Its high time for the population of Tamil Nadu to turn towards the convention in terms of its diet, as every primary food item of the people is getting caught in controversies. After the plastic rice, plastic egg row, it was the allegation of Tamil Nadu Dairy Minister Rajendra Balaji regarding adulteration in private milk and milk products, that has caused a high fear among the consumers.
Though, it is a very scary controversy as it has been raised by the minister himself, the allegation has helped organic-milk firms and local milkmen to gain momentum in their business.
People have started to move towards organic milk firms as they are believed to have a lot of stringent methods to raise cows. "We have been raising cows in traditional methods. We feed them only with fodder that are pesticide free and a completely organic diet. So, the quality of the milk will also be too good", said Jagan, who runs a startup organic dairy farm in Pallavapuram. According to him, the cost of organic milk will be little high as the investment for that is also high. "But, when it turns out to be mass production in a bigger dairy farm, it is easy to offer milk of same quality in still lower price", he added.
When asked what kind of cows they raise in the farm, Jagan said, "We raise cross breeds of cows only, but the way we raise them is traditional. So, we can trust on the quality of milk". He further added that most of the organic farms raise cross breeds of cows only. "Only bulls of native breeds exist and almost all cows are of cross breeds", he clarified.
On a similar note, S Kannan, a milkman from Thuraipakkam told, "People in our neighbourhood started to buy milk from our local milkmen. As our area has a lot of milkmen who raise cows in their homes, this area always has availability of home raised cattle milk in abundance". He, when answering to a query on the recent allegation by the dairy minister on milk adulteration, said, "Yes, it is not easy to trust the quality of packeted milk from private dairy firms. Most of them imply too much of artificial processes to pasteurize milk. They will also remove some amount of fat from the milk before packing. But in our milk the fat remains the same as we do not have any such processes".
Following this, when I asked about the usual claims of the people that local milk being adulterated with water, he smiled and said, "Yeah, that is a universally known fact and that is actually not adulteration. Usually there is proportion for mixing water in milk. That is what we do. I agree that some local milkmen mix more water, but that too will not affect the health of the consumer like the hazardous packeted milk". Anyhow, people will add water to milk when boiling it, Kannan added.
Seconding his version, Sankar Rajesh, a resident of Nehru Nagar in Thuraipakkam said, "We have changed to local milk as the complications in packeted milk is seeing a new height everyday. Despite the only issue of mixing water, there is no other problem other with local milk as it is not going to affect the health".
Sankar told that they are paying around Rs 50 per litre of local milk, which is Rs 10 higher than Aavin and other private milk brands. "Still, we also get some more advantages for the price we pay. The thickness and fat content in milk supplied by the local milkman can also be used to make homemade ghee and other milk dishes. This is not possible all the time in packeted milk as they lack in fat content", Sankar added.
- Santhosh Mathevan
Chennai, June 26, 2017.
This column, 'Third Law' will feature current affairs that breaks out to be the news of any day. In this column, I will try to figure out and put to the public debate, the reactions of any incident that might cause some serious effects on the society. Because, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Though, it is a very scary controversy as it has been raised by the minister himself, the allegation has helped organic-milk firms and local milkmen to gain momentum in their business.
People have started to move towards organic milk firms as they are believed to have a lot of stringent methods to raise cows. "We have been raising cows in traditional methods. We feed them only with fodder that are pesticide free and a completely organic diet. So, the quality of the milk will also be too good", said Jagan, who runs a startup organic dairy farm in Pallavapuram. According to him, the cost of organic milk will be little high as the investment for that is also high. "But, when it turns out to be mass production in a bigger dairy farm, it is easy to offer milk of same quality in still lower price", he added.
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| Representational image - Source: Internet |
On a similar note, S Kannan, a milkman from Thuraipakkam told, "People in our neighbourhood started to buy milk from our local milkmen. As our area has a lot of milkmen who raise cows in their homes, this area always has availability of home raised cattle milk in abundance". He, when answering to a query on the recent allegation by the dairy minister on milk adulteration, said, "Yes, it is not easy to trust the quality of packeted milk from private dairy firms. Most of them imply too much of artificial processes to pasteurize milk. They will also remove some amount of fat from the milk before packing. But in our milk the fat remains the same as we do not have any such processes".
Following this, when I asked about the usual claims of the people that local milk being adulterated with water, he smiled and said, "Yeah, that is a universally known fact and that is actually not adulteration. Usually there is proportion for mixing water in milk. That is what we do. I agree that some local milkmen mix more water, but that too will not affect the health of the consumer like the hazardous packeted milk". Anyhow, people will add water to milk when boiling it, Kannan added.
 |
| Representational image - Source: Internet |
Sankar told that they are paying around Rs 50 per litre of local milk, which is Rs 10 higher than Aavin and other private milk brands. "Still, we also get some more advantages for the price we pay. The thickness and fat content in milk supplied by the local milkman can also be used to make homemade ghee and other milk dishes. This is not possible all the time in packeted milk as they lack in fat content", Sankar added.
- Santhosh Mathevan
Chennai, June 26, 2017.
This column, 'Third Law' will feature current affairs that breaks out to be the news of any day. In this column, I will try to figure out and put to the public debate, the reactions of any incident that might cause some serious effects on the society. Because, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
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