--- title: The Latest Foodie Trend Is Small-Batch Milk for $14 a Gallon description: Mom-and-pop dairies are staying afloat by capitalizing on the eat-local trend, offering small batch, artisanal milk for $14 a gallon. authors: - name: Martha C. White role: Writer url: https://money.com/author/martha-c-white/ education: BA, English, Princeton University at_money_since: 2015 articles: 350 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Federal Reserve Rate Cuts - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology published: '2016-04-13T14:04:52.000Z' modified: '2016-04-13T14:04:52.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - artisan foods - foodies - grocery prices - Milk - Millennials - pubdesk word_count: 228 canonical: https://money.com/local-organic-milk-small-batch-trend/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Branden Brown pours milk at Trinity Valley Dairy in East Homer, N.Y., March 25, 2016. Trinity Valley began bottling its own products in 2014 in addition to selling raw milk to commercial processors. Brown, who runs the farm with his wife and her parents, said they were losing money after years of low prices, and saw the chance to charge more for premium products.](https://img.money.com/2016/04/160413_em_hipstermilk.jpg) *Trinity Valley Dairy in upstate New York* Maybe it was inevitable: The small-batch, locally-made foodie trend that’s swept through everything from beer to chocolate to poultry is now reaching a new frontier: the humble milk jug. The low wholesale price of milk has left many mom-and-mom dairy farms struggling, and millennial entrepreneurs with an interest in organic and local food are setting their sights on boutique, high-end dairies as a lucrative niche in a tough market. At smaller dairies, milk is pasteurized at a lower temperature, which proponents say make for a better-tasting, more nutritious glass of milk. Some purveyors, like 35-year-old Travis Pyykkonen in Chicago, further distinguish themselves by selling milk from cows that nosh on grass instead of grain, the *[New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/13/dining/milk-dairy-locavore.html)* said. But this artisanal milk doesn't come cheap. Pyykkonen, who drew a parallel with his operation and the burgeoning craft beer trend, charges $7 for a half-gallon. [![Best college education image](https://content.money.com/wp-content/themes/money2018/img/college-site-banner-02.png)](https://best-colleges.time.com/money/search-colleges/?xid=cm-mcpFindTheCollegeWidget) That may sound outrageous, but it might just save small dairy farmers. At Trinity Valley farm in upstate New York, 26-year-old owner Branden Brown said the decision to capitalize on the local-food craze and invest in facilities to bottle and sell his farm's own milk directly rather than just selling to wholesalers has sustained the business. "Farmers have three options: You get a niche and process your own milk, you get bigger, or you get out of dairy farming,” he told the *Times*. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/local-organic-milk-small-batch-trend/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Health and Wellness", "item": "https://money.com/health-and-wellness/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The Latest Foodie Trend Is Small-Batch Milk for $14 a Gallon" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/local-organic-milk-small-batch-trend/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/local-organic-milk-small-batch-trend/", "name": "The Latest Foodie Trend Is Small-Batch Milk for $14 a Gallon", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-04-13T14:04:52.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/local-organic-milk-small-batch-trend/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/local-organic-milk-small-batch-trend/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-04-13T14:04:52.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "The Latest Foodie Trend Is Small-Batch Milk for $14 a Gallon", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/04/160413_em_hipstermilk.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1367, "caption": "160413_EM_HipsterMilk" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Martha C. White", "url": "https://money.com/author/martha-c-white/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/martha-c-white/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/martha.png?w=350&h=430&crop=1", "jobTitle": "Writer", "alumniOf": "BA, English, Princeton University", "worksFor": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-04-13T14:04:52.000Z", "description": "Mom-and-pop dairies are staying afloat by capitalizing on the eat-local trend, offering small batch, artisanal milk for $14 a gallon.", "abstract": "Mom-and-pop dairies are staying afloat by capitalizing on the eat-local trend, offering small batch, artisanal milk for $14 a gallon.", "@id": "https://money.com/local-organic-milk-small-batch-trend/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2016-04-13T14:04:52.000Z", "wordCount": 228, "keywords": [ "artisan foods", "foodies", "grocery prices", "Milk", "Millennials", "pubdesk" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Health", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health" ] } ] } ] } ```