Rooting Out “Renegade” Organic Milk
Just because it says “organic” doesn’t mean it didn’t come from a factory farm.There are actually many large industrial dairy farms producing “organic” milk, and in many cases their cows don’t get most of their nutrition from grazing on grass, as is required for organic certification.
In response to over 8,000 comments from consumers and other organic producers, the USDA’s National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) passed recommendations for changes in the organic regulations and a guidance draft to help organic certifiers enforce the law. In early March dairy farmers from Pennsylvania, California and other states lobbied in Washington DC demanding the USDA crack down on industrial pseudo-organic dairy operations.
New York dairyman George Wright testified that some dairy marketers are misleading consumers by using photographs of bucolic scenery and cows out on pasture to market their dairy foods. “You never see ...[confined] cattle in their ads bellied up to a feed bunk getting their lunch,” he said.
“Grass is the be-all and end-all of the cow,” said Jack Lazor, a Vermont dairy farmer and producer of Butterworks organic yogurt. “Cows have the ability to pollute the Earth or heal the Earth. If your animals are in a feed lot . . . it’s not a healthy situation, and you’re not making the earth a better place.”
The Wisconsin-Based Cornucopia Institute joined with the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance to help organize farmer participation. Along with the Organic Consumers Association they encouraged farmers and consumers who could not make it to Washington to send in written comments.
The rule changes and guidance draft approved by the NOSB were designed to eliminate loopholes that allowed a handful of corporate-owned farms, some with over 5,000 cows, to market milk labeled as organic while confining their cows during the period of life when they are producing milk.
In February the Cornucopia Institute filed two formal complaints with the USDA’s Office of Compliance asking them to initiate investigations into alleged violations of the federal organic law by factory farms operating in Idaho and California. The complaints ask the USDA to investigate whether it is legal to confine cows in an industrial setting, without access to pasture, and still label the milk and dairy products organic.
The 4,000-head Idaho factory farm is owned and managed by country’s largest organic dairy marketer, Dean/Horizon. The California industrial farm is owned by Case Vander Eyk, Jr. and with 10,000 cows split between its organic and conventional operation it also supplies Dean/Horizon with milk.
“We have been interested in these confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, for some time,” said Mark Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst, at the Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute. “It is our contention that you cannot milk 2,000 to 6,000 cows and offer them true access to pasture as required by the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, the law that governs all domestic organic farming and food processing.”
According to reports, both the Idaho and California operations differ little from conventional confinement dairies other than having their high-producing cows fed certified organic feed.
“Real organic farms have made great financial investments in converting to pasture-based production, enhancing the nutritional properties of the milk and enhancing animal health,” said Kastel. “While it appears that these large corporate-dominated enterprises are happy just to pay lip service to required organic ethics.”
Dean/Horizon’s Idaho factory dairy is located in Jerome County and near the community of Paul. The arid, near-desert environment makes pasturing difficult and economically impractical for the thousands of dairy animals. As a result, the animals are confined to drylots with feed brought to them in bulk quantities.
Craig Muchow, a diversified organic farmer from Gooding, Idaho noted that the Dean/Horizon farm has turned its back on many area farmers after initially seeking their support.
“After Horizon converted their large farm to organic they solicited local hay growers and offered us a price-premium to supply them with alfalfa if we also converted to organic production,” he said. “That worked well for the first few years but then they did away with most premiums and now they have abandoned many small farmers in the area altogether.”
–From reports by The Cornucopia Institute