Dairy Confusion

Well we avoided Whole Foods, ok not purposelessly  avoid but were under a time crunch and had some recycling to take back so that put us at Safeway.

We needed

-2% milk

-Butter

-Half/Half

Safeway had organic options for all of these.  Safeway's Lucerne brand was a steal at $2.99/gal as opposed to Horizons on sale $5.99/gal. After a mini-meltdown of what to do hubby said lets research it.  So we went w/Lucerne milk that is packaged in Oakland which is about 100miles from here.  I did go w/Horizon for the half/half but found it made the journey from Colorado to make it to my morning coffee cup which seems like a pretty long trip.  The butter (full creamed  butter cause you know it makes everything delicious) Lucerne again with another steal of 1.99 for a pack. 

So I got home and tried really hard to find info for where Lucerne get's it milk from, what dairy farms where?! I am still in the dark I have no idea from best I can tell there are dairy farms all around Point Reyes & other places in California. The farmers sell their milk to a co-op which Safeway buys from.   If anyone has any info about this I would appreciate it.  Safeway will not buy any dairy that has been treated with Growth Hormones although my opinion that seems to be the norm now.

Poor Horizon Dairy has had their own sets of 'you just can't win em's)  with claims of them not being truly organic. Google that and so many stories and articles come up your head will spin. I believe they are organic sometimes crap happens it just is driving home the questions is it better I get something local or something far away but from the land of organic?

  Do I feel better that my organic milk came from 1300 miles to get into my cup of coffee? Or do I go with knowing my milk came from mystery California cows but from what part/farm?

So this chicken needs to do more dairy research to make the best choice for my family.  

I gotta go to WholeFoods as sonn as I can get up the courage to spend   get there.  

The quest continues...