Watch Your “Organic Milk” For It May Not Be, Not Quite. . . .
Horizon Organic (a subsidiary of Dean Foods) & Aurora Organic, a supplier of private brand name organic milk to Costco, Safeway, Giant and others, who together control 65% of the market, are purchasing the majority of their milk from feedlot dairies where the cows have little or no access to pasture.
ORGANIC CONSUMERS GETTING MILKED: TAKE ACTION TO SAVE ORGANIC STANDARDS
Recall that the fastest growing section of the rapidly growing organic market is the milk and dairy section. With organic sales increasing at 15-20 % each year, the big uncaring corporations want to greedily bite hard into that market. Milk and dairy sales are increasing at a 132% clip annually.
The watchdog group Cornucopia Institute has published a long-awaited report ranking organic dairy companies in the USA, and the facts are rather sobering. The good news is that most organic dairies in the U.S. are following strict organic standards, including giving animals regular access to pasture. The bad news is that several major players in the organic dairy sector are blatantly violating organic standards, with a wink and a nod from the USDA and the industry-controlled Organic Trade Association.
Two of the largest organic dairy companies in the nation, Horizon Organic (a subsidiary of Dean Foods); and Aurora Organic, a supplier of private brand name organic milk to Costco, Safeway, Giant and others, who together control 65% of the market, are purchasing the majority of their milk from feedlot dairies where the cows have little or no access to pasture. In addition, a routine practice on these giant dairy feedlots, many with thousands of cows, is to continuously import calves from conventional farms, where animals have been weaned on blood, fed slaughterhouse waste and genetically engineered grains, and injected or dosed with antibiotics.
Also be aware that White Wave and Silk organic soybean yogurts that many of us eat who want to avoid increasing our cholesterol counts [no cholesterol in plants like soybeans] have both been bought up by the very same Dean Corporation. Latest reports are that Dean is outsourcing its soybeans from China. And in China, “Round Up” has gone generic. Round Up is the herbicide made by Monsanto, and its generic name is “glyphosphate.” It is being linked to different forms of cancer. How much of it do they use in China? Would they dare to use it on “organic” soybeans??
Just a nightmare. . .Anyway:
Send a message to the National Organic Program of the USDA to stop the labeling of factory farm milk as “organic.”
http://www.organicconsumers.org/nosb2.htm