Article by Rianne Chittenden
In our blog where we spoke about the quality of our ghee, we mentioned how every.working.piece that goes into the food that ends up on your plate helps to build the molecular structure of the food.
Being aware of where the food we consume comes from is imperative. When the quality of the soil is poor, when the animals involved are treated poorly, it impacts the molecular structure of the food and is more difficult for us to digest. When hormones and antibiotics are used, we consume them in the end as well. We, at Ahara Ghee, are not about any of this. We don’t want food on our plate that comes from poor conditions and we don’t want it on yours either.
Our ghee comes from cultured butter, made just for us, from the milk of happy cows on small farms in Ireland. Why not the USA anymore? Well, the answer is complex, but mostly, USA dairy standards have gone down in both animal welfare and final quality. The dairies that have continued to hold high standards have a lot less butter to sell for commercial purposes right now. While we are ALWAYS open to sourcing the most local dairy, should it meet our standards, we could not reliably source REAL cultured butter with the animal welfare and grassfed standards that you have come to expect from us in the pandemic times. The fact is, Ireland has always had higher standards for their dairy industry than the US and does not even allow chemicals such as gycosphate in their processes. So, while we could source product here, the product was of lower quality and higher price than it used to be.
Our cows, the featured Master Maker of this week, are treated well and live natural, slow-paced lives. No funny business or claims here. The Ireland Co-op of farmers, Glanbia Ingredients is Animal Welfare Approved by a Greener World (AGW) which is the only true pasture-based welfare label: no cages, crates or feedlots; no added hormones or sub-therapeutic antibiotics either. Our cows are also protected under the Truly Grassfed® logo which is a 3rd party verified certification with HIGHER grass-fed and anti-chemical regulations than The American Grass-fed Association® mark. It is the ONLY Grass-fed Certification to take Animal Welfare fully into account.
From Glanbia’s Story:
"Truly Grass Fed cows live how nature intended: outside and able to roam. They are free to leisurely graze on acres of lush, plentiful grass and enjoy their spacious surroundings for most of the year. When the temperature drops enough that grass growth slows down in the winter, our cows move inside and enjoy a diet of grass silage collected from the fields during summer, plus a small amount of concentrates for extra nutrition.”
Glanbia is just as transparent about their standards and regulations as we are. They truly care that their cows are lovingly tended to and are stress free. Once we have their cultured butter in our hands, we continue to show up on our end. We do hope you can taste the love, intention and dedication that goes into making our ghee. We do our research and have put in a lot of effort to ensure the ghee that ends up in your tummy is pure, fully digestible nourishment from happy moo's only.