The Great Milk Debate...

So I am at it again.  I'm thinking about bringing on dairy.  I've always said no to Dave when it comes to bringing on dairy and frankly, never gave him the option to even debate it.  Our friends/customers ask all the time and though I'm not so blunt with them as I am with Dave, I do explain my concerns and reasons for not wanting dairy on the farm.  But, here we are again.  Recently, I saw an article on the internet (we don't have television, so the internet is my way of getting the news) on the dairy industry wanting to add artificial sweetners into milk, without notifying the customers of this ingredient, in order to make it sweeter so more kids will drink it.  I personally think milk is sweet enough and there's nothing like a glass of milk and cookies (what I am drinking right now as I type this...along with some Thin Mints...thank you Girl Scouts in Dave's class).  As soon as the Pediatrician gave me the okay to give David milk at a year old, I started giving it to him with every meal.  We LOVE milk!  We go through 6-7 gallons a week for the three of us that are allowed to drink it.  Can't even imagine how much we will go through when the little one starts chugging it down.  We spend about $1200 a year on milk alone.  That's a lot of money.  I could put that towards a new lawnmower instead of driving the one that we have around where I have to stop periodically to fill up the front tire with air, or give it a jump everytime I want to start it. 

I am bothered by the possible addition of artificial sweetners to milk.  I make sure to avoid them at all costs if possible.  I try my best to grow/raise all of the food we consume so I know what I am putting into my children's bodies.  Dave and I were only going to raise beef, then we really researched how chickens are raised and what is being put into them.  The same goes for pigs, which is why we have both now.  I know I can't avoid all the junk that goes into our foods.  I'm no different than anyone else; I enjoy a good healthy serving of Oreo cookies or Fudge Rounds for a snack.  I'm not going to stop enjoying store bought snacks periodically, but I do want to have as much control over what we eat as much as possible.  Besides, I don't think I have the talents to make my own cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese, etc. that they are going to add sweetners to as well. 

One would wonder why I am going crazy over this, something so simple as artificial sweetners.  Perhaps this is just the proverbial straw the broke the camel's back?  This might be the thing that simply sends me over the edge...