In a democracy, I think you have a responsibility.
If there were two jugs of milk on the shelf, one subsidized costing $3, one not subsidized costing $6, I’d pick the $6 because it is cheaper.
Externalized costs don’t disappear, they are socialized.
If that’s true, then I selected the wrong poll category! :smack: We probably go through about 8L of milk a week (just two of us… I love milk) and so we just buy it without really looking at the price. I thought it was still under $5 for 4 litres, but maybe not!
It is 1.99 at Kroger, cheaper at Aldis. But when is cows milk not organic?
When it’s processed, for example adding vitamins A and D to it, or if growth hormones are used on the cattle.
Seems I had my data wrong on the cost of milk in Stockholm - I was thinking of the price for a 1.5-liter carton. Revised to reflect the price of a liter of milk, a gallon of milk in Sweden would cost $3.97.
When it comes from ELECTRO-COWS!!!
Thanks for the explanation. But I don’t understand this part - I’ve never once seen two jugs of ordinary milk with such disparate prices in one store. My experience is that the price varies from town to town, not within one town or within one store. So how do you find the unsubsidized milk?
You don’t seem to get it. It doesn’t matte if you buy non-subsidized milk. You will still be paying for the subsidy. So you aren’t paying $6, you’re paying $9, when you have the choice to pay $6.
I see no reason not to take advantage of the subsidy as long as it exists. You for sure haven’t given any, as all the bad things you mention will still happen whether I personally buy the subsidized milk or not.
Or even if they are given preventative antibiotics. I actually know someone who raises cattle for less than a dollar a day per head (or even less), and she does it by letting natural selection thin out the herd. She uses this as evidence that organic is actually cheaper, at least in this context.
Also, I apparently misunderstood what my Dad was doing. He just gets it from a retail place that sells gallons at 2 for $5, which is the cheapest deal around here. He does the bulk thing with so many other things, I thought he did it with that, but it turns out the local wholesaler is actually more expensive than that retail deal. Apparently the retailer sells the milk at a loss.
$4.19 at Safeway, but every few weeks, it’s on sale for $2.99
Is that even ethical in this day and age? Seems to me health inspectors and the dairy authorities might take a dim view of this approach.
Actually we don’t use the word ‘organic’ here I only used it because it’s the american label most commonly used. Here we say ‘ecological’ and if something is ecologically grown or produced it means it uses ecologically sustainable methods. Like not using artificial pestecides or fertilizers.
It was a just theoretical construct to be used as an example.
Actually it is consumer influence. Just like if you decide to only buy hybrid cars, you will both stimulate the production of hybrids and decrease the demand for non-hybrids.
Your argument boils down to “it doesn’t matter what one individual does”. I think it does matter what you vote for with your ballot at election time, and I think it matters what you continually vote for with your money when you consume.
I get it for around 99cents all the time…
cuz…I buy the 3.5% milk for about 2 bucks or less, and then I dilute it myself down to around 2%.
Milk in a plastic bag?
Those crazy Canadians!
What else do they sell in bags? Coca Cola? beer?
137 yen/litre
= 137 * 3.78541178 = 518.601414 yen/gallon
= 6USD for a gallon
Jeebers! Didn’t know milk was so much cheaper in the US. But a gallon of milk? What do you people do with it? Water your lawns?
Oh, okay.
But how do you create consumer influence if unsubsidized milk isn’t even available where you are? Do you just not buy it at all?
I drink 1-2 glasses of milk a day and with the size of my glasses that comes out to about 15-30 oz of milk a day so I can easily go through a gal in around a week. Add in more than one person with similar habits and it goes pretty quick. When I was growing up my parents used to buy 2 gal at a time to keep up with my brother and I.
Oh and milk is usually on sale for around 2.30-2.80 at the Kroger I shop at. Thats in south Georgia.
I buy it at a convenience store that’s within walking distance. $3 a gallon seems reasonable since everything else is expensive (it’s in the high rent area in a college town).
By buying the expensive ecologically produced milk, thus showing myself to be less sensitive to price and more to quality as well as ethical/political connections.
The message I am sending is:
I don’t want ‘cheap’ products, I want ethically produced quality products. And I am willing to pay for them.
I agree with Manwich about the mind-bogglingness of a gallon bottle of milk (Google tells me a gallon is about 4.5 litres). How does that even fit in the fridge?
I’m not sure what 2% milk is, but I pay 0.86 GBP for 1 litre of skimmed milk, which converts to 5.98 USD per gallon.
1 gallon is equal to 3.79 liters. At least that’s what every conversion site I could find tells me.
ETA: I see where the confusion is. You were looking at dry gallons, not liquid gallons.