Local Milk Supply
Summary
Local farmer sells organic milk direct to locals using smart self service vending machine
Goals
To create a viable farming venture providing people with locally produced healthy Organic A2 milk at the farm gate. Our district has a lot of dairy farms but all the milk we consume from the supermarket comes from a supply chain centralized 400 k away and comes to us in toxic plastic containers.
Outcomes
Fitting the narrow government requirements that favour corporate monopolies, this model succeeds in allow each person to buy up to 5 litres a day from the farm gate using a really effective vending system as you can see in the photos. One vending machine allows you to buy a beautiful new 1 litre glass bottle for $2 that is totally reusable. The second machine takes money and dispenses milk. the dispenser steam sterilizes itself each time the door is shut. The farmer is well located near a school and between 2 populated parts of the district. The milk cost half what Organic milk costs in our supermarket.
Future Plans
My vision is that people of NZ who are concerned about the price, quality and environmental impact of milk start using these models on mass. Also co-operatives of milk buyers can buy their own dairy farms and set up their own distribution systems for those in cities. In Japan a group of housewives in the 1960's formed a buyers co-op (Seikatsu) because they were concerned about the price of milk. This has grown to represent 300,000 members, that trades NZ $1 Billion of foodstuffs each year, campaigns vigorously against GE and on other safe food issues. They own farms and other businesses and stand in local politics, Check out the website link with this story.