Hawaii’s Fresh Milk

Last month I visited one of only two remaining dairies in Hawaii, in Honoka’a on the Big Island. We decided to visit their operation after reading that the owner is planning to provide water beds and piped in classical music for the cows.

Owner Bahman Sadeghi has approximately 1,000 cows in his herd and about 200 calves on 2,500 acres. His herd of 800 productive cows (around 200 are not milking at any one time), which are predominantly pasture fed, produces roughly 4,200 gallons of milk a day, about 5-6 gallons per cow per day. He is very passionate about his dairy farming and is concerned about the happiness and well-being of his cows and workers. He said happy cows produce lots of milk and cows can't be happy if the people working with them are not happy.

Aside from the water beds and music he is planning to install, one unique aspect of this dairy is that unlike most other dairies, the boy calves are not killed at birth or sold to vealers. Sadeghi said he could not kill the calves himself, and thus could not ask someone else to do it either.

We are now selling Island Dairy’s milk in our Honolulu and Kahului stores under the “Hawaii’s Fresh Milk” brand name. The milk comes pasteurized, but not ultra-pasteurized, which makes for a better product, and which is very important to customers who are knowledgeable about milk.

Island Dairy is not organic, but Sadeghi is interested in pursuing organic certification. Under State of Hawaii law Sadeghi says he is not allowed to use the milk from cows that are undergoing antibiotic treatment, which is much the same as the organic standard and he does not use hormones. So hopefully Down to Earth will be able to carry local, pasture-fed and organic milk in our stores soon! It is a good local product and we encourage our customers to support this dairy.

Mark Fergusson

Chief Vegetarian Officer