nourishing the people

Nourishment is a sexy word and naturally conjures up the warm and fuzzy sentiments—the extra-special things—that make us feel, well, nourished. These are the things we are wont to explore and write about. But what about those everyday commodities that nourish us behind the scenes? Those things—such as milk or water—so common, yet so important to our daily nourishment. We take them for granted. Is milk just not sexy enough to warrant our attention?

While most of us think of nourishment in terms of our own experience, there are some, like my brother-in-law, who can’t think about nourishment without thinking about those who nourish us. For Kevin Kouri, a dairy nutritionist from Burlington, Vermont, understanding what it takes to get the milk from the cow to the table is a part of what he does every day. He visits the farmers of Franklin County; he listens to their stories and helps troubleshoot their dilemmas. He’s not only a consultant, but a friend and confidant. His phone is always on, even on weekends. That’s just the nature of the business.

Here Kevin helps us dig a little deeper for the story behind milk and explains why we should all try to understand a little bit more.



Nourishment comes in many different forms for me. Playing golf with friends and family, skiing down the slopes of the Green Mountains, taking in a day on the waterfront or watching the people on Church Street in downtown Burlington, spending time with my beautiful wife and my English black lab are all things that gives me fulfillment and nourishment.

What I would like to explore in this short essay about nourishment is not what I find nourishing to my own body, mind or soul. Instead, I would like to focus on those individuals who bring nourishment to all of the people who reside on this planet: farmers.

Farmers are purveyors of all things good, natural, clean, healthy and pure. They are stewards of the land and protectors of the environment. As consumers of their goods, we do not celebrate enough their hard work, commitment and sacrifice they make to support our own lifestyle. Popular press articles about agriculture typically spin a story about big agriculture and the pollution it generates. It’s convenient for us to read these stories and believe they are true, without seeking out the truth on our own. I hope that I can convince the readers of this essay to seek their own truth about agriculture.

Farmers’ markets have sprung up as the new vogue thing in the last couple of years. We have taken ourselves out of the grocery stores to shop directly from the small-scale producers and support local agriculture. As a person who works day in and day out in the agricultural world, I find this enlightening and beneficial to our environment and economy. When I stroll the Burlington farmers’ market I see signs boasting catch-phrases like “local,” “community-supported,” “organic,” “natural,” “hormone- and pesticide- free,” “family,” “low-intensive” and “sustainable.” Words that make us consumers feel great, happy to buy what they have to sell, and that we did our good deed for the day.

The idea of “big agriculture” isn’t so recent and in the United States dates as far back as the early Twentieth Century when U.S. agriculture saw a tremendous boom primarily due to World Wars I and II. The largest growth tended to be the dairy sector. Not only did we need to supply milk and cheese to our troops and foreign allies, but also we needed to feed the citizens of Europe. This forced the agriculture industry to grow in order to meet the demand. Over time the phrase of “big agriculture” has become ugly and some people feel that big farmers, primarily livestock and dairy farmers, are ruining the landscape and the environment.

These forces have started to collide pinning small agriculture vs. big agriculture. This is bad policy and it could signal the change to the future of agriculture in Vermont and other New England states.

Both can exist and they should exist. How is a 500, 1000, or even 2000 cow dairy farm bad? Have you ever stepped onto a farm of this size or seen the regulations they must follow for animal husbandry and environmental protection? Would you ever consider they are milking that many cows because the farmer has a family of 10-15 sons and daughters who all work and hold stake in the farm and who are each supporting their own family? Some dairy farms such as these support 20-30 employees and must provide a livable wage with health insurance and sometimes a 401K plan for all of them.

This is not big agriculture this is the size of a farm that can sustain its family members with a livable wage during good years, and provides jobs to citizens of the community. The farmers work an honest day to make an honest product that we all enjoy. So if size is the issue, remember what comes with that size and the families that operate these dairies, big or small. These are third- and even fourth-generation farms that have cared and nurtured the land year after year to bring a product like milk to everyone’s table. To make a product that is pure, safe and wholesome.

Currently, most consumers do not buy locally made milk. As a region, we are short on providing milk due to large fluid markets such as New York City and Boston. So a lot of milk flows in from the West. If we want to buy locally supported produce and meat at the Burlington Farmers Market, we should make the same conscious decision at the dairy case.

Read and ask questions. It’s up to us as consumers to understand where our food comes from and what is behind it. If we do not try to understand, then it’s too easy for policy makers and lobby groups to dictate the future of our food sources. Agriculture needs to have a unified voice not a divided force.

I am a believer in regional food production and I feel dairy needs to be number one in this category. Agriculture is the number one revenue-generating industry in the state followed by tourism. It is not IBM, Burton, General Dynamics, UVM or Pratt and Whitney that are the number-one employers in this great state of Vermont—it is the farmers.

Next time you drive by a big dairy on 22A in Addison County or on Route 105 in Enosburg Falls, try not to focus on the fact that the farm smells or looks intrusive in such a pretty landscape. Instead think about the number of people working there—the people who are caring for the land and animals—and the family that’s trying to make a living like everyone else.

—Kevin M. Kouri, M.S., Dairy Nutritionist/Sales, Poulin Grain, Inc.