Kerry Co-op My part

16 Deember 2024

Today Kerry Co-op has voted to buy back the dairy processing business from Kerry Group Ltd. The news reminds me of my little part at the very start of this venture.

I was working in the Gaeltacht Department in 1970, and, at the annual conference of field officers from the four provinces, I suggested that the department should look into the potential of whey as a product. At that time, the major creameries like Golden Vale and Waterford made good use of their whey as pig food, for they had an associated bacon industry. However, the small creameries of the Gaeltacht were dumping their whey as waste product.

Now. I was somewhat on the wrong foot, because I thought that  "whey butter" was a potential product, and mentioned that in my proposal.

The department mentioned my proposal to Bord Baine (the Dairy Board), who blackballed the idea, because any promotion of Whey Butter would have a negative effect on their then current super-successful promotion based on the slogan "Butter is the Cream."

However, the interest of the Gaeltacht in whey was noted. So, a couple of years later, when a young American businessman came to Ireland looking for a source of casein (another milk protein), he was referred to the Gaeltacht Department, who put him in touch with North Kerry Famers Co-operative, and soon Kerry Co-op was formed (between the American Company, North Kerry Farmers Co-op and the Dairy Disposal Board) to produce Casein for the manufacture of compostable plastic. From small beginnings a mighty international company was developed, now worth billions.

Whey was still a waste product, so I soon got the phone call asking what was my idea for whey.

"I am no expert," I said. "I can only suggest that the liquid be evaporated, and the whey thus reduced to a powder, which will have a long shelf life. When you have the product, then you can decide how to package and market it."

This is basically Whey Concentrate (about 80% whey protein). Soon, more refined products, such as Whey Isolate, (a purer and more concentrated form, about 95% protein), were developed. (Which one you would choose to use depends mostly on taste).

Whey is a small part of the Kerry story, but a real part nonetheless.

As to "Butter is the Cream," the campaign became unstuck, when sourious sponsored research became the basis of a massive American attack on dairy and red meat, asserting, falsely, that saturated fats are unhealthy.

I was one of the ones taken in, and soon took to low-fat milk in place of full-fat milk, and trans-fat margarines (like Flora and Benecol) in place of butter. The change was deleterious to my health, and by 1980 I was suffering from frequent mouth ulcers and arthritis.

When medicine had no effect on the mouth ulcers, I took to eliminating selected items from my diet to see what it was I was sensitive to. I found that, when I eliminated sugar, most of the mouth ulcers cleared up, and when I eliminated wheat (yes, all bread, Weetabix. shredded wheat and anything containing wheat) all the rest of the mouth ulcers were gone, and my hay-fever much diminished.

I attended a kinesiologist, who found that I was sensitive to sugars and wheat (no surprise) and to "everything in the cupboard," (in other words all processed foods). So now, I avoid sugar, over-ripe fruit, wheat, processed meats (like smoked salmon and rashers), and most thing in  packages, jars and tins.

Meanwhile, my doctor put me on aspirin for my arthritis, but, when I found that it was not expected to cure the arthritis, but merely to ease the pain, I read Patrick Holford's book, "Food is better medicine than drugs," and replaced aspirin with a supplement combining Glucosamine, Chondroitin and MSM, as well as a daily fish-oil capsule. My arthritis cleared up completely.

My doctor considered that my cholesterol was too high, and put me on Statins. After four years on statins, I found that my muscles had lost form, so I stopped taking them. My muscles soon recovered.

My energy was low and my heart-beat weak, so I attended a Chinese acupuncturist/ medicine man. He asked me if I was a vegetarian. I said, "No, but I often order the vegetarian or fish option and try to minimize red meat." He gave me acupuncture and a course of  Chinese herbs, which strengthened my pulse and gave me energy, and advised me to eat more red meat.. (Chinese medicine seeks to balance in your body the influences of the four elements, fire, earth, air and water).

I had a dexa scan and found I have osteoporosis. My years on low-fat and avoidance of red meat had weakened my bones

So now, I use full fat milk, healthy butter instead of trans-fat margarines, and plenty of red meat. I avoid sugar, wheat, and foods that contain histamine (basically preserved, over-ripe or processed foods) and am free from hay-fever, mouth ulcers and arthritis.

The statin industry has poisoned the medical world with the fake news that LDL is "bad cholesterol." 

In fact, LDL is good. Cholesterol is needed by every cell in the body (and that is billions of cells). LDL is a protein (called Low-Density Lipoprotein), made in the Liver, that carries the cholesterol, and essential Vitamins A, D and  E, around the body. It does not harm the arteries (but sugar and oxidisation do). 

Low levels of LDL is actually associated with diseases such as Arthritis, Dementia and Parkinson's, but this is seldom mentioned in the media.

The actual healthy level of LDL in the blood varies from person to person and the doctrine that everybody should have lower than a standard amount is unfounded. Instead of measuring the amount of LDL in the blood, they should discourage sugar and wheat and test for actual arterial damage.