The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is calling on consumers to boycott milk brands that claim to be organic while routinely importing calves from conventional farms and raising the animals in intensive confinement, with little or no access to pasture.
“Consumers buying products labeled ‘organic’ do not realize that they often essentially being scammed by some of the larger companies who put pictures of happily grazing cows on their products, but in reality keep their cows confined in ways very similar to traditional factory farms. OCA is calling on consumers to boycott these bogus organic products , and give their consumer dollars to ethical producers who are upholding strict organic standards,” says Ronnie Cummins, Executive Director of the Organic Consumers Association.
For the confused consumer trying to buy ethical organic dairy, there is a new study, Maintaining the Integrity of Organic Milk, produced by the Cornucopia Institute that rates 68 organic dairy name-brands and private labels, exposing the dubious practices of some so-called organic companies, and highlighting companies that are producing truly organic milk. “We found that approximately 20% of the companies we surveyed do not meet what we think should be the basic standard to label a product organic. Our hope is that our report and scorecard will enable consumers to make ethical shopping choices,†says Mark Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst for the Cornucopia Institute and the report’s primary author. Companies could receive a rating of one to five cows depending on how they scored. The study is available online at http://cornucopia.org/index.php/dairy_brand_ratings/.
OCA is concerned by the spread of lower quality products being labeled organic to meet the increasing consumer demand for organic. This is especially true of many big box stores, such as Wal-Mart and Costco, who are scrambling to source and sell more products with the organic label. “What is happening is that the massive demand for organic products is outstripping supply in the U.S. Instead of helping American farmers and ranchers make the difficult but necessary transition to organic, unscrupulous companies are moving to lower organic standards and import billions of dollars of organic foods and ingredients from overseas suppliers such as China, where labor standards are atrocious and organic certification standards are questionable, says Cummins.
While I don’t support human consumption of dairy products on health grounds, if a person does consume them, they should certainly be organic. It is reprehensible of companies to deceive consumers on the bona fides of claims that foods are organic and I support the proposed boycot. Perhaps now would be a good time to stop consuming dairy altogether.
American milk producers are increasingly seeking out farmers who don’t use the synthetic hormone rBST, as natural-food trends increasingly exert their influence on the market.
BST or Bovine somatotropin is a naturally occurring protein hormone in the pituitary gland of cattle. However, a sythetic version, rBST produced by Monsanto, is a growth hormone that rarmers inject into a cow to increase milk production.
rBST is widely used around America (Monsanto estimates about one third of dairy cattle), but the practice is shunned in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and most of the EU. These countries find the sterility, infertility, birth defects, cancer and immunological derangements and increasing amounts of pus in milk through infections in cow udders caused by rBST to be unacceptable.
So how do you feel about those things yourself? Fortunately, it seems consumers are the ones pushing more towards organic alternatives in their food products.
Organic Monitor reports Americans are rapidly buying organic and hormone-free food & drink as they are seen to be healthier and more natural than modified products. Ubderstandably this includes a demand from consumers for hormone-free dairy products.
Check your packaging carefully and here’s another tip: regard claims made by Dean Foods with scepticism (their track record is rather blemished).