The Cornucopia Institute (CI) has recently completed a survey of organic milks, evaluating the methods of
production and "rating the integrity" of various producers of organic milk and dairy products. Predictably,
the companies which received the lowest scores are the
largest ones. Their study is designed to reveal the "best" organically produced dairy and the worst
- which it deems to be no better than conventionally produced dairy. Fortunately for consumers, CI says that the vast
majority of all branded organic dairy products are produced at farms that follow legal and ethical standards.
The rating system had categories which ranged from "outstanding" down to "brand name", which in and of itself should tell you something about the bias inherent in the survey. Just like the article over at the Slate, there seems to be no distinction made between organic and small farm, family owned, self sustaining agriculture. CI says "organic consumers tend to want to know where their food is coming from and how it is produced," but the reality is that for most organic consumers it is sufficient to know that the product has been certified organic; consumers wishing to avoid GMO products and hormones in their milk do not necessarily care what farm the cows came from. It is possible that the CI is correct and that people should care, but at the moment that is not always the case.
Another point of contention is the use of the term "factory farm," which the Institute seems to have applied automatically to any production unit that it did not consider to be family owned. This is misleading, as there is a three year federal process to become a certified organic dairy. Because many larger stores opted not to participate in the study, it seems as though assumptions were made about their organic products - namely, that they were being produced in factory farming conditions. Companies like Wild Oats and Trader Joe's were given "one-cow" ratings, justified by the fact that CI said "we were able to determine that these brands were, at the time of our research, buying some or all of their organic milk from factory-farm sources. We conducted our research in this area through interviews with a number of industry sources and through federally maintained records." The Institute also said, in defense of their one-cow ratings, that "Many of these grocery chains have very little past experience in marketing organic food."
Perhaps a more informative study would have done a review of the federal certification process to determine its reliability - not a survey with dairy producers. It's an interesting look at the dairy industry, but the results need to be taken with a grain of salt.










Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-23-2006 @ 12:31PM
Cableman said...
Cornucopia Institute is a lobbying arm for Organic Valley. Its founder is a paid consultant for organic valley and decries Horizon and others for some of the same practices that OV employs. "Black marketing" groups like this rely on the laziness of the media, who simply assume that all non-profits exist for the good of mankind.
More here:
http://www.industrialnewsupdate.com/news/food-processing/archives/2005/03/cornucopia_inst.php
http://www.milkismilk.com/2005_03_01_milkismilk_archive.html
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3-23-2006 @ 1:23PM
steveo said...
Most people don't care where their milk and other foodstuffs come from because that information has never been available to them. This shouldn't be seen as a benefit or non-issue. When the information is available, people will use it. I personally would prefer to have milk that was produced nearer to me than further away, and I for one would benefit from the sort of labeling you've chosen to dismiss.
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3-24-2006 @ 11:13AM
Matt Reed said...
As for the question of black marketing I think you ought to look carefully at who is making the accusation. In content s/he may be correct but Alex Avery is a long time opponent of organic farming, so I would question the motivation for flagging this information up. I've post a bit more on my blog about this and I'll follow it up if I get chance.
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3-24-2006 @ 3:30PM
Theresa Williamson said...
For a long time it didn't matter to me what was put into the cows---growth hormones, etc. Now it is different. Children are having puberty earlier than ordinarily and other things like that. We read The Maker's Diet by Jordan Ruben and he stresses eating grass-fed meat. Well, where do you suppose we could get that? Organic producers and those who want to raise their animals naturally. Wild Harvest sells no hormone meat. I bought it at an Albertson's store. It is more expensive, sure, but it tastes good. With all the emphasis on eating healthy, shouldn't we include healthy, naturally-raised food in that also? I think so.
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