ABSTRACT
On 13 November 2010, the Guardian newspaper carried an article – ‘A tale of two herds’ – about ‘plans for an enormous super dairy, home to 8,000 cows’ (Lewis and Vidal, 2010). The article explored concerns about ‘intensive farming which has almost totally separated food and nature’, and contrasted the scale of the proposed farm with a herd of 44 cows tended by a Hare Krishna community on a farm in Hertfordshire. Producing much lower yields than the super dairy, the Hare Krishna milk, ‘at £3 a litre [ … ] will be the most expensive cows’ milk in Britain'. The article then carried out a taste test, inviting a panel to compare the Hare Krishna milk with regular milk. The panel consisted of the Guardian's environment editor, John Vidal; Sam Clark, the proprietor-chef of London restaurant Moro; and Rosie Sykes, a chef, food writer and contributor to the Guardian's Weekend supplement. All the panellists agreed that the Hare Krishna milk was superior, with Clark explaining how it could be used to make excellent cheese and yoghurt, and Sykes commenting that a ‘white sauce or a custard’ made with it ‘would be incredible’.
