美国国家公共电台 NPR--The team at Planet Money dives into the milk industry of Montana

The team at Planet Money dives into the milk industry of Montana

Transcript¹

There are some pretty weird² state laws concerning food dates. A Montana law ensures Montanans have the freshest milk in the country. But that leads to good milk going down the drain everyday.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Two hundred twenty-six billion pounds of milk were produced in the U.S. last year. And out of all that milk, the state of Montana says it has the freshest in the country. It is so serious about that statement, in fact, that Montana forces stores to take milk off their shelves a lot earlier than other states. Sarah Gonzalez with our Planet Money podcast reports the rule has created a protective milk bubble around Montana.

SARAH GONZALEZ, BYLINE³: Milk in Montana has to be sold within 12 days of pasteurization.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Customer service on four, please. Customer service on four.

GONZALEZ: The industry standard for milk is 21 to 24 days.

CORY THOMPSON: So those are all good. Can you just check on those?

GONZALEZ: Cory Thompson is checking if any of the milk in his Montana grocery store has reached its 12-day sell-by date.

THOMPSON: These are dated. It's today, right? Yeah.

GONZALEZ: It's today.

THOMPSON: So we should pull those.

GONZALEZ: He pulls all the dated cartons and walks to the back where the mops are.

THOMPSON: We just throw them right in the garbage can. Like, literally⁴ just - that's it.

GONZALEZ: Just the whole, full, unopened cartons straight into the garbage.

Oh. Like, does it hurt you, like, a little bit?

THOMPSON: Well, it sucks, but.

GONZALEZ: But you can't sell it.

THOMPSON: Right.

GONZALEZ: Like, you're not allowed to sell it.

THOMPSON: Right.

GONZALEZ: OK. If these exact milk cartons, same brand and everything, were sold just next door in Idaho, they would not have to go in the trash yet. They could stay on the shelf for nine more days - in Oregon for 11 more days - because this is not bad milk, not even close.

Can I just taste it?

THOMPSON: Yeah.

GONZALEZ: All right. I'm just going to pull it out of the garbage here. I mean, it's, like, perfectly⁵ fine milk.

THOMPSON: Right.

GONZALEZ: The pasteurization science is the same, but food date rules are just different state to state. In Montana, the Department of Livestock⁶ is in charge of the 12-day sell-by rule.

MIKE HONEYCUTT: Now, I mean, the intent of this is about freshness and quality for the consumer.

GONZALEZ: Mike Honeycutt is with the department. And he says this rule protects very rural consumers - those that go to the grocery store once a month. Because if the shelf life for milk in a store is short, then customers can keep milk in their fridge at home for longer. And he says, if stores just stocked their shelves wisely, they can avoid wasting perfectly good milk because of this rule.

HONEYCUTT: Most of our retailers⁷ in the state do a very good job with buying and inventory⁸ control to avoid having large amounts of milk that ends up having to be thrown away.

GONZALEZ: So he says this is good for consumers. But you know who this is all really, really good for? Milk makers⁹ in the state. This rule makes everyone buy more milk more often. There are two big dairy processors in Montana and 45-ish pretty small dairy farms, and this rule kind of shuts out competition. Milk makers from outside the state, they don't really enter the market because by the time out-of-state milk got to Montana from, say, Texas, traveling slowly by truck, the milk would be so close to its not-based-on-science sell-by date that a store would only have a few days to sell it. Better to stock in-state milk. Almost 100% of milk in Montana does come from Montana - Montana cows, Montana processing plants. And there was a time when the 12-day sell-by rule didn't mean stores had to throw away milk. Greg Hertz owns five grocery stores in Montana. He's also a state lawmaker, Republican. And back in the 2000s, Greg Hertz says the two big dairy processors in the state used to take back all of the unsold milk from his stores at no cost.

GREG HERTZ: Oh, yeah. We'll take it back, and we'll trade you out for some new milk.

GONZALEZ: They do this because they could turn the milk into something else.

HERTZ: You know, like, maybe cheese, yogurt.

GONZALEZ: But then the two big dairy processors decided¹⁰ to stick to just making regular milk - no more cheese. That's when there was no place for unsold milk to go.

HERTZ: You could donate the milk, but it was in violation¹¹ of state law.

GONZALEZ: So you couldn't then.

HERTZ: Right.

GONZALEZ: I'm picking up that you did anyway.

HERTZ: Yeah.

GONZALEZ: Last year, the state clarified that you can actually donate milk past the sell-by date now. But it's just not always an option, like for Cory Thompson, who threw that milk in the garbage.

THOMPSON: And, like, our food bank here is awful small. They don't have a refrigerator, so they don't do milk at the food bank.

GONZALEZ: By the way, every gallon of milk that doesn't get consumed, 4 1/2 gallons of water went into making it. Sarah Gonzalez, NPR News.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

5 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

6 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

7 retailers   

零售商，零售店( retailer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• High street retailers reported a marked increase in sales before Christmas. 商业街的零售商报告说圣诞节前销售量显著提高。
• Retailers have a statutory duty to provide goods suitable for their purpose. 零售商有为他们提供符合要求的货品的法定义务。

8 inventory   

n.详细目录，存货清单

参考例句：

• Some stores inventory their stock once a week.有些商店每周清点存货一次。
• We will need to call on our supplier to get more inventory.我们必须请供应商送来更多存货。

9 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

11 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。