OCA Web Note (March 19, 2007):
Thousands of organic consumers and dairy farmers, represented by the Organic Consumers Association and Cornucopia Institute, have repeatedly complained to the US Department of Agriculture over the past five years that the USDA must close the glaring loopholes in the National Organic Dairy Standards. These loopholes have allowed unscrupulous dairy companies such as Horizon and Aurora Organic to operate intensive confinement dairy feedlots (where the animals have little or no access to pasture) and still label their milk and dairy products as "USDA Organic." This is the reason why the OCA has launched a boycott of Horizon and Aurora products, as well as the private label milk brands supplied by Aurora and sold by Wal-Mart, Costco, Wild Oats, Safeway, Giant, UNFI, and others. This is the reason why thousands of organic consumers, and an increasing number of retailers, have dropped Horizon and Aurora products.

We are therefore not surprised to learn that Horizon and Aurora have been busy lobbying the USDA to keep pasture and feed requirements vague--hoping to deceive consumers by claiming that organic dairy animals must have access to pasture, but then not requiring a particular minimum percentage by weight of their feed--at least 30%--to come from pasture grass. What this means in practical terms is that the USDA will soon propose new federal organic dairy standards that allow so-called organic factory farms to create the impression that their milk cows are being grazed on pasture, while in fact unscrupulous certifiers and bureaucrats in the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) will allow them to get away with "symbolic access to pasture" i.e. intensively confined, stressed-out dairy cows briefly chewing their cuds outside giant milking parlors in between their three-times-a-day milkings.

What is surprising to learn is that three highly respected organic dairy brands have joined with Aurora & Horizon to lobby the USDA for this "Big Fix": Stonyfield Farm, Organic Valley, & Humboldt Creamery. (see letter below). We have no evidence that Stonyfield Farm, Organic Valley, and Humboldt Creamery are deceiving the public--as Horizon and Aurora are--by not requiring their farmers to pasture their animals and provide them with at least 30% of their diet with pasture grass, but we certainly do have the evidence that they are jointly lobbying the USDA for the continuation of vague and non-enforceable standards (see letter below). OCA will be shortly asking organic consumers and farmers to contact these companies to formally rescind their previous statement to the USDA, and to formally and publicly state that new NOP dairy regulations must require a minimum of 30% of feed (by dry weight) from pasture. Otherwise consumers will continue to lose faith in the already tarnished "USDA Organic" label on dairy products.

Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association ______________________________________________________________

Late last year we learned that the nation's largest organic dairy processors (Organic Valley, Horizon, Stonyfield, Aurora and Humboldt) collaborated on drafting a secret letter to the USDA Secretary proposing their own "fix" to the controversy regarding factory-farms and whether their cattle are allowed to graze in compliance with the federal organic standards.

We've just obtained a copy of this letter and feel that dairy producers have a right to see and review it very carefully. (See letter below).

It sounds good, its goals are laudable, but it depends on interpretation which is the weakness that some have criticized as the Achilles heel of the current standards.

Do you trust the corporations, that own and operate the massive factory-farms that have been gaming the system for years, to collaborate in good faith with certifiers such as Quality Assurance International? QAI is the corporate-friendly certifier that has been giving their blessing to the majority of all organic CAFOs. And do you trust the USDA to enforce another standard open to "interpretation" when it has looked the other way on this issue since they were given the responsibility by Congress to create a fair and level playing field?

Since the two largest factory-farm operators signed onto this letter, how much teeth do you think they believe it will have in real-world applications?

The Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance, the Midwest Organic Dairy Producers Association, the Western Dairy Producers Alliance along with The Cornucopia Institute, the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture and many other consumer and farm organizations, and virtually every dairy farmer in the United States, has backed, in the addition to the flowery language that this letter contains, hard benchmarks to set extremely modest minimums (farmers will have to graze for the entire growing season, but not less than 120 days, and average at least 30% Dry Matter Intake [DMI] from pasture).

Dairy producers should consider contacting their milk handlers and demand that this letter be formally retracted. Farmers and consumers worked together for years, in public dialogue with the National Organic Standards Board, to come up with the consensus proposal (120 days/30%). The dairy processors should not be allowed, working with their powerful Washington lobbyists and lawyers, to have more say than the hard-working families who have built this industry through sweat and getting their hands dirty.

The voice of the consumer and the organic farmers in this country needs to prevail in this matter.

Mark Kastel & Will Fantle
Codirectors - The Cornucopia Institute

PS: While you are on the Cornucopia site if you have not had the opportunity to view the photo galleries of the massive "organic" industrial dairies that have caused this brouhaha in the first place we invite you to take a look.