Food-Greener Challenge
Eliza
University of Alabama
PGC Day 5
This weekend is Fall Break weekend for the University of
Alabama so I’m home in the charming town of High
Point, NC. Since I’m here, I decided to
take a closer look at a milk factory
located right on Main Street—Hunter
Farms. They supply the local grocery
store, Harris Teeter, so the majority of
milk I have had in my life has probably come from this one
company!
To conduct my interview, I sent the following email to the Quality Assurance Manager,
Gene Walton.
Dear Mr. Walton,
I'm Eliza Sheffield, a University of Alabama student (from High Point, NC) doing a
project on local companies and the sustainable methods they practice. Growing up in
High Point, I have passed by the Hunter Farms milk factory on Main Street probably
millions of times and enjoyed Harris Teeter dairy products all my life, but I've never been
inside the actual factory. Would you mind answering a few quick questions for my
project?
1. What do you do at your job at Hunter Farms?
2. Where are the farms where the milk cows live?
3. How often are they milked?
4. Are extra hormones given to the cows?
5. What is one of Hunter Farms's practices that you would call "sustainable" and why?
Thank you so much!
Sincerely, Eliza Sheffield
He hasn’t gotten back to me yet, so I did a little investigation
on my own.
My results were encouraging—Hunter Farms gets their milk
from cows that have no artificial hormones added (rBGH)! I
couldn’t find where the cows
live—the website just
said Producer
Associations or Milk
Cooperatives. Hunter
Farms manufactures
about 22 million gallons
per year—think of all the
well-treated cows! According to the website, the cows eat a
nutrient-filled diet of natural
grains and vitamins. Once the
milk has been harvested, the cow
returns outside to graze. The milk
then goes through a number of
tests and procedures, a lot of
which make sure there are no
bad bacteria in the milk. The milk
is
then pasteurized, homogenized, and butterfat adjusted.
It’s a fascinating process! Also, because they are a local
company, supporting them is sustainable for High Point’s
economy. From what I can tell, this local business practices
sustainable farming and I am happy that my family
supports them by buying their milk and ice cream. (You can
check out http://www.hunterfarms.com to learn more!)
Hey! He replied to my email! Here’s
what he said!
Dear Ms. Sheffield,
First, let me thank you and your family for being long time customers of Harris Teeter,
our parent company.
That being said, I will try to answer your questions as accurately as possible without
being boring.
1. I am Quality Assurance Manager. As such I am responsible for maintaining our food
safety programs, dealing with all regulatory agencies, maintaining the laboratory
including materials, equipment, staffing and scheduling, and handling customer
communications.
2. Most of our milk supply comes from Virginia and North Carolina, with organic milk
coming from North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
3. Most farms milk twice daily, once each 12 hours, though a few are on a 3 times daily
schedule.
4. Hunter Farms buys milk from farmer's co-ops and some years ago had requested that
all milk received at Hunter Farms be hormone free.
The co-ops agreed to this and have
certified that our milk supply is hormone free.
5. The closest thing to sustainability here is our corrugated paperboard handling. Several
of our customers want their products shipped in corrugated paperboard cases. We also
receive most of our ingredients(except milk) and containers in corrugated boxes. These
boxes when emptied, are baled up for recycling into the new boxes which we will fill for
our customers.
I hope that was a decent attempt at answering your questions.
Sincerely,
Gale Walton
I learned so much through doing this
task today. This has been my favorite
assignment so far!