Getting raw/real kefir, buttermilk, and yogurt to market

Hi Adam,
I have enjoyed your posts for a long time. I have been trying to buy pastured organic kefir, buttermilk and yogurt and I'm wondering why it's so hard to find. People spend billions on yogurt each year. I realize almost all of it is sugar candy yogurt. There was a big study that just came out of ENgland I think extolling the value of fermented dairy products for health. They also taste good and are very flexible culinarily. Civilizations have been built on them. I don't understand why they're so hard to find. Can you talk about the challenges of that and how one might find that kind of stuff?
Thanks,
John S
PDX OR

So I have no idea! If I lived in an area with a larger population base, my dream for the dairy is to never sell milk, and be a raw yogurt herdshare producer. Yogurt is many times more profitable, the value adding process is easy, and the finished product is very stable when stored in a refrigerator.

I think the marketplace is ripe for producers to do the above. Of course, like Joel Salatin says, 'Everything I Want to Do is Illegal,' so there is always that concern. I think though that with cleaver utilization of the existing herdshare laws, offering yogurt would be possible. I know people who are doing it successfully, without any government harassment.

As for the consumer end of the equation, I don't know how you would source it. In my book I describe the technique for making 'raw milk yogurt', which combines the microbes of raw milk with the cultures of yogurt to create a dairy superfood.

Producers? You hear this man's questions? He wants to buy your value added products! I am describing how to do it successfully! C'mon farmers, make some money!

hope that helps!

This is one of those areas. In Kansas, you can sell raw milk ON THE FARM, you can't even advertise off the farm. You can sell raw milk cheese, if it is aged at least six months. To sell a raw fresh value add product is not allowed. I don't know if shares would be a way around those laws.

I think the laws are going to change. The government thought, "We can't afford to have any risk." SO they pasteurized all milk, killed most of the good stuff, and people now eat fried sugary white flour with salt in it. No risk of immediate disease, huge risk of chronic obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. It's actually not a risk anymore, but an absolute guarantee. I think they've got to realize what's happening. Many places now allow local chickens that didn't before, and Oregon didn't allow advertising for raw milk products, but they just passed a law to allow it. We still only have herdshare agreements, but no direct sales. I believe it will change. I think it's probably about a critical mass of people saying, "You've got to allow this!"
John S
PDX OR