Thank a Cow

Does anything on Earth go better with warm, gooey chocolate chip cookies than a nice, tall, ice-cold glass of milk? What about with s’mores, their chocolatey, marshmallow-y center sliding out around the edges of two crunchy graham cracker squares?

To me, milk is pretty much the perfect drink. If you agree, you’ll love From Grass to Milk (cover pictured). This book starts out in a bucolic field, where two black-and-white cows munch grass swaying amid golden dandelions. It progresses to a barn, where milking machines help farmers milk the cows, their milk flowing into large glass cooling tanks. We then see a refrigerated truck carrying the milk from the farm to a factory. At the factory, the milk is cleaned, pasteurized, transferred into jugs, and, finally, shipped to stores, where we pick it up, bring it home, and enjoy it at our kitchen tables.

From Grass to Milk brings new appreciation for what it takes to get a glass of milk into our hands. It turns drinking milk (something I already love) into a mindful and, dare I say it, even meditative experience. I think it’s so important to remember that food doesn’t just magically materialize at our nearest big-box store. It takes many hands to produce products like milk. So, the next time you drink some milk, thank a farmer—and the truck drivers, factory workers, grocery workers, and (of course!) the cows that made the drink possible. I know I will.