Organic Milk Scorecard

[KAnn]

For those who are interested in the organic milk controversy this is a scorecard of organic dairy. I am pleased that Organic Valley has a "4 cow" rating...I don't think anything I can but locally is a "5 cow". I hope there is more discussion and understanding of organic dairy...I used to assume a number of things that were just flat-out wrong.

http://cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html

[Julie O]

One of the 5 cow dairies listed is just a few minutes from my house. (Traders Point) I've enjoyed going there and seeing the actual cows that produce the milk. Unfortunately, they only make whole milk, which we think tastes too fatty. But their other products (yogurt, ice cream, and cheeses) are all top-notch.

[Chefzhat]

Great information! Too bad there's nothing listed for Michigan. :(

I've been getting our milk straight from a local farm - organic/non HCPB, and it's available in 2%. I love it, but it's a trip to go get it. But worth it. If I am unable to buy organic anywhere else (like in winter) I can always get organic milk, cheese, and eggs.

Debie

[KristiB]

I'll settle for my 4 cow Organic Valley.

Anything but Horizon... :D

[donleyk]

I'll settle for my 4 cow Organic Valley.

Anything but Horizon... :D

Ditto! I was glad OV was high on the list as we are fairly limited here.

Thanks for posting KAnn.

[mrswaz]

You would think that living in Wisconsin I'd have unlimited access to fresh organic milk and milk products...

I'm also glad that Organic Valley is pretty good. They gave a neat website too. I enjoyed reading some of the stories about their farmers.

[KAnn]

The controversy is the front page story of the Boulder Business Report this week:

Cornucopia defends mission: support small family farms


08/04/2006
Source: Boulder County Business Report
Author: Barbara Hey

The war of words continues between Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based research and advocacy group, and Boulder-based Aurora Organic Dairy and Broomfield-based Horizon Organic.


Following Cornucopia's Dairy Report release in April, the Organic Consumers Association called for a boycott of Horizon and Aurora products. The Boulder Co-Op Market was among the stores to comply.


The association just announced a boycott of Aurora's private label milks, including Costco's Kirkland Signature, Safeway's O Organics brand and Wild Oats' organic milk. The OCA also called for a boycott of WhiteWave Silk soymilk and tofu, (WhiteWave, like Horizon, is owned by Dean Foods), because its soybeans are sourced abroad with questionable "environmental standards and workers rights."


Both organic dairy companies have recently announced changes in farming protocol and other efforts to further organic dairy farming. But Aurora also has made some counterattacks on the motivation of Cornucopia and its co-founder Mark Kastel.


Sources at Aurora have suggested that Kastel and some of Cornucopia's board members have ties with La Farge, Wis.-based Organic Valley, the second-largest producer of organic milk behind Horizon.


Aurora officials have said that Kastel is pursuing a political agenda in his campaign to publicize what he claims are the ways in which these dairy corporations are "gaming the system," abusing the trust of the consumers of organic milk and putting smaller organic dairy farmers at a competitive disadvantage.


In response, Kastel said, his mission is clear: to support small family farms. He calls the counterattacks "a diversionary tactic."


As for the inner-workings of the institute, "We are very transparent," he said.


Cornucopia's board of directors includes two members who sell to Organic Valley - William Welsh, a longtime organic poultry farmer in Iowa, former member of the National Organic Standards Board and a member on the beef board at Organic Valley; and Helen Kees, an organic beef and crop farmer in Wisconsin.

The other six board members include an organic dairy farmer in Vermont, a medical book editor in Wisconsin, an environmentalist in Wisconsin, the owner of an organic seed company in Nebraska, a conservationist in Wisconsin, a Chicago businessman and urban preservationist, and an associate professor of government at Dartmouth College. The board members do not receive any stipend for their board work.


"Half of all organic dairy farmers are members of Organic Valley," Kastel said of the organic cooperative, which has 775 members in 22 states, 572 of whom are dairy farmers.


Cornucopia has 900 members, and 70-80 percent are organic farmers, Kastel said. The organization receives one-third of its funding from nonprofit foundations including its largest supporter, the Noyes Foundation; one-third from individual members ranging from $3.40 in postage stamps to as much as $2,000; and one-third from businesses, including the Wedge Co-Op in Minneapolis, the PCC Cooperative in the Seattle area and many small storefronts across the country. Most donations, he says, are in the $5 to $500 range.


Cornucopia has six employees; five in Wisconsin and one in New York.


There is overlap between membership of Organic Valley and Cornucopia, he says, because both are devoted to organic, sustainable small-scale farming.


Kastel denies that Cornucopia's work is influenced by contributors. An example he gives is that Ben & Jerry's donated a $5,000 grant, yet it received one of the lowest scores on the organization's dairy scorecard

Kastel's background and allegiance to Organic Valley has been questioned. Kastel said he has a 25-year career in farming, working for agribusiness giant International Harvester and J.I. Case before shifting his focus to organic. He worked for the Farmer's Union, and for 20 years he was president of M.A. Kastel and Associates Inc., which consulted with and lobbied for family farmers.


He worked for Organic Valley on and off beginning in 1989 - conducting market research, helping come up with a corporate identity - but he said, the company "was never one of my primary clients. ... I have never been an employee. I have no financial interest in Organic Valley, and I am not a stockholder."


"I have friends there," Kastel said from his home office in Rockton, Wis., 10 miles from Organic Valley headquarters. Part of his organic farm is farmed on share with a neighbor, whose wife works for Organic Valley. "And yes I do have lunch in their cafeteria perhaps twice a month, since I can get an all-organic meal for $5."


That familiarity and proximity to the cooperative is not the motivation for Cornucopia's aggressive pursuit of the corporations he claims work around loopholes and lax language in the organic regulations.


According to Joan Shaffer, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cornucopia filed three complaints against Aurora - in January 2005, November 2005 and July 2006. "The first set of allegations was closed in August 2005," she said. "The compliance inquiry into Cornucopia's second set of allegations is currently under investigation. The third set of allegations from Cornucopia is being reviewed. No decision has been made as to whether an investigation will be initiated."


"The fight is not between us and Aurora and Horizon," Kastel said. "It's virtually everyone in the organic dairy industry against the few farms that operate outside the spirit - not just the law - of organic farming."

Confirming that, Cornucopia Board Member Helen Kees, said, "Is it just Cornucopia? Good lord no. It's about farmers small and large concerned about maintaining the integrity of organic standards."


Said Kastel, Horizon and Aurora are "cutting corners and putting small farmers at a competitive disadvantage," he said. His work is to bring the issue to light to help consumers make more informed choices.


Cornucopia's mission is to keep the debate in earshot of the public. Organic farmer Blake Alexander, who with wife, Stephanie, runs a large family dairy in Northern California with 2,800 milkers at three locations, commented that Cornucopia likes to be a thorn, though he prefers a more conciliatory approach.


But the brouhaha has made it clear that consumers do understand and expect that organic milk comes from pasture-fed cows. "No one will get away with pretend grazing. Aurora was under the radar for a while," he said.

The issue of grazing is complicated by geography, and some say Cornucopia unfairly targets arid Western states. "On the West Coast because of the natural setting it's easy to comply with the grazing expectation," Alexander said. "In Colorado it's a struggle to grow grass to feed cows, but it's possible. And they've got to try."


"There is concern that with the increased demand for organic foods, a lot of big players want in, and are doing it for profit but perhaps don't buy into - or are even aware of - the spirit of organics," said Trudy Bialic, public affairs manager for Seattle-based PCC Co-Op.


Bialic credits Cornucopia for bringing the organic milk debate to the floor. "We don't want watered-down standards. We want the USDA to enforce what's in the books."


Cornucopia, she said, has done a service to consumers who care about organic food and the integrity of the organic standards. "They defend the interest of the consumers and the small farmers."