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  • Free milk in Ekiti schools… Lessons from Pottenger’s cats

    Free milk in Ekiti schools… Lessons from Pottenger’s cats

    Ekiti State school children and their parents must still be discussing their gains from CHILDREN’S DAY 2025. WHY NOT? The Federal Government promised to restore free lunch for primary school children, and the state government said it would back it with free lunch milk. The federal lunch pack may include poultry egg or beef. Many parents and children lovers are clapping for Federal Government and Ekiti State Government. The Nigerian milk industry will rejoice as well. Here is a huge market for it, at last. For some time, the milk industry has been running expensive advertisement in the mass media which links milk consumption by children with mental acuity, improved physical endurance and robust health. However, the results of Professor Pottenger’s experiment do not agree with this nutrition claims. As a natural nutrition advocate, I am concerned about feeding children with pasteurised or canned cow’s milk because, unknown to many persons, it may make the girls aggressive, the boys docile, impact them with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) which can make them to become inattentive, academic weaklings, apart from predisposing them later in life to bone degeneration, fertility problems and shortened life spans, among several other health dangers not easily associated with milk consumption. 

    Thanks to Professor Francis Pottenger Jr, a doctor and researcher who opened the eyes of humanity to these possibilities. Over ten years, he carried out a study with 900 cats on the effect of cooked food and raw food on health, behaviour, fertility and longevity of cats.

    Immediately I heard of this study about 30 years ago and l checked the findings, I erased from my diet such things as milk, poultry egg, poultry chicken and turkey, nake sugars, bread and fried foods… and got my children off them as a dutiful parent before they went to boarding school.

    I discovered more of the problems which milk consumption may contribute to health challenges from several nutrition studies especially the one now popularly called Professor Pottenger’s Cats. Off the cuff, I can say that cow’s milk can cause ATTENTION DEFICIT and HYPER ACTIVITY Disorder (ADHD) which is widespread among school children, and SCATTER BRAIN syndrome among some adults. To start with, cows milk is DENSE MILK. That mean it is milk which Mother Nature designed for a huge animal that would walk on the day its is born. Mother Nature is so wise that the design milk of a different nutritional consistency for a human baby that would require between nine months and one year to walk. Doesn’t this immediately suggest they could be something wrong in feeding infants and children with cow’s milk? If the cow’s milk industry encourages us to ignore this idea,what of the fact that cow’s milk is an acidic substance which causes ACIDOSIS in the body. In THE NEW BIOLOGY OF HEALTH, it is no longer news that acid-forming foods acidify the body, harm it and may even kill it with diseases. Germs grow in acidic environment, inject their toxins and other wastes into it, thereby causing the eliminating or excretory organs and immune system to overwork themselves. Is the way not paved to sickness and death when they crumble? On the pH SCALE, cow’s milk is slightly Acidic at between 6.4 and 6.8 depending on several factors, while egg Albumen, slightly Alkaline, is between 7.6 and 8.0 and the yolk is 6.0 to 6.5, whereas the body achieve radiant health on 7.364 on the 0-14 pH Scale of which 7.0 is the MEDIAN. Getting the body pH to journey from 6.0 pH to 7.364 is no mean dietary, medical and hydration tasks. So, why do we indulge in acidifying the body?

    Density and acidosis are not the only dangers to health in the consumption of cow’s milk. Of serious threats as well are the anti-health products which are present in processed and unprocessed cow’s milk. To start with, shall we wonder what we would make of a human woman whose breasts produce milk all the days of her life, even when she is not pregnant or breast-feeding? Instinctively, we sense that something is wrong with that woman. However,, why do we not sense abnormality in a cow that is producing milk all of its life or of a hen that is laying egg every day or every other day! Why this abnormalities have arisen is because the cow is FORCED to produce milk and the hen is FORCED to lay egg. Anything that is forced to happen is not natural and can, therefore, not bear good fruits. What forced the cow and the hen to be abnormally productive is a set of chemical called HORMONES which are injected into them to quicken or “fast forward “ activities of their reproductive systems. The most dominant is ESTROGEN. This hormone is present in humans, more in the female than in the male. Thus, ESTROGEN is what makes a woman womanly while another dominant hormone in the male, TESTOSTERONE, from the testes, is what gives men their manly peculiarities. There are other hormones in men and women which COUNTER BALANCE these hormones. Thus, we cannot clap for the milk industry that is giving us more estrogen on cow’s milk or the poultry industry that is doing the same for us in the poultry egg and in the poultry chicken flesh and poultry turkey flesh. One of the bad aspects of dairy milk and poultry egg and chicken is that the ESTROGEN they feed these animals with or inject into their bodies is CHEMICAL ESTROGEN. Worse still is the overload of ESTROGEN in the bodies of boys and girls, men and women who comsume lots of cow’s milk and lots of poultry egg and chicken. In girls, it can cause PREMATURE PUBERTY, in which a girl of nine or 10 years may develop adult-like breasts and begin to menstruate. In such girls, the HORMONAL BALANCE may spike ESTROGEN level. This may cause an abnormal elevation of another hormone called PROLACTIN. When this comes in tow, PROLACTIN shut down the ovaries and OVULATION STOPS. Naturally, it is PROLACTIN that the brain sends to the ovaries to stop egg production in a monthly cycle once pregnancy is confirmed,to prevent a second pregnancy occuring alongside the established one. Thus, when ESTROGEN has broken its limits in the hormonal matrix, and it brings up prolactin in tow and ovulation stops (annovulation), the NIPPLES may begin to produce secretions, pregnancy or not. Many adults women go through this menacing experience without realising that their problems may have come from cow’s milk or poultry egg and chicken flesh, unless their doctors are nutrition conscious and remember to educate them accordingly.

    A woman’s problems is not limited to the foregoing. She may develop PRE-MENSTRUAL SYNDROME, sensitive breasts, breasts tumours or even breast cancer, and uterine challenges such as endometriosis, uterine fibroids, menstrual muscle cramps and allied experiences. These challenges are not confined to adult women. Girls, too, experience them. In the 1980s, a primary school teacher in Shomolu, Lagos, informed me that one of the pupils in her school developed breast cancer! She died!

    As for boys and men, there have been clinical presentations in which ESTROGEN levels exceeded their boundaries. Men so afflicted experience low sperm count and other sperm problems. As for boys, they may suffer from stunted genitalia and flabby muscles.

    All of these are an aside. Where I am heading is, ADAHD and Professor Pottenger’s cats. Before I head there, however, I would like to make a confession.

    CONFESSION

    I was a cow milk and poultry egg boy at school and as a young man until, PROVIDENCE helped me out of them. Back in school, my favourite cow’s milk was CONDENSED MILK. The first child of my parents in the second generation of literate parents, I was raised on OSTER MILK. Nevertheless, I grew up thin, for my age irrespective of quarterly de-worming at the West African Drugs Company in Ibadan. In school, I tried to help myself out on WATE-ON, a fat building formula purchased with my pocket money. By the time I turned 21 and began work on THE DAILY TIMES newspaper as a trainee sub-editor in 1971, I thought I needed to broaden by chest, grow taller and grow biceps, to have more manly appearance. So, I DEVOLVED, I would say, into more egg and milk. My favourite formula was a quarter table glass of ECGOVIN, an egg and alcohol food supplement into which I dissolved one or two raw eggs and emptied a cane of cow’s milk! It was a terrible time in my life. I developed such bloating in the stomach and intestine that couldn’t eat more than one slice of bread without feeling like vomiting and developing shortness of breath.The job, too, did not help matters. It was so pressure and dealine bound, as it still is today and may ever be, that I was confined to meals of meat pie and soft drinks. In the end, I was taken to my maternal grandfather, who helped me out as I thought death was approaching. Incidentally, two of my cousins died at that time, and I had thought I was next in line. Stupid me, I did not ask for the healing formula which I suspect may have included ELECTRIC FISH ( Eja ojiji r:rdmm, in Yoruba). Had I, would I have taken a salaries job for the rest of my life? These experiences, journalism and travel in Europe and in the United State,would exposed me to how the milk, poultry chicken and egg industries were damaging human health in the crave for money and covering its tracks with beautiful advertisements. I was privileged once to visit in the Netherlands the international factory of a popular cow milk brand sold worldwide. I saw how the company collected fresh cow’s milk from cow farmers every day in milk tankers, emptied it into huge tanks into which some preservatives were poured. The milk could be there for months before it was piped to the production lines, boiled, embalmed with preservatives, canned and packaged for shipping. That was in the days of ignorant. I drank of this milk and thought it was better than any milk brand I even brought back home large packages of cheese. Thus, the milk we drank in Nigeria may have been stored for years!

    ADHD

    Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder is one of the reasons many children are not doing well at school and preservatives colouring and flavours in foods are cornerstones of these wide-spread problems. It makes some children unable to concentrate on school work for more than ten minutes. Do not forget that the cow is given many antibiotic and anti-viral injection and several hormones which end up as residues in the milk. Remember the same happens to egg. I mention egg because it is likely to feature in the Fedral Government school lunch programme which may help poultry farmers to sell their eggs and to protect jobs on the farms. When we break an egg and the yolk is very yellow, we are happy. We have no reason to not be, all things being equal. The yellow yolk signals the presence of BETA CAROTENE, a precusor of VITAMIN A which we need for many reasons, including healthy vision, skin and robust immunity. But, alas, what forms the yellow in poultry egg is not always Beta Carotene. This memeber of Beta carotenoid family comes from green plants which free ranging chicken eat. Chickens in the cages have no access to green plants. As the poultry farmer cannot afford natural beta carotene supplementation of chicken diet , they resort to a yellow DYE, a man-made chemical substance which give the yolk a superb yellow colour but is dangerous to health because it can cause cancer. Such chemical substances predispose children to ADHD, irritability, depression, low brain output e.t.c.

    Read Also: Fed Govt targets milk production of 1.4MT in five years

    POTTENGER’S CATS

    Earlier, I mentioned the experiments called Professor Pottenger’s Cat over 10 years with 900 cats to determine whether raw meat or cooked meat or raw milk or pasteurised milk was better for cat health and, by extrapolation, for human health. In the fellowing words, published in price-pottenger.org, Stephanie Cold, one of several reviewers of the project, provides us his summary of the 1932-1942 experiments under the title THE 10-YEARS POTTENGER’S CAT STUDY.

      The 10-Year Pottenger Cat Study:

    “In the 1930s, Dr. Francis Marion Pottenger, Jr., a physician in Monrovia, California, worked at the Pottenger Sanatorium and Clinic, a center founded by his father and two uncles, that specialized in tuberculosis (TB). Pottenger hypothesized that tuberculosis was caused by deficiencies in the adrenal gland, and he used cats in the process of standardizing the potency of the adrenal extracts with which he was treating patients. Pottenger fed cats both cooked and raw meat. To his astonishment, he observed very different health outcomes. Out of curiosity, Pottenger began a ten-year study focused on variations in the diets of cats. The variables in his experiments included either raw milk versus cooked or raw meat versus cooked. Throughout the entire study and four generations of cats, Pottenger diligently recorded his observations of the health, weight, calcium and phosphorus levels, skeletal structures, and dispositions of the cats. The differences were quite striking. (Pottenger)

    In short, the cats subsisting on the raw products (in the first experiment raw meat and in the second experiment raw milk), maintained excellent health. Mother cats carried their babies to full-term, birthed approximately five kittens to a litter, and experienced no difficulty in nursing. The kittens had consistent skeletal structure and no dental issues or infections. Conversely, the health of cats fed cooked meat and cooked milk quickly declined. Even within three months of a transition from a raw to cooked diet, dental infections often arose. Mother cats had difficulty carrying offspring full-term, and suffered from increased miscarriages and raised infant mortality rates. Mother cats were often too weak to nurse, and some died in labour. Kittens were born with varying skeletal structures and weaker bones, and were prone to infections, allergies, and respiratory illnesses.

    The degenerative health of the cats on cooked meat/cooked milk diets continued and appeared to be passed from generation to generation. After several generations of degeneration, Pottenger attempted to test the potential “regeneration” of health by means of replacing a cooked diet with a raw one. He found that this was indeed possible, though minor health problems did persist even into the third generation. (Pottenger)”.

    Please read more about POTTENGER’S CATS on the internet …and pass the word on.

    GROUNDNUT WITH PEEL

    If egg and pasteurised milk are not good for school lunch, what are? I would go for groundnut with the peel on, and for cocoa powder. Both are nutritious and energy providers as is shown in many experiements….

    Groundnuts are:

    • A good source of protein, fat and oil

    • Rich in fiber

    •  Good source of vitamins E and B3, magnesium, and potassium

    • Brown peel contains antioxidants and polyphenols.

    It is not suggested here that school lunch groundnuts be procured from roadside vendors. The government may source from producers certified to operate under Good Manufacturing Practices( GMP)

    • Cocoa Powder is High in flavonoids, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties

    • It may improve blood flow and boost brain function

    • It is rich in polyphenols which may curb high blood pressure and high cholesterol level

    • It may lower risk of heart attack and stroke .

    Unsweetened cocoa is better than cocoa sweetened with nake sugar. For school children, their cocoa food supplement may be sweetened with date sugar, which is nutritional, or tiger nut milk powder, another great one.

    The groundnuts with their peels on and the cocoa powder should be vacuum-packed in sachets for easier and hygienic handling. School children should be educated about the health benefits of groundnuts and cocoa powder.

    COCOA POWER

    We all take cocoa for granted becaus a prophet “has no value in his own land”. In the world market right now, it is selling more than the proverbial”hot cake”. In the late 1960, and early 1970s Yaba bus-stop in Lagos had a design different to today’s. There were food or nacks kiosks everywhere. One of the fastest-selling items there was COCOA BREAD made by Emmanuel Odumosu a.k.a JESUS OF OYINGBO. Cocoa is a highly nutritious and anti- oxidant gift of mother Nature as many studies continue to reveal.

    I discarded poultry egg,flesh and milk from my diet about thirty years ago and believe I have been better off without them. Mary Ann Shear and Charlotte Meschede in their book HEALTHY KIDS, a well-celebrated book in South Africa, where the co-authors come from, have several remedies they suggests will protect the health of our children if we take them off milk and egg.

    It should be processed and sorted in certified facilities and served in seal vacuum-sealed packages, like sachet powder milk which should take a bow from the school meal.The cocoa powder should be similarly treated and UNSWEETENED.

    With Professor Pottenger name ringing in our ears and POTTENGER’S CATS staring at us, hands up anyone who will votes for milk and egg from today.

  • ‘Cows without milk’: urgency of Knowledge over Cultural economy

    ‘Cows without milk’: urgency of Knowledge over Cultural economy

    Having herdsmen in the 21st century should be discouraged; potential herdsmen should be in school like the children of the owners of cattle they are hired to herd

    The recent picture of cows in President Buhari’s Daura ranch speaks volumes. The cows look good and comparable to cows in Argentina and Texas. Similarly, the recent decision of government leaders to start exchanging ideas with communities of herdsmen and farmers also indicates government’s readiness to deal with culture clash that may water down achievements in the country’s bid for economic diversification. I am republishing today’s article, first to congratulate President Buhari’s efforts to demonstrate that ranching produces better cattle than nomadism, and second, to encourage herdsmen to press governments in cattle-producing states to assist them to migrate from the nomadic to the ranch model of animal farming.

    Today’s title is borrowed partly from the current minister of agriculture who said recently that most of the cows in the country cannot produce milk because they do not have enough water to drink. This observation by Chief Audu Ogbeh captures the contradictions in the country’s agricultural system, just as it does for every aspect of the country’s way of doing things. Under the regime of diversification, it is appropriate to juxtapose preoccupation with development on the steam of tradition with development on the battery of innovation in respect of agricultural revolution.

    When people try to have milk without the cow, goat, or sheep, such people attempt to achieve the impossible. But when people have cows but cannot get milk, then the problem is one of relying on wrong ways of doing things. Nigeria is in a good position to be the epicentre of dairy production in West Africa, in addition to producing enough beef for its huge population. But the country has increasingly been constrained by the fast pace of desertification that has robbed cattle, goats, and sheep access to adequate feed and water. This challenge is not unchangeable if the political will is there. But the kind of will needed does not include being beholden to outmoded methods. It requires a sincere commitment to modernisation and belief in new technology and techniques as a way of overcoming constraints imposed by nature and culture, especially outmoded tradition.

    Of course, desertification is not peculiar to Nigeria. About 900 million people in the five continents live in zones that are threatened by desertification.  But there are new techniques to arrest desertification in other parts of the world, and Nigeria must find ways to acquire such knowledge in order to save itself from expending energy in pushing easy solutions towards complex problems and, in the process, create new, and perhaps, bigger problems.  If United Arabs Emirate, Quatar, and Las Vegas can get modern, cattle producing states in Northern Nigeria should have no excuse. Indiscriminate animal grazing has not always been a problem in the country. Those who were born before independence would know that up to the 1970s when the Sahel had not moved down as radically as it has in the last twenty years, it was unheard of that herdsmen harassed farmers in the South, a point made recently by General Obasanjo when he said that “cattle grazing was a rare sight except when a big person died in the community.” In those years, cows were brought to the south to sell, not to graze. But with raging desertification in the picture, all states are becoming cattle producing or feeding stations. The problem of desertification is not going to go away by itself; it requires sincere intervention that includes borrowing ideas and techniques of reducing desertification from other countries. In other words, policymakers need to think less about traditional ways of cattle farming and more about new knowledge that could allow cattle farmers to do so with relative ease than having to walk cattle through cities and villages.

    By cultural economy, I am referring to the role played by various forms of material and non-material cultural practice in the organization of the economy or to cultural dimensions of economic activity—the design or marketing of any product or service. The fact that herdsmen in the past had moved from one area of the north to another before the spread of the Sahel to over 10 most northern states does not mean that herdsmen should continue to be encouraged to keep moving all over the country in search of pasture and water for their cattle. When some people argued that many of the herdsmen that caused trouble in many parts of the country came from outside Nigeria, many pundits dismissed this idea. It is conceivable that some of the herdsmen could have been foreigners from countries north of Nigeria with worse experience of desertification. Regardless of the nationality of herdsmen, it is the menace they cause to farming communities and the not-easy-to-foresee consequences of incessant clashes between herdsmen and farmers that needs to be addressed rationally.

    At the rate herdsmen are searching for food and water for their flock, the tendency is high that most cattle farmers may end up moving to the south, should the Sahel continue to inch further south, and no serious intervention comes from those holding levers of power to respond to a serious environmental problem. Anti-grazing statements may not have been put in a politically correct manner in some areas, but grazing is a serious economic problem that must not be allowed to transform into a political one. Solution to the problem of grazing must not be borrowed from the model of creating NECO when policymakers thought that WAEC was not working well for Nigerian students. Transferring problems created by desertification to other states is not a solution. The challenge for the ministries of agriculture and the environment is how to fight desertification frontally and how to adopt new ways to do animal production.

    To put this differently, moving away from the limitation imposed by traditional animal farming at a time that over 10 states in the North are experiencing shortage of water requires embracing what is referred to as Knowledge Economy in this piece. By knowledge economy, I do not mean just the digitization of experience made possible by artificial intelligence in what is considered by sociologists as the third Industrial Revolution. Knowledge economy in the series under this title refers to the culture of relying on advances in science, technology, new ideas and techniques for increasing production, improving quality of products and services, and reducing the use of human or animal muscles to create value or add value.

    With respect to calls for a new look at the way of raising cattle, it is the view of this writer that the time has come to find out how other countries that once used the model of moving cows and goats to wherever they can find food and water shifted to a new way of animal farming that takes whatever the animals need to them in ranches. If herdsmen were children of upper or middle-class men and women in our country, they would have cried foul for being hired to nurse cattle for the rich at great risk to their well-being. If the country had created an educational system akin to what exists in Kaduna today—free and compulsory basic education for all—it would have been impossible for current owners of cattle to find herdsmen to follow cattle to the length and breadth of the country.  Such difficulty must come to cattle owners if part of the goals of national development and integration include ensuring equality and equity. Having herdsmen in the 21st century should be discouraged; potential herdsmen should be in school like the children of the owners of cattle they are hired to herd.

    The most reliable way to stop reproducing herdsmen is for the governments to commit to replacing imperatives of tradition with principles of knowledge economy in planning, designing, and organizing animal and other forms of farming. It must be part of the remit of a government of change to prepare all citizens for competitiveness in a global village that is already experiencing third industrial revolution.

    The pictures of President Buhari’s mini ranch illustrate that new knowledge and method can also improve on products that used to be driven by old knowledge and method. A special re-orientation for herdsmen sponsored by the federal ministry of agriculture can change the worldview of herdsmen hobbled by tradition.  Instead of creating grazing corridors, we need to create ranches that can make Nigeria more competitive in cattle production. To avoid the pain of blockade or sanctions from sister Arab countries, Qatar is already running a modern ranch with imported cows, and the cows are producing rich milk and tender beef.

  • Milk and the growing ‘more’ trend

    Milk and the growing ‘more’ trend

    Food is a necessity across different socio-economic class; and top brands are relentlessly creating an association with it in order to gain traction, acceptance and expression in the marketplace. While that sounds like a drift, there’s likelihood that brands will continue to seek more opportunities to connect to foods, even the very unlikely ones.

    Currently on top-of-mind is Peak Milk’s “PECADOMO”.

    Though regularly consumed by the middle-to-upper class, milk was a clear outsider to what is generally perceived as regular meals in Nigeria. However, that changed when Peak Milk launched ‘Pecadomo’, an acronym formed from a longer phrase, ‘Peak CAN DO More’; which was designed to elevate Peak Milk not just as a component of light breakfast meals (like coffee, tea, cocoa beverage drinks and in some cases, pap and custard) but as an integral constituent of our daily meals.

    Peak innovated brilliantly, elevating itself to an enviable position; and positioning itself at the centre-stage of quality nutrition.

    Since the launch, Pecadomo has been a hit, cleverly helping Peak Milk re-enforce its position as a clear category leader. And as consumers continue to seek new flavours and experiences, other food and beverage brands in Nigeria began to explore innovative ways to connect their products with consumers in other ways beyond the regular pitches.

    While Coca-Cola may have been the first in recent times to explore food-inspired campaigns in Nigeria, it may actually be Peak Milk that glamorized and made the practice trendy and more sustainable with the launch and successful execution of Pecadomo.​

    In Nigeria, consumers are quite familiar with the idea of enjoying milk with tea, pap, cornflakes, Quaker Oats and other traditional breakfast items. Lunch and dinner are usually laden with heavy doses of starch and oil, and very little of other essential nutrients like protein, fibre, vitamins and mineral that the body requires for healthy growth. Such dietary imbalance has its consequence – malnutrition.

    According to a 2013 report by the Federal Ministry of Health, 41 percent of Nigerian children under age five suffer stunted growth as a result of malnutrition. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) nails it home when it disclosed that Nigeria has one of the poorest rates of milk consumption in the world.

    Hence, Pecadomo was conceived as a solution to this nagging challenge, as it highlights and focuses on driving new and wider usages for Peak milk beyond the breakfast menu. It meant that regular meals like eba, semo, pounded yam, et al can be as rich in protein and other essential nutrients as they are in starch and oil. Pecadomo now becomes an invitation for consumers to explore and discover the goodness and richness of milk beyond traditional breakfast meals.

    Within a year of launch, over 100 Pecadomo recipes have been conceived; which had benefited Peak Milk in terms of brand equity and market share.

    This success recorded in a short time had prompted other brands in soft drink and alcoholic beverage categories to strategically aim their campaigns at foodies.

    Today, we are beginning to see the emergence of celebrity chefs like Falz and AY in food-based TV shows and online digital content. While this looks like a transitory trend, a Toe-In-Water (TIW) survey reveals that it is likely to continue as more brands are expected to join the brand-wagon and consumers are becoming more health conscious.

    Trust Nigerians consumers who are naturally trend-conscious, they are already jumping on Pecadomo, embracing Peak Milk as an integral part of their daily food recipes; and in the process, enjoying stronger bodies and sharper minds.

    As for me, I’m not just going to watch the trend evolve, I’ll be part of the movement.

    You should too, because Peak Can Do More for you. Trust me.

  • Local milk sourcing: Fed Govt lauds FrieslandCampina WAMCO

    Local milk sourcing: Fed Govt lauds FrieslandCampina WAMCO

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has praised  FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria, makers of Peak and Three Crowns milk, for pioneering local milk sourcing and development, and improving the lives of dairy farmers.

    The minister made the commendation while inspecting the local milk collection facilities of the company in Fashola Village and Iseyin Town, Oyo State, during the week.

    The company’s state-of-the-art milk collection centres and offices operate under its Dairy Development Programme (DDP).

    After inspecting the milk facilities and speaking with members of the host communities, Ogbeh said: “It will be wonderful if each Nigerian child can get two pints of fresh Nigerian milk daily and we express the gratitude of government to FrieslandCampina WAMCO for ongoing efforts in this regard.

    He expressed the government’s appreciation of the company’s commitment and investment, saying this was because not many investors are willing to go this far. “We are delighted,” Ogbeh said.

    Noting that the company’s  investments have guaranteed steady incomes for Fulani farmers as well as an improved lifestyle, Ogbeh said: “It is remarkable and FrieslandCampina WAMCO’s intervention should be commended for being instrumental to this.”

    Responding, the Managing Director, Ben Langat, thanked the minister. He said apart from FrieslandCampina WAMCO, no other dairy company in Nigeria has started collecting milk locally for production since 2011.

    Langat said although there is serious infrastructure deficit such as roads, power and water, the company was still grateful to the  minister, the ministry and the Oyo State government for partnering with it.

    “So far, we have provided 15 boreholes in the communities here in Oyo State. We are in this for the long run. We are investing funds and expertise in artificial insemination, cattle feeding and pasture for high yield in order to raise locally sourced milk to the desired levels for production” Langat said.

    Chief Ogbeh assured FrieslandCampina WAMCO of government’s continued partnership. He affirmed that improved local production of milk was the only panacea to lack of adequate milk supply.

    “Indeed, we need to improve the breed of our cattle and the ministry will partner with FrieslandCampina WAMCO to develop the programme. The import bill on milk is very high, while milk consumption among young people is too low. We can’t continue like that because of the effect on their brain and capacity,” the Minister said.

    He promised that government will soon address the challenge of roads, water, and other necessary infrastructure. “We are happy to see the families, women and the community leaders and we will help with more boreholes as the ministry has rigs and we will deploy them here,” he assured.

    FrieslandCampina WAMCO has been investing in the DDP since 2011 and has established the country’s largest milk collection network. Today, the company collects milk from about 1700 farmers in over 70 communities in Oyo State. It has five milk collection centres and one Bulking Centre for its DPP in Oyo State.

  • Does milk consumption promote breast cancer?

    A long time ago, the Wise One said: “Everything must become new.” I was about 28 when I stood before this monumental admonition. I was striving to explore existence, followed everywhere, as it were, by such questions as who am I, where am I from, wither would I go after here, why are my parents, would I have been born if my mother and father did not marry each other et.c? If everything must become new before there can be peace and happiness on this earth, was this not an impossible task?, I wondered. As I grew older, I began, indeed, to see many oddities in earth-life…marriage, education, nutrition, medicine, parenting, business, work, sense of justice, religion et.c.

    Nowhere have these oddities become most manifest to me as in nutrition, health and healing. We eat the wrong foods or miscombine foods. We do not breathe well. It is said that many of us do not use up to 40percent of our lung capacity when we breathe. Thus, we do not have enough oxygen in our bodies and bear in them an overload of carbon dioxide, a poison we do not effectively expel. Yet we need oxygen not only to make energy but to kill germs as well. Nowadays, deep breathing is taught as a medicinal therapy. What about the air we breathe and the food we eat. They are poisonous to health. What of the balance we maintain between work and rest? It is unhealthy. What about our emotions? They are negative and poisonous.  Many of us have distorted beautiful concepts. Work, for many, has become mere duty. So, I have grown to accept that “everything must become new” if we must begin to fashion today the world of tomorrow.

    In that coming world, health has become a serious question. There has been a war on the consumption of deadly fats, naked sugar and genetically modified or and fertiliser-grown foods. In the past three weeks or so, this column has featured an onslaught on genetic modified wheat which, unknown to many people in Nigeria today, is probably what they eat as they flee from white flour bread and other flour foods. Now, the heat is on cow’s milk. To make chicken lay egg almost everyday and to make the cow produce milk everyday in good quantum, estrogen, the female hormone, is added to their diets to stimulate the reproductive system. The estrogen, like the antibiotics they are doused with, enters the egg and the milk and the flesh. In the human body, these hormones excite the reproductive system, especially the breasts, causing all kinds of diseases, including hormone-dependent and other cancers.

    In the following article, a woman who developed breast cancer, who thought existing medical procedures did not help her case, and who thought that her cancer regressed and disappeared whenever she stopped taking cow’s milk, shares her experiences.

    The article is one of many old social media posts making the rounds. I decided to share it here after Mrs Enitan Bamgboye shared it on Olufemi Kusa’s GREEN PASTURE HERBS. Lately, we have heard of many of the friends common to us dying of or suffering from cancer. One of them is a professor said to have died of bone marrow cancer which, we understand, has also kept his mother and brother in bed. We do not tire in sharing ideas which may be of help to cancer sufferers. Today column is devoted to this cause…

     

    Why Women in China Don’t Get Breast Cancer

    Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is really an amazing and heartwarming story! It’s a story about the famous Professor Jane Plant. Professor Jane Plant is a wife, a mother, and widely respected scientist, who was made a CBE for her work in geochemistry.  But, unfortunately, she was struck by breast cancer in 1987 at the age of 42! So, her happy and productive existence seemed destined to fall apart. But, the good thing is that, despite the disease recurring a further four times, Jane refused to give in…Jane’s husband, who is also a famous scientist, was also in China. And, guess what? Jane’s husband and his colleagues discovered what was the reason why Chinese people don’t get breast cancer. So, his wife started to use this method and she was able to win the battle with cancer. Jane and her husband revealed what’s this miraculous method. This is how the story goes…

     

    “First of all, I would like you to know that my friends and colleagues from China have sent letters, cards, as well as some incredible herbal suppositories, so he brought them to me. These suppositories were sent to me to treat my breast cancer, and we actually laughed a lot about them. Well yes, and I even said that it should be considered to be a real miracle if it protects Chinese women from breast cancer.

     

    “So, to be honest with you, I still kept wondering-why don’t Chinese women develop breast cancer. Well, this was the main reason why I’ve examined this problem very closely. So, what we did-we actually blended our scientific backgrounds and tried to find a logical explanation. We started investigating scientific data which led us to the percentage of fats in diets. Research has found that in the 1980s, fat made up only l4 percent of calories in the average Chinese diet, by contrast to the Western diet, which included 36 percent fats. Yet, before I developed this cancer, I ate a low-fat diet, rich in fibers. And, as a scientist, I am well aware of the fact that in the case of adults, the intake of fat does not raise the risk for breast cancer. And, one magical day, we’re working together, some of us (I am still not sure who) got this brilliant idea: “The Chinese don’t eat dairy produce!” Well, to be honest with you, this was quite a shock, mixed with a great excitement and happiness in the same moment. We just felt we are so close to something big, and like all things were finally absolutely clear.

    “So, I started thinking about my close Chinese friends, who believed milk was for babies only, my colleagues, who always politely declined my offer for the cheese course, and the numerous people who cannot tolerate milk. And yes, this is also very important – I did not know anyone from China who used dairy or cow products to feed their babies. Namely, Chinese people find our preoccupation with milk and dairy rather strange. Back in the 1980s, I was entertaining a big Chinese delegation of scientists after the ending of the Cultural Revolution, and following the advice of the Foreign Office, we requested that the caterer provides a pudding with lots of ice cream. However, as soon as they understood the ingredients of the pudding, the Chinese politely refused it. Of course, we were delighted by the second portion we thus got.

    “Ladies and gentlemen, I was amazed! Why – because I’ve found that milk is the root cause of most allergies, and more than 70 percent of the world’s population cannot digest the milk sugar, lactose. Before I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I consumed a lot of dairy products, yogurt, skimmed milk, and low-fat cheese, and it was actually my main protein source. I also consumed inexpensive but lean minced beef, which was most likely ground-up dairy cow. And, while I was receiving chemotherapy treatment for my fifth case of breast cancer, I consumed organic yogurts to help with my digestion and support the development of ‘good’ bacteria in the gut.

    “But, I was shocked when I found that in 1989, yogurt had been related to ovarian cancer. Dr. Daniel Cramer of Harvard University examined hundreds of women with ovarian cancer and recorded their diets. Well, I was so glad that I’ve discovered this, because this made me give up dairy products completely, including milk, yogurt, butter, and all kinds of products which contained dairy. All of a sudden, I discovered that numerous products we use daily, like cakes, biscuits, commercial soups, soy, olive and sunflower oil margarine, include dairy produce in some form.

    “And, in the meantime, I examined the process with my fifth cancerous lump with calipers and plotting the results. My doctors tried to encourage me and stimulate me, but I was experienced enough to recognise the real truth. Unfortunately, chemo gave no effects, and the lump remained in the same size! So, I removed dairy produce from my diet. This made the lump shrink in days! And, guess what – after 2 weeks, my second chemotherapy finished, I did not consume dairy, and the lump in my neck began to itch, then soften, and became smaller. Furthermore, I found that despite reducing in size, the tumor’s decrease in size was plotted on a straight line heading off the bottom of the graph, meaning that it was cured, not suppressed (or remission).

    “And, after six weeks (without any dairy products), I began practising meditation for an hour daily, and out of the blue, I felt that my lump was missing. I was not able to spot it, and I was experienced in it, and actually discovered my five cancers on my own. So, I asked my husband to help me, but he wasn’t able to find it either. After three days, I went to visit my cancer specialist at Charing Cross Hospital in London. So, she checked my neck thoroughly, in particular, the area where the lump previously was and announced that he could not find it.

    “And, guess what – my cancer specialist amazed by this discovery! But, unfortunately, when I explained my treatment, he was a bit skeptical. Yet, nowadays, I have heard that he uses maps of cancer mortality in his lectures, and even advises cancer patients to avoid dairy. But, from my point of view, I really understand the relation between breast cancer and dairy produce just like I understand the link between lung cancer and smoking. And, one more thing – I highly believe that my discovery of the link between the two helped my cure breast cancer, and maintain the balance of my hormonal system, as well as the health of my breasts. Well, ladies and gentlemen, you may find it hard to believe that such a natural substance as milk can actually lead to such health issues, but do not forget that I am a living proof of it.”

     http://reflectionofmind.org/women-china-[truncated by WhatsApp]

     

    Cow’s milk and disease

    Many ‘or old medicine’ doctors still prescribe cow’s milk for protein, ulcer and sleep, either unaware of its many health implications or out of belief that it is the best medicine in the patient’s peculiar circumstances. Convalescents need protein. The “old school” idea that the calcium in milk would neutralise stomach acid was demolished long ago by Dr. Barry Marshall who linked ulcers to Helicobacter pylori bacterium. Now, we know some people develop over acidity of the stomach simply because they produce too little acid to stimulate enzyme production (Pepsin) for the digestion of protein, in which case delay of digestion causes delay of food in the stomach and, in turn, degeneration of such foods into acids. So when such a person given milk for ulcer, wouldn’t the so-called magic wand be short lived? Yes, calcium help sleep. But must it be calcium in milk. In any case, it has been argued often that cow’s milk is the milk Mother Nature makes for a baby cow that walks within a few hours after its birth. A human baby takes about nine to 10 months or more to walk. Cow milk protein and calcium and other constituents are denser than their equivalents in mother’s milk. Cow’s milk comes with a high load of estrogen, the female hormone, and antibiotic residues. So do the egg and flesh of chicken. In the human body, estrogen from poultry and other sources may cause estrogenation, that is an unbalancing of hormonal profiles which may irritate the breasts and other reproductive organs in a woman. Men, too, are not safe from it. As for antibiotics in cow’s milk and poultry sources, they have been implicated in immune weakness and microbial resistance to pharmaceutical drugs. Cow’s milk has been linked, also, to the risk of bone fractures because the acidity it promotes requires that the bones and the teeth lose some calcium to normalise acid/alkaline balance in the bloodstream. It is said, as well, to promote high levels of cholesterol, acne, ovarian and prostate cancers and allergies, among other ailments. What cow’s milk is well known for, however, is lactose intolerance.

     

    Lactose intolerance

    Many people complain about stomach pain, cramps, bloating, nausea, gas, indigestion and diarrhoea without relating them to cow’s milk in their tea, juices, biscuits, yoghurt and other processed food sources, including prescription and over-the-counter medications. There are many people who would refer to the Bible’s John the Baptist in the wilderness. His only foods were reported to be milk, honey and locust. But care is not taken enough to establish if this milk is not goat’s milk and even should it be cow’s milk if the milk was not fermented milk. From all indications, John the Baptist lived on fermented milk. This milk contains friendly bacteria which consumes the lactose or milk sugar in cow’s milk and produces certain acids which inhibit the growth of unfriendly bacteria population to keep the colon free of diseases such as cancers. The Bulgarians have since the time of John the Baptist taught us about yoghurt when they were adjudged the longest living and healthiest people on earth some decades ago and their health secrets were examined, it was found that they drank fermented milk (yoghurt) over every meal. Researchers found many friendly bacteria in the yoghurt and, to honour Bulgarians, named one of them Acidophilus Bulgaricus.

    The world, including Nigeria, began to consume yoghurt. But the yoghurt of those days is not the yoghurt of today. No friendly bacteria is used to produce many of today’s yoghurt. The commercial producers of yoghurt simply add factory-imitations of the acids these friendly bacteria naturally produce to their yoghurt brands to make it taste sour like Nature-fermented milk.

     

    What is lactose intolerance?

    Lactose is milk sugar. Lactose intolerance means the body cannot tolerate it and is speaking to us in those various ways we recognise as pain, bloating, indigestion, gas et.c. Lactose is a sugar with two molecules…glucose and galactose. To be able to digest lactose, one needs the enzyme lactase to break glucose and galactose into their individual parts. The enzyme lactase lines the cells of the small intestine for this purpose. Babies and children have lots of it and, so, can handle milk sugar. Decline in the production of lactase begins at about the age of 21. Some babies and children would be lactase-deficient if they have such congenital problems which make them unable to produce enough of it. For adults, lactase production may be reduced by such diseases as celiac (sprue) which damage the lining of the intestine. For them, also, this capacity loss may be developmental, which means it occurs slowly as we age. Thus, different adults respond differently to lactose.

     

    How do milk intolerance and milk-related disease happen?

    In lactase-deficient people, lactose is not broken down and digested in the small intestine. In the big intestine (colon), a certain bacterium eats it up to grow its own population, producing gas and other endo-toxins in the aftermath. These are irritating to the cells and poison them in addition. A lot of Hydrogen gas is produced in the process, which may increase the body’s acid load. In the New Biology of Health theories, we know germs thrive in an acidic environment. Another bacterium converts the excess Hydrogen to Methane. Methane and Hydrogen may enter the bloodstream and torment cells and organs. In the brain, they cause headaches and mental confusion if not insomnia and other terrible ailments, including tumours. When some of the sludges from lactose intolerance arrive in the colon, they may absorb such large amounts of water as make the stool become loose and diarrhoea may occur. In those organs from which water has been osmotically extracted, pain arises to signal that they are dehydrated and cannot, therefore, carry on easily with life-giving processes entrusted in their care. Thus, enzymes, hormones and co-factors, to mention a few, cannot be produced in the right quantum. The nervous system becomes weak and sluggish, and the victim becomes easily irritated by sound, touch, light, and zero tolerance for the ideosyncracies of other people and, above all, may become insomniac. In the upper category of ailments, cancers may develop from chronic poisoning of the cells.

  • ‘Calcium fortified milk guarantees good health’

    ‘Calcium fortified milk guarantees good health’

    The Category Manager, Diary, Promasidor Nigeria Limited, Mr. Biodun Ayodeji, has said  calcium fortified Loya Milk, a premium brand from the company, will continue to improve healthiness and nurture swimming talent in children.

    He made this statement during the second edition of Loya Milk swimming competition dubbed: “Loya Milk Swim Meet” for secondary schools’ students held at the Grange School,  Ikeja, Lagos, where attractive prizes of over N1million and other consolation prizes were given to participants.

    He said feedback from the inaugural edition held in December 2016 where 10 Secondary Schools in Lagos participated, was very commendable, and that request was made for the competition to be an annual event where talents could be discovered and nurtured.

    Ayodeji explained that Loya Milk, which is fortified with 50 percent calcium, believed in the  healthiness of children and could be achieved not only by providing the best nutrition in the brand, but by identifying with a sport that fosters this promise. According to him, the brand helps to build stronger bones, tougher teeth, and healthier heart, which are in line with some of the health benefits of swimming.

    “Swimming is a 360 degrees sport that uses the entire parts of the body and helps to maintain healthy weight and heart, tones the muscles, builds strength and above all creates a platform where children can have fun while exercising,” he said.

    He said the plan was to extend to other parts of the country, starting with Secondary Schools in Port Harcourt, which will have their swim meet at Bloombreed High School on Saturday June 17.

    In the competition, Grange School was better than other 16 secondary schools and clinched the first position with cash prize of One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira in the 25-metre freestyle; 50-metre freestyle as well as the 100-metre freestyle relays in the boys and girls categories.

    The performance of pupils from Grange School was commended by coaches as well as parents, teachers and spectators, who urged them to continue in that manner in order to make the school proud in similar events.

    Speaking on the school’s victory, Modebenna Nwokolo, the winner of the 100-metre freestyle relay for girls, said she knew her school would emerge winner in all stages of the competition because of the regular practice and training received from their coaches, and the conducive environment which enhanced the desire for excellence in all endeavors.

    Schools that participated in the “Loya Swim Meet” competition included Grange School; Straitgate College; The Bells Comprehensive School; Greenville School; Grace High School; Halifield Schools; Honeyland College; Queensland Academy; Avicenna International School; Chrisland Schools and Supreme Educational Foundation School.

    Others were Children’s International School; Lagos Preparatory School; Juiliard Academy; Corona Secondary School; Greensprings School; and Emerald High School.

  • Dairy industry: Local raw milk to the rescue

    Dairy industry: Local raw milk to the rescue

    A Dairy Development Programme (DPP) aimed at cutting the nation’s huge import bill and also create jobs is on course. The programme supports local sourcing of raw milk  by engaging and training Fulani milk producers and potential smallholder dairy farmers. Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports that the model could be the wedge for the economy in recession, if more players in the business come on board and infrastructure are provided.

    The Research & Development (R&D)/Dairy Development Manager, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc, Mr. Lawrence Inegbenoise, is upbeat. He is expectant that the company’s cooperation talks with academic institutions in The Netherland in knowledge-sharing and exchange programme with Nigerian dairy farmers would boost the transfer of technology know-how on milk production and expand its on-going Dairy Development Programme (DDP).

    At the behest of FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc, dairy producer, two dons from The Netherlands, Imke de Boer, a Professor of Animal Science, Wageningen University, and Managing Director, Wageningen Academy, Janine Luten, were in Nigeria recently to explore the possibility of transferring skills to assist local dairy farmers on best practices for improved yield.

    “Fulani cows are local breeds so, we have brought in experts to train them on how to cross-breed with the local cows, which can produce 500 litres of raw milk, while cross-breeds can produce 1,200 litres,” Inegbenoise explained, exuding confidence.

    He spoke while conducting reporters and experts from The Netherland round the company’s dairy development facilities in Oyo State.

    FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc, makers of dairy brands such as Peak Milk, Three Crowns, Friso, among others, has been pushing a DPP since August 2010. The Private-Public Partnership (PPP) initiative was aimed at developing the local dairy industry by creating a sustainable raw milk value-chain that contributes to food security through provision of quality dairy nutrition to Nigerians as well as providing jobs.

    The company is the only dairy manufacturer sourcing part of its raw milk requirement locally. It has invested over N4 billion on the project so far. The scheme  draws its strength partly from the Federal Government’s backward integration policy, which encourages building capacity in local manufacturing to significantly reduce imports and create jobs.

    Under the DPP’s sustainable raw milk value-chain, Inegbenoise said that Fulani herdsmen constitute the first leg of the empowerment programme under which they are trained to ensure they get the best quality milk for FrieslandCampina. The herdsmen are supported through consistent trainings and demonstrations to upgrade their milk supply in terms of quantity and more importantly, quality.

    They are also trained in the use of crop residues and fortification as sources of good feed to cattle. Also, feed preservation through silage and hay making are demonstrated, while crossbreeding through artificial insemination was carried out.

    The second leg of the empowerment is the smallholders’ concept, where graduate farmers are engaged and put in clusters of ten and supported to become more productive. They are allowed to share infrastructure such as farming implements, power and feeds, while the third group are the cooperatives, conceived in the mould of the Dutch parent company Royal FrieslandCampina dairy cooperative concept.

    The Nation learnt that the parent company is owned by 19,000 dairy farmers drawn from over 13,000 cooperatives. The cooperatives, Fulani herdsmen and smallholder dairy farmers also benefit through the opening up of markets for them. “We have made good progress in the area of networking of milk suppliers,” Inegbenoise said.

    While the company continues to invest in the maintenance of its facilities: the Milk bulking Centre in Iseyin and four functional Milk Collection Centres (MCCs) in Fashola, Alaga, Maya and Iseyin in Oyo State, it has been able to receive at least 21, 000 litres of raw milk from its local supply chain.

    FrieslandCampinaWamco Nigeria PLC Corporate Affairs Director, Mrs. Ore Famurewa, explained that although, the company started by buying raw milk from Zimbabwean farmers in Shonga, Kwara State, and bringing it to its factory in Lagos for production, it soon realised that this was not enough; that it was better to get Nigerians, the local Fulani farmers to milk cows for it.

    At the last count, over 1, 600 (920 women and 726 men) Fulani milk producers and potential smallholder dairy farmers have been engaged and trained. According to Famurewa, the knowledge sharing and exchange programme with The Netherland’s experts was a continuation of the development of the local milk production capacity in Nigeria.

     

    Boost for local content

    Famurewa said the company believes strongly in supporting local content wherever it operates and that it has made significant progress in the development of local milk production in Nigeria. She said although, the company targets 10 per cent local content in raw milk production every five years, it is currently doing three per cent.

    “We plan to meet 10 per cent local content contribution in the next five years, but it has been very challenging. We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to support us in our DPP. Presently, we are at three per cent because dairy development is a gradual process, but for us, slowly and steadily, we would surely win the race,” Famurewa said.

    Through the programme, the company may have also assisted government to address the grazing challenge in the country. Famurewa admitted this much when she said that smallholder farmers are beginning to explore inside grazing while cross-bred animals are being invested in for higher yields. “A lot of people in the country have complained about Fulanis going into their farms to graze, causing mayhem, but overtime we have been able to reduce this menace in Oyo State,” she said.

    The DDP may have also addressed the challenge of ageing farmers across the country, the scarcity of natural resources and the fast growing population. “We believe the way to address these challenges is having DDPs across all our regions. If you want to be sustainable, you must take care of the growing population, the issue of aging farmers and you must ensure managing resources well,” Famurewa said.

    While pointing out that if Fulani are allowed to continue moving around, land will still be a problem, she said if the company is able to gather them in a small dairy concept idea then it is possible to solve the problem of land.

    “In a small land you can get more milk because the more the cattle treks they would not be able to produce because they have trekked all their energy whereas cows that are stabled like in the Netherlands, they relax, they are very big, very fresh and happy. They also produce 40 liters of very good milk per cow per day,” she said.

     

    Cutting dairy products’ import bill

    Experts and operators in the dairy industry estimate Nigeria’s import bill for dairy products to be about $1.3 billion yearly. From an estimated total value of $336 billion in 2014, the dairy industry, which entails cattle raring for milk production and all the associated manufacturing processes from the farms to the tables, is projected to hit $442 billion by 2019.

    The thinking is that with the on-going diversification agenda and the push for industrialisation to mitigate the effects of the current economic recession, an initiative in the mould of the DPP could not have come at a better time. For one, it would help slash the nation’s huge import bill for dairy products, while also helping Nigeria claim a share of the $442 billion dairy business by 2019.

    However, for this happen, more players in the dairy business must come on board. Listen to Famurewa: “Other dairy companies can come in or borrow a leaf from us by investing in sustainable business model. We have done what we want to do in Oyo State, but we are not resting on our oars. We plan to extend it across the country because dairy development should be a national thing.”

    Although, the management of the dairy producer recently met with President Muhammadu Buhari and pledged its support for the government and also got endorsement as the preferred partner for dairy development in Nigeria, supportive infrastructure remains key to the success of the initiative.

    Imke de Boer puts it in perspective, saying that for the local dairy industry to grow infrastructure development especially in rural areas is key especially access roads in farming communities.

    Noting that it would be difficult to compare dairy development in the Netherland to Nigeria, which FrieslandCampina has just kick-started, because of difference in climate, she described the DPP as “a very good start”.

    “We came to find out which areas to share our knowledge and expertise to further develop the project. We can’t bring our knowledge to Nigeria and the African society without first understanding what’s on the ground,” de Boer said.

     

    Quality takes centre stage

    It’s FrieslandCampina’s emphasis on quality that earned it the Federal government’s endorsement as preferred partner for dairy development in Nigeria. First, the raw milk come in 10 and 20 litre special aluminium flasks distributed free to the farmers by the company.

    According to its Milk Collection Manager, Mr. Adekunle Olayiwola John, the special flasks, unlike the calabash, are more hygienic, enabling dairy farmers to get the milk to the MCCs in good quality.

    While the Fasola MCC has 7, 000 litres capacity, but collects 5, 200 litres of milk per day, Maya MCC has 12, 000 litres capacity. John said each MCC is equipped with cooling systems that guarantee quality and standard. This is because unlike some crops that can last for a day or two, milk is time sensitive and could get bad in two hours if it is not treated.

    Hear him: “We ensure that within two hours after milking, it should get to our collection centre for test. The challenge is actually at the farm level where you have to be sure that the milk doesn’t contain antibiotic. So we have experts on ground to train the farmers on hygiene and everything they need to know about how to handle cows and milk. So we have tackled quality from cows up till the transporters. Farmers even know when the milk is good or bad.”

    The Milk Collection Manager added that as part of quality control, rapid test is conducted on the milk for adulteration, antibiotic and coloration test right at the collection centre. “When accepted it is poured into the tank for processing and sent to the Bulk Collection Centre in Iseyin, where the milk is lifted to Lagos every three days,” John said.

    He, however, said if the milk coagulates in the process of testing, it means it is not fresh and it is rejected. “If they (farmers) bring milk of three days, we can detect it through test and reject it,” he said, noting that because of strict quality control measures, milk rejection level, which was as high as 7.5 per cent per day when the company started, has reduced to 1.2 per cent per day.

  • Nutricima unveils Olympic Nutri-Active milk

    Nutricima Limited, a subsidiary of PZ Cussons, has re-launched its premium milk, Olympic, as part of measures to encourage Nigerians to embrace a more active lifestyle. The relaunch will see the brand roll out a new look in the coming months with a new nutrition proposition, “Active For Longer”, while still sticking to its promise of quality nutrition and low cholesterol content.

    At a briefing on the relaunch at the company’s Ilupeju office, the Marketing Director, Mr. Kalyan Bandyopadhyay, said the newly- improved Olympic Nutri-Active milk demonstrates Nutricima’s commitment to providing consumers with nutrients to live a healthy and more active life.

    He said: “So many Nigerians work very hard and are actively engaged in one activity or the other. The new Olympic Nutri-Active is specially formulated to help consumers stay active all day long, regardless of the nature of what they are engaged in.

    “As a company, we understand that as much as people are disposed to an active lifestyle, the prevailing circumstances may cause them to be easily overwhelmed, tired or bow easily to anxieties, work stress and other pressures which can adversely affect their productivity, hence we are committed to helping the Nigerian consumers stay active and healthy at all times.

    “With Olympic Nutri-Active, people have the option of having a milk that contains all the essential nutrients they need to live a really active lifestyle and still not fret about their cholesterol level,” he added.

    The Category Marketing Manager, Olympic, Raphael Agbaje, said the brand realised the need to support consumers and help them achieve more.

  • Three Crowns Milk’s Mum-of-the-Year named

    Mrs. Nkechi Brayila is the 2016 Three Crowns Milk Mum-of-the-Year. She defeated four other finalists at the grand finale of the competition at the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.

    The panel of judges, comprising Nollywood stars Mercy Aigbe-Gentry, Annie Idibia, and popular chef Uzor Orimalade declared Mrs. Brayila winner having scored the highest mark in the three stages of the competition; Fitness, Smartness and Fun Tests.

    Mrs. Brayila would be rewarded with an all-expense paid trip for a family of five to an exotic location with one-year supply of Three Crowns Milk.

    The second place winner Mrs. Olabisi Omolabi was rewarded with a double door refrigerator, the third person won a washing machine while the fourth and the fifth placed contestants were given consolatory prizes of N50,000 shopping voucher each. The finalists also went home with cartons of Three Crowns Milk.

    At the grand finale, Friesland CampinaWAMCO Marketing Director  Mr. Tarang Gupta said Three Crowns Milk Mother’s Day campaign is deeply rooted in the brand’s purpose of recognising and rewarding the key roles which the mother play as an enabler in the daily upkeep of the family.

    Gupta noted that Three Crowns Milk as a low cholesterol milk brand that cares for the health and well-being of its consumers is joining the rest of the world to put a smile on the faces of mothers for their love and care for the family.

    “One of the key things that we have identified is that the foundation of any family is the mother and with them being the foundation, they need to stay fit and healthy which is what Three Crowns truly believes in. We strongly believe that if the pillar of the house being the mother is taken care of, the whole family is strong,” he said.

    On the Mum-of-the-Year initiative, the Senior Brand Manager, Three Crowns Milk, Maureen Ifada, said the campaign is hinged on the brand’s repositioning ideology with the tagline Healthy Mums, Happy Family’ and also the belief that mothers are the pillars of the house therefore there is a need for the brand to continuously engage and enlighten them of the need to maintain a healthy family always.

  • Pupils show creativity with milk

    Pupils show creativity with milk

    Creativity of some primary and secondary school pupils came to play during the Peak Art of Milk cooking competition held last Wednesday to commemorate the World Milk Day.

    The Blue Roof, LTV8 Agidingbi,  teemed with over 1,000 pupils who witnessed the contest as well as other activities to mark the day.

    The 10 schools in the final were challenged to prepare breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert – all cooked with milk as one of the ingredients.

    The cooking was assessed by chef Niyi Williams, Dr Elochukwu Ukanta, a nutritionist, and popular actress, Sola Sobowale, who is the Peak Milk ambassador.

    The pupils presented meals like moimoi, wheat, and semo cooked with milk; milk soup; cakes, pancake, smoothies, and the like.

    At the end of the competition, Yaba College of Technology Secondary School came first; Ojota Senior Grammar School came second, and Wellspring College, Omole, came third.

    Chef Williams described the entries by the finalists and winners as creative.

    “The 10 schools got here by using milk creatively in very different ways. They came up with brilliant uses for Peak milk,” he said.

    Marketing Manager for Peak, Mrs Dolapo Otegbayi, said the winning recipes would be adopted by the firm, Friesland Campina, for all activations done for Peak milk.

    Apart from creativity, she said they came up with the competition as a way to enlighten children about good nutrition and the important role milk intake plays in their growth.

    “Children need to learn the importance of milk in their diet. Research has shown that people from Europe and other developed areas grow tall because they take more milk than those in Africa and other places. We hope the children will learn about good nutrition and also take the message to their families,” she said.

    Giving a talk on good nutrition, Dr Ukantu said children need to learn to take adequate diet so they don’t suffer from the deficiencies of mal-nutrition and over-nutrition.

    “Today, we have problems with both over nutrition and malnutrition. Parents who are rich overfeed their children and they become obese; while on the other side we have children who do not get adequate nutrition. The damage of malnutrition may be irreversible once stunting sets in,” she said.

    On her part, Sola Sobowale said she was glad to be part of the project, particularly as she hawked Peak milk as a child.

    She counseled the pupils to be focused on their education and pay attention to their nutrition.

    “You are the future of this country. You need nutrition and education to grow. It is about growing strong and smart because your future is in your hands,” she said.

    Other schools in the final of the competition were: Mind Builders School, Omole, Floral School, Stella Maris College, Ikorodu, and Cayley College, Agidingbi.