Dairy producers violating organic milk standards
Categories: Farming, Business, Organic, Dairy, Stores & Shopping, Did you know?, America, Eating & nutrition, Development
I first hopped on the organic food bandwagon
when my daughter, now nine, was 18 months-old. A friend of mine gave me an article about children entering puberty
earlier and earlier due, in part, to the many growth hormones given to cows so that they reach adulthood more quickly.
My daughter was already a 24/7 handful by that time and I in no way wanted to see her reach puberty before she was due.
That being said, I have made every effort possible to feed my children organic foods over the past seven years. So I was
especially distressed when I recently read an article on the Organic Consumers Association site questioning the methods
of producing organic milk.Dairy farms claiming to produce organic milk just might be pulling a fast one on consumers. In a report issued by the Cornucopia Institute in late March of this year, a couple of the major producers in the organic milk production business have been accused of underhanded practices. With a "wink and a nod from the USDA" these companies are wantonly violating the strict standards to which all organic products must adhere. Two of the largest producers, Horizon Organic, a subsidiary of Dean Foods and Aurora Organic, a supplier to the likes of Costco, Safeway, Giant and Wild Oats, have been buying their milk from large feedlots where the cows are not raised in an organic manner and they do not have any pasture to graze. These large feedlots routinely purchase their calves from farms where a common practice is to wean the young animals on blood as well feed them slaughterhouse waste. The calves are also fed genetically engineered grains and given large doses of antibiotics.
These practices go against everything that organic farming represents. Horizon Organic and Aurora Organic control 65 percent of the organic milk market. Not only are they dooping the consumers but they are also a threat to the farms that truly do raise their cows to comply with the USDA standards. This sort of dishonesty is absolutely unacceptable. What do you think?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jen 4-28-2006 @ 10:37PM
I just had my husband go check and see what kind of organic milk we buy. We buy Organic Valley. We also try to buy mostly organic, and if I found out that I had been feeding my children milk that was full of hormones and crap under the guise of organic milk, I would be pissed.
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Matthew Miller 4-28-2006 @ 10:52PM
It's *particularly* despicable because many of us expect that the greatly increased prices of organic food is generally a fair representation of increased cost of raising that food in proper organic ways. These mega-"organic" companies want to have the loyalty of customers who think they're doing the right thing for the world, yet still use factory-farm methods to produce factory-farm-cheap products.
Part of the blame for this travesty is the weak "USDA organic" standard, which *is* (intentionally, one must suspect) weak on many important points.
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Amy 4-28-2006 @ 11:08PM
WOW! I was just commenting to my husband this week how much I like that Giant has started carrying organic products. Information like this is unsettling! Maybe I'm better to stick with my small organic grocer instead of trusting the "giant" grocers and their products.
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Kim 4-28-2006 @ 11:14PM
I've been buying Horizon, and obviously paying too damn much for it. Not anymore. Things like this really shake my confidence in nearly all food companies. How do we trust any of them without seeing their methods for ourselves?
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Eva 4-28-2006 @ 11:29PM
Oh, crminey. THIS is why my kids drink soy milk. This is just abominable. I'm in shock. Unbelievable. Can anything be done about this, I wonder?
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kate 4-28-2006 @ 11:39PM
Unfortunately, with food production these days, you do need to research the source. It is very scary. Organic Valley is supposed to be a good one. I've actually gone down another path and have joined a cowshare program, to get the milk directly from the local farm - where I know what's going on. This kind of news doesn't surprise me, but it does make me cringe and cry.
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Missy 4-29-2006 @ 12:02AM
I drink soy milk and my son is allergic to everything but rice milk. Still, I tend to buy all of my dairy (for my husband, mostly) from Trader Joe's, since they have policies on all of their dairy being rBST (growth hormone) free. It's not necessarily organic but at least I have the peace of mind knowing it's better than the regular stuff from my mega mart.
FYI - Trader Joe's tends to research the stuff they sell (which is why you won't find duck or a lot of pork products there (except for Niman ranch), since most agriculture practices considered mainstream in the U.S. for the two species are considered inhumane). They don't carry Horizon or Aurora, only Organic Valley and Stonyfield Farms, and I suspect that might be the reason.
I think it's sad that even the organic label can't be trusted anymore. The convention of buying seasonal and local, in addition to organic, has never been more appropriate. The more you know the source, the better off you are. Of course, we can't grow mangoes or pineapples here in Washington, so I'll have to settle with the organic ones from Mexico or Hawaii at my local market but for the stuff I can get fresh locally, I try.
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Ethel 4-29-2006 @ 12:14AM
All I know is that Oregon Tilth, http://www.tilth.org/index.html, is the one of the oldest and toughest organic certifications to get and that is something to look for. When I worked for Grain Millers in Eugene it was a source of pride that we were certified by OTCO, and that was not a small feat. If you read the pamphlet on livestock certification, animals bought from fedlots can only become part of the organic herd if their dams were brought in during the last third of gestation.
Anyway, organic isn't just organic, it also requires some scrutiny as to who is doing the certification.
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Razib Ahmed 4-29-2006 @ 7:35AM
This is very upseting news. I just wish that USDA becomes more strict. Consumers are paying a lot of money for buying organic milk. Morethan money it is related to the love of children.
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karrie welborn 4-29-2006 @ 8:21AM
Thank you for passing this information along. We recently started buying most of our "organic" milk at Costco, and I was thinking of making a trip for that purpose this morning. I'll stay with Organic Valley or Whole Foods & Trader Joe's brands and hope that they are being honest. I'm particularly appalled with Horizon organic as they make organic yogurt marketed for babies.
I grew up on a small, organic farm and find the feedlot/slaughterhouse industry to be beyond disgusting on so many levels. Again, thank you for sharing this information.
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Laura Snow 4-29-2006 @ 8:22AM
Ok so I'm lost here.. so I don't drink organic milk. Does that mean the cows we get the milk from drink blood and eat animals? Seems hard to understand. Then a again, I live in Holland where it seems they treat animals better. Most eggs are from free range chickens, etc. I am also curious if they put hormones in the milk here. Can anyone help me find out? I LOVE milk and we drink a LOT of it here so I need this info! you can email me at laurasnow@home.nl
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Matthew Miller 4-29-2006 @ 8:29AM
Eva -- but what makes you think the situation is any better with soy milk? (Other than the obvious "treatment of animals" part.)
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karrie welborn 4-29-2006 @ 8:29AM
Also, I plan to write to Horizon, Costco and Whole Foods. Perhaps we can all write and convince Whole Foods to pull Horizon products from their shelves. Anyone interested in constructing a group letter? Now that this has had a few minutes to sink in, I'm furious! I've bought my toddler son Horizon cheese and baby yogurt for the past year. Grrrrr!!!
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Jenny 4-29-2006 @ 8:45AM
There was an interesting discussion of this on your sister blog Slashfood a couple weeks ago. Apparently the Cornucopia Institute is the lobbying arm for Organic Valley, so it isn't clear if things are as bad as they say. I'm not really sure what to believe; I wish there was more information.
http://www.slashfood.com/2006/03/23/organic-dairy-study-results/#comments
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heather 4-29-2006 @ 9:40AM
I am very angry. I have purchased Horizon on occasion when my store was out of Organic Valley, which to me has a much better taste. I switched to organic while I was pregnant, and to be completely honest, did it mainly because I found the taste much more pleasant than regular milk. I will be sure to only buy organic valley from here on out, it tastes better anyway. I can't believe they're gettibg away with being labeled organic and charging the amount they do. My local Sam's and Wal-mart will also be hearing from me.
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LS 4-29-2006 @ 10:16AM
I live in the Iowa countryside and am surrounded by cows and corn. Farmers markets like crazy, too, but it's very hard to find "organic" foods in any but the large chain grocery stores. So I had to do some searching, and found two websites: Sustainable Table (http://www.sustainabletable.org) and Local Harvest (http://www.localharvest.org). These are two groups that provide information on locally grown foods, including meats, eggs, and dairy. (Sustainable Table also gives a very graphic description of the factory farm process. If you haven't yet shunned factory farm practices, you probably will after reading that!) Farms that are listed on their sites are usually organic, and many are willing to have you come and look at their operation. I know Local Harvest also designates CSA farms. From the Local Harvest website: "A CSA, (for Community Supported Agriculture) is a way for the food buying public to create a relationship with a farm and to receive a weekly basket of produce." There are several CSA options, including helping with the harvest, which may be of interest to some.
As many posters have said, it's up to us to do our own homework, because unfortunately, the USDA (as so many other government departments) has proven it's loyalty lies with the money and not with us. I hope the information I've given is helpful.
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Amy 4-29-2006 @ 10:24AM
I am livid also! I had been giving my two year old son Horizon Organic whole milk for the past year up until a month ago. That is when our local supermarket stopped carrying it. And to think I was upset at the time-now of course I wonder if the store became aware of their poor practices and that is why they pulled it from the shelves? Wouldn't that be wonderful?! I switched to Stonyfield organic for now but I will be doing my research from now on. I am just disgusted and heartsick that I thought I was doing something so healthy for my son-AND paying a lot for it-and I was conned. Horrible!
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ElizabethN 4-29-2006 @ 11:46AM
This behavior is reprehensible, if it is true. But the main reason I buy organic milk is to avoid the hormones, and the articles I read were all about access to pasture. It doesn't look like they are using growth hormones, at least.
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S.M. Mehdi Hassan 4-29-2006 @ 12:07PM
Few months ago our government conducted anti adulterant program where many food producing companies including fast food, meat seller and various other types of food producing company were charged for using adulterant materials. USA have strict laws I hope the law enforcers stop this asap.
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Megan 4-29-2006 @ 12:39PM
This is so upsetting but also predictable, given the mainstream's interest in capitalizing on the big money organic market. But I predict a class action law suit before too long!
I took a look at Cornucopia's results page, where they rate the different producers. You can also click through to a summary of the info they have on each producer. It looks like Horizon is really one of the worst. Safeway and Trader Joe's get low ratings, but only because they declined to participate in the study. So we just don't know what is in their milk. Stonyfield gets pretty good ratings.
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