my ignorance. Finally I got up the nerve to ask him.

Come to find out, the mysterious man behind the wheel of the big white truck was Austrian dairyman, Franz Wenz, from Noris Dairy in Crabtree, Oregon, some 77 miles South of Portland, just outside of Albany. Several decades ago, Franz and his family ventured over to the US and brought their age-old dairy methodologies with them, hoping that the tide of corporate farming would eventually turn. After weathering the storm for many years, Noris, like the cream in its milk, has managed to come out on top.

So what’s so special about Noris Dairy products, aside from the old-timey front-step delivery? That’s a simple question with several answers. In short:

• Local products: buying from Noris reduces fossil fuels for transportation and supports an Oregon family farm; Noris milk is pasteurized and bottled on the farm, then delivered directly to your home, and is guaranteed to be less than two days old.
• Organically produced by design, not just the product of a collection of modifications required to meet one of a myriad of ‘standards’ for what constitutes organic; Noris cattle are grass-fed and the land which they feed upon is free of chemical herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers.
• Quality, healthy milk production: Noris minimally pasteurizes their milk, ensuring it does not lose essential nutrients, while still maintaining freshness for seven days; additionally, Noris milk isn’t homogenized, a process which some believe can be detrimental to your health.
• Holistic animal care: no antibiotics, no hormones, no steroids… period.
• I alluded to it earlier, but this is a biggie: Noris cows are corn-free!

So, what’s my issue with pasteurization, homogenization and corn? Where to begin…

Ultra-Pasteurization and Homogenization

Most all milk that is readily available for purchase at any grocery store is ‘ultra-pasteurized’, regardless of whether it’s conventionally or organically produced. The process of ultra-pasteurizing milk involves exposing the milk to extremely high heat, ensuring the milk can last as long as possible as it often travels great distances.

In Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, he points out that after going through the ultra-pasteurizing process, the seemingly healthy, organic milk’s natural enzymes and vitamins are eliminated, degrading the nutritional quality of the milk. Unlike conventional dairies, Noris Dairy low-pasteurizes their milk. While this meets USDA safety standards, it is far less destructive to the milk, enabling it to maintain much of its nutritional benefit. The side effect of low-pasteurization is that the milk will typically stay fresh for only seven days, as opposed to the much longer shelf life of ultra-pasteurized milk.

The process of homogenization became an industry standard soon after pasteurization. Homogenization addresses two practical elements of milk production: separation of cream; and the presence of post-pasteurization ‘sludge’.

Pasteurization increased shelf-life and, subsequently, distance milk could be shipped. With a greater number of dairy products available to an expanding list of retailers and restaurateurs, complaints regarding the separation of cream began to appear. When the cream consolidated to the top of the bottle during transit, the most valuable part of the milk  –the fat– was unevenly distributed throughout the bottle, leaving some people uneasy with the product. In 1919, one Connecticut dairy began homogenizing milk as a means to keep business from one such unsatisfied restaurateur. Not long after, dairies nationwide began homogenizing as a means to compete. Oddly enough, many home delivery customers fought the move as it created a product whereby you couldn’t determine its fat content through visual inspection.

Homogenization is a mechanical process that presses the milk through a tiny nozzle under extremely high pressure. This results in decreasing the diameter of the fat molecules, while increasing their number and surface area. The net effect is that by subjecting the milk to homogenization, the cream is distributed evenly throughout the bottle, which retailers and restaurateurs –and eventually consumers– seemed to prefer.

According to naturalist, gardener and dairy farmer, Joann Grohman, the second issue (the presence of post-pasteurization sludge) is far more aesthetic than functional. After milk has been pasteurized, a mire of dead white blood cells and bacteria sinks to the bottom of the bottle. Homogenization distributes this otherwise unsightly mass throughout the milk, making it invisible to the consumer.

So is homogenization bad? A process performed purely for aesthetic reasons has a number of detractions. Homogenization increases the energy needed to process the milk –a special machine is required to press the milk at more than 2,500 pounds per square inch. Additionally, many dairy purists (including Noris Dairy) firmly believe that by breaking down the milk into its key components (e.g., fat, vitamins, enzymes), homogenization enables these particles to be inadvertently absorbed directly into the blood stream, as opposed to being processed properly by the human digestive system before absorption. The purists claim that this essentially makes many of these key components of the milk (e.g., enzymes) potentially detrimental to your health. Scientific evidence supporting this claim is thin, however fatty acids released during the homogenizing process have been targeted as possible causes of blocked arteries and heart disease.

In my opinion, the negative effect of homogenization is more subtle. I believe it adds to the gap that exists between us and our food origins. Our increased consumption of processed foods (such as ground beef, chicken nuggets, canned tuna, etc.) has distanced us from the origin of our food. With each generation, it seems we have a decreased understanding of where our food comes from or what it might have looked like before it was processed for our convenience. Homogenization ensures that milk looks less like the product that came from the cow’s teat. Once homogenized, the milk will taste and feel the same, regardless of its origin or the cows that contributed to the supply. The resulting effect is that we become less sensitive to the nature of food, and thereby lose empathy for the plants and animals that make up and contribute to our food supply.

Hormones, Antibiotics and Corn

One of the most important attributes of Noris Dairy is the family’s commitment to its cattle. Noris cows are never given growth hormones or antibiotics. The Noris methodology is entirely holistic, enabling the cows to live free of a life filled with harsh chemicals designed to make them more productive. What’s more, Noris cows are grass-fed, as opposed to grain-fed (e.g., corn) –the typical feeding practice of the corporate farm.

As a point of reference, cows raised primarily on a diet that mimics their natural foraging tendencies are called grass-fed or pasture-raised; for example meat or milk cattle may be called grass-fed beef or pasture-raised dairy. In the United States, cattle in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are typically fed corn, soy and other types of feed that can include ‘by-product feedstuff’ (which can often include animal waste and cow byproducts).

Corn is the choice feed for corporate cattle operations as it is both an extremely inexpensive and abundant food, and a high-energy food, increasing yield from dairy cattle and decreasing the time to fatten cattle for beef production. Cows sustained on corn are called corn-fed or grain-fed. In the United States, most grass-fed cattle are raised for beef production. Dairy cattle are usually supplemented with grain to increase the efficiency of production and reduce the area (e.g., farm land) needed to support the energy requirements of the herd. Noris never feeds corn to their cows. Why? The answer is simple: cows are biologically incompatible with corn.

Cows –like sheep and deer– have a very unique ability to digest grass. Grass is abundant, simple to produce, hearty, and can be converted easily to valuable protein by a cow’s unique digestive system, one that ferments the grasses in the cow’s ‘rumen’ (a fermentation chamber in a cow’s digestive system), enabling their body to do that which ours cannot: digest grass. Unfortunately, corn is not grass, and in fact has a powerful, negative impact on a cow’s body.

In addition to adding antibiotics to grain (e.g., corn) feed as a growth stimulant, they’re also routinely added for the primary purpose of helping the cow’s digestive system deal with the rigor of attempting to process a food that is incompatible with its body. Some antibiotics fed to cattle are designed to help control bloat as well as metabolic acidosis, a condition which can lead to death. Cows are also commonly fed high levels of an antibiotic called tylosin –similar to erythromycin– which, in addition to promoting growth, cuts down on the incidence of liver disease, an ailment that increases dramatically for cattle living on a corn-fed diet.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, cattle now consume 70 percent of the antibiotics in the United States due almost entirely to their inability to digest corn. In addition to the potential pass-through of antibiotic agents into the milk supply, this practice widely contributes to the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, posing a major public health threat.

You can read more about industrial agriculture and cows’ unique ability to process grass (and inability to process corn) in Michael Pollan’s 2002 interview with Terry Gross. For a great review of the Omnivore’s Dilemma, check out this article from the Wall Street Journal, as listed on Pollan’s Web site.

So, What’s the Bottom Line?

Noris Dairy is a local family business that produces a high quality, environmentally responsible and sustainable product, making it virtually unmatched in the marketplace. Noris is also an anomaly in a landscape littered with shuttered family farms and corporate farm machines; the former a result of market forces that propelled the the latter to great power and great profit, all at the expense of health, quality and sensitivity to community and the environment.

Fortunately, quality, healthy dairy products are readily available to Portlanders. Yes, Noris products are typically more expensive then comparable organic products from a grocery store. For example, 1-gallon of Noris milk is $6 (delivered), whereas 1-gallon of ultra-pasteurized, homogenized organic milk from Trader Joe’s (source unknown) is about $5.50.  Comparatively, one-half gallon of Organic Valley milk (source unknown) sold at Fred Meyer is $3.30 (as of January 21). A small increase in price is well worth the quality and knowledge that you’re doing the right thing for your family, community and environment. What’s more, the selection of products is fantastic.

Noris Dairy produces a wide variety of milk and milk products, including genuine farm cheeses (the tasty, stinky variety), sour cream and butter. Noris milk is available in several options and sizes, and all sizes below 1-gallon arrive in a returnable glass bottle (requires deposit). What’s more, Noris Dairy also raises chickens, producing organic, free-range eggs right at the Noris farm. Lastly, Noris produces their own whole-milk yogurt, as well as providing the organic milk that produces delicious Yami yogurt, lovingly crafted in Auburn, Washington. Noris offers all of these items (and more) for weekly delivery right to your doorstep.

nothing tastes better than local microfoam.

Last that I heard from their driver, Noris now delivers dairy products to some 500 customers in the Portland area every week, in addition to supplying dairy products to a variety of specialty grocers (e.g., Food Front, People’s Co-op, etc.). Noris products were spotted on the shelves of Whole Foods in downtown Portland, and used to grace the shelves of New Seasons. The Little Red Bike Cafe in Portland also uses Noris milk in their daily operations.

To start receiving Noris deliveries at your home, simply download an order form from the Noris Web site and then call to place the order, or simply fax in a completed form. I recommend calling before you order for the first time to see what day they will be delivering in your neighborhood. When your delivery day arrives, simply place a cooler on your porch, leave a check for the correct amount, and the driver will take care of the rest. Franz no longer delivers to our home, replaced by a nice chap piloting a smaller truck. Once you’ve received your first delivery, expect the driver to arrive each week thereafter. For subsequent weeks, you don’t need to phone/fax in advance; just leave your payment along with a completed order form in/on the cooler.

For me, purchasing dairy products from Noris has proven a very positive step in improving the health of my family, community and environment. What’s more, it’s easy to notice the superiority of the product –it just tastes better. In this age of corporate farming, buying Noris milk helps maintain a family farm committed to a value-set that’s been pushed nearly to extinction. It’s also one small way to show a competitive, cost-trumps-all market that consumers have the power to propel health and quality over inferior foods from unknown sources, sold at commodity prices.

According to Salon.com, in an article from 2005:

…some small dairy farmers say the big dairies are squeezing them off the shelf… Franz Wenz, owner of Noris Dairy Inc., the only independent organic milk producer and bottler in the Northwest, says only large operations like Organic Valley and Horizon can afford to spend big bucks on flashy marketing and offer supermarkets exclusive deals at lower prices.

“The big guys can bury us,” says Wenz, an Austrian native with bushy eyebrows and heavy jowls. “They can make exclusive deals and say, ‘You just take our product and we’ll give you a good deal.’ The stores don’t understand that they’re hurting themselves when they depend on just one company that can then control the price.”

To stay in business, Wenz and his family have carved out a niche by selling and personally delivering their glass-bottled milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream and sour cream directly to more than 300 customers in the Portland and Eugene area. Wenz says he and his family intend to stick it out, despite hard financial times.

Stick it out they have, and I couldn’t be more appreciative.