Non-organic milk labeled “Organic”? TAKE ACTION to close the loophole!

[nicknameless]

I’ve bought Horizon diary products in the past, because their packaging stated that they were organic. According to the Organic Consumers Association, they may not be any better than Safeway’s store brand, and may not meet true organic standards.

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION AT THE LINK BELOW:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/usda.htm

Stop Factory Farm Dairy Feedlots from Labeling Their Products as "USDA Organic"

Sign Petition to USDA

Under pressure from big agribusiness, the USDA is deliberately refusing to take action against factory farms who are unethically selling their products as "organic." This blatant labeling fraud is compounded by a loophole in federal organic regulations that is allowing unscrupulous organic dairy farms to import young calves from non-organic conventional farms (where the animals have been weaned on cow blood, injected or medicated with antibiotics, and fed genetically engineered corn, soybeans and cotton seeds, laced with slaughterhouse waste and tainted animal fats). These confinement and feeding practices are inhumane, unhealthy, environmentally unsustainable, and unfair to genuine organic farmers, who follow strict organic principles on pasture access and animal feed, and do not import animals into their herds from conventional farms. Sign Petition to USDA

Some of the factory farms that currently confine thousands of cows in close quarters are operated by leading organic dairies such as Dean Foods (Horizon Organic) and Aurora Organic Dairy (producer of store brand organic milk to chains such as Wild Oats, and supplier to Horizon).

THE SOLUTION:
On November 16, in Washington, DC, organic consumer and farm representatives will attend the National Organic Standards Board meeting to urge the USDA to stop allowing giant intensive confinement dairy feedlots to illegally market their milk as "organic." The OCA will be presenting a petition with thousands of signatures

(I’ve always instinctively preferred Clover/Stornetta brand, maybe this is why)

[leftchick]

1. thank you nick

I buy horizon farms cheese but not the milk. Damn I am sure it is contaminated if the milk is. So much for paying more for a better product! Fuck! :grr:

[nicknameless]

12. Our food supply has been so screwed over.

Can you get Clover or Stonyfield where you are?

[leftchick]

13. Stonyfield and Organic Valley

they are my main choices. I Hate This fucking government NON oversight! That is where the damage is coming from. They have slacked off of confirming organic standards!

:grr:

[nicknameless]

16. Hmmm....

"Government NON oversight"

I assumed that we're screwed because they *are* overseeing and writing loopholes for their contributors.

[leftchick]

19. well yeah

The oragnic community was doing just fine until the green government label came in to fuck us over. I was being sarcastic. sorry.

[nosmokes]

21. indeed the g'mnt is actively working to weaken

organic standards. click the link that's in my sig line and that'll take ya to the OCA site where they have a lot of good articles archived about who is doing what in congress. if you go into their forums you can find some fairly knowledgable folks about which dairies may be genuinely organic. you can often pretty much tell by the taste, but if you have a local dairy, you can always start lobbying them to start pasturing their herd, too. good luck.

[nicknameless]

23. self-deleted

[Hissyspit]

2. I've had to return Horizon several times because it had gone BAD

well before the due date.

[dalloway]

3. I've had the exact same problem only with Horizon so I don't buy

it any more.

[Igel]

4. To paraphrase dear ol' Inigo M,

'You use that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.' :-)

Milk of magnesia ... that's inorganic. Mostly.

[nicknameless]

5. Ha! That's what I get for listening to spell check!

I started with unorganic, and spell check corrected me.
What is correct?

... Oh well, I went with "non-organic" even though "OneLook" couldn't find it. :shrug:

[SpiralHawk]

18. try "corrupted" food Vs. "clean" food

that's the basic choice, apart from what Big BushCo has done to pervert the language.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Stonyfield is a very good organic brand.Their yogurt is excellent and they

recently started selling milk.

[nicknameless]

10. Stonyfield seems like a very good brand too.

[flvegan]

29. Perfect example of a positive company with a dirty secret.

Veal. I think that we all know what goes into most veal production.

From Stonyfield's own website:

"Bull Calves and Culled Cows
When a bull calf is born it is generally sold off the farm as soon as possible. All dairy farmers would rather have a heifer calf than a bull calf so that they can grow their herd or sell it for a decent sum. Very few farmers keep bulls on their farms as they pose a safety danger to the workers and families.

Consistent with the consolidation trend in agriculture, there are very few veal operations or slaughterhouses left in Vermont as they have gone out of business. Because of this, generally the bull calves and culled cows (due to illness, age, lack of production) are transported via truck out of state to a veal operation or slaughterhouse."

SO, when the rape rack is no longer fruitious, or when offspring aren't wanted, it's off to the slaughterhouse or veal crate.

Nice.

[ihaveaquestion]

7. What about "Kirkland" (Costco brand) organic milk?

I can't tell from the carton where it was "bottled."

[nicknameless]

9. I'd be kind of nervous about all store brands, because I don't know who

their supplier is. It could be a factory farm, like Aurora. :(

[flvegan]

35. "Organic" doesn't remove the "factory" from the farm.

[helderheid]

8. I had NO IDEA! I often buy Wild Oats Organic milk - did today - had no

clue it wasn't genuinly organic!

Grr!

[leftchick]

11. Stoneyfield Farms and Organic Valley

I hope are good alternatives?

[nicknameless]

14. I looked on the OrganicConsumers.org website, but couldn't find a list

of good brands. Clover/Stornetta is one I would trust, and also Stonyfield Farms. I've never heard of Organic Valley.

Wish there were a list of true organic brands somewhere.

[cally]

15. Salon had an informative article on Horizon

Salon"s scathing article about Horizon.:

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/04/13/milk /

The happy cow on the label of Horizon organic milk flies across the carton like some grocery-store superhero. The ubiquitous red milk carton in your local supermarket is like a stop sign for consumers: go no further, your quest for healthy milk ends here. The back of the carton assures us that Horizon milk is produced on certified organic farms, where "clean-living" cows "make milk the natural way, with access to plenty of fresh air, clean water and exercise." Horizon cows are not hopped up on antibiotics, continues the cheery copy. "Happy, healthy cows produce better milk for you and your family."

Just now, though, at one of Horizon's dairy farms in central Idaho, the cows don't look too happy. Perched amid a stark landscape of sagebrush and expansive brown fields, long silver barns that hold 4,000 cows are linked like barracks in some covert operation. I drive down a narrow, cracked road toward the dairy's main office and pass open-air sheds about 20 feet away, where cows laze in crowded pens atop the brown hardpan of the Idaho desert. Just outside the milking barn, more cows are jammed into an outdoor corral. Amid clumps of dirt and snow, they are lined up, their bodies touching.

In recent weeks, as revelations of Horizon's farming practices have come to light, a collection of consumer groups and organic dairy farmers have erupted in protest. Horizon and similar dairies are capitalizing on the boom in organic foods, they say, but diluting the true meaning of the term. Contrary to genuine organic practices, which entail raising cows on open pastures, where the animals feed on grass, experts say that a substantial percentage of cows at farms like Horizon's are confined to pens, fed a diet of proteins and grains, and produce milk that, while free of hormones, is not as healthy as it could be.


At a recent meeting of the United States Department of Agriculture's organic advisory board, 25 dairy farmers gave public testimony, and 8,000 farmers and consumers sent letters, claiming that by allowing "confinement dairies" such as Horizon and Aurora Organic Dairy, a 5,300-cow operation outside Denver (started by the founder of Horizon), to continue to market themselves as organic, the label's original promise of excellence is lost.

[nicknameless]

17. Wow! Thanks for that!

[nicknameless]

20. And I would wonder where their calves came from.

If they're not honest about confining cows, what else might they be doing that doesn't meet organic standards?

[nicknameless]

22. Does anyone know of a website that lists reliable organic brands?

Not knowing which brands can be trusted can be very exasperating.

[BrklynLiberal]

24. This might be a place to start....

http://www.greenpeople.org/

[nicknameless]

25. Thanks for that

They have a link for those who want to look up organics:
http://www.greenpeople.org/organicfood.htm

Hmmm ... Horizon has itself listed there as a true organic brand, describing their cows as having "access to pasture".
:(


... Oh well. The search continues.

*sigh*

[BrklynLiberal]

27. Damn. I had seen Horizon on a couple of other sites, and skipped them.

[LeftyMom]

26. When you buy cow's milk you enable the veal industry

They have to keep cows knocked up to make milk. The calves (who never nurse naturally and are separated from thier mothers within hours of birth) go to veal crates, since they can't use that many in milk production and keep the price up.

That's the truth no matter how shiny, happy and organic the marketing of your milk is.

[nicknameless]

28. Veal is a separate issue.

That's like saying that people who purchase rich foods are contributing to the foie gras cruelty problem.

[flvegan]

30. Absolutely untrue.

If not for the dairy industry, there would be NO veal industry.

It's interconnected.

[nicknameless]

33. Of course there would be.

Veal producers would simply keep diary cows as well.

[flvegan]

34. You have no idea what the cost is. None.

The veal industry isn't going to spend the money to keep that number of cows in gestation.

To keep cows pregnant ("rape racks") and delivering veal calves, and milked, fed, vetted, etc, JUST to produce quality tortured cows for veal would cost a fortune.

Not gonna happen.

[LeftyMom]

31. Veal production relies on surplus calves from dairy farms

You can make label cows milk organic all you want, but it's still cruel, unhealthy and in no way a product of sustainable agriculture.

[Maru Kitteh]

32. Why would I drink BREAST MILK from cows? Gross. Especially when you

realize that every single ounce of the cow breast milk, organic or not, contains DIOXIN.

Oh, and then there's the male calves that get sold to veal or just bashed in the heads.

You can keep it all.

[nicknameless]

36. The USDA has been hampering efforts to close the loophole.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/sos/kastelalert101705.cfm

SOS: Another Attack on Organic Standards:
USDA Sides with Factory Dairy Farms & May Pack NOSB with Industrial Ag Advocates

Way back in the year 2000, concerned consumers and farmers asked the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to address a new and troubling trend—factory farms producing “organic” milk in confinement conditions.

The board responded in 2001 by adopting a guidance document that would have helped farmers and certifiers understand what is expected of them and closed loopholes being exploited by industrial-scale farms. The USDA sat on this document, never posting it on their web site or enforcing its provisions.

This spring The Cornucopia Institute filed legal complaints with the USDA alleging that a growing number of factory farms were ignoring the organic law that requires ruminants (dairy cows) to have “access to pasture.” Finally, after years of delay, the USDA asked the NOSB to revisit their recommendations. The board responded by passing a rule change and new guidance document.

Again! The USDA has thrown a monkey wrench into enforcing organic integrity. They rejected the language adopted unanimously by the NOSB, a respected and diverse expert advisory panel (saying it was “ambiguous”), and now have refused to allow the board to vote on new language at their next meeting this November. Years of delays continue as the factory farms expand.

Farmers and Consumers Have Lost Their Patience No More USDA Foot Dragging!

No more delays can be tolerated! The USDA allotted two hours for more public comments at November’s meeting but has forbidden the NOSB from taking a vote and adopting final rule change language. The bureaucrats and the corporate farm operators know very well that this will be the last meeting for NOSB Chairman Jim Riddle and a number of other experienced board leaders, whose terms are ending. These folks have been the champions of cracking down on factory-farm abuses in the dairy industry...

<snip>

The organic community is about to lose five of the most knowledgeable and well-spoken leaders on the NOSB who have been addressing this and other critical issues. In the past, the organic community worked in concert with the USDA in order to recruit and retain the highest possible caliber members for NOSB—this is a nonpartisan body of exemplary quality. Serving on the NOSB is a tough job requiring quite a time commitment, with much more authority than the average USDA advisory panel.

<snip>