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Thursday, Jul 9, 2009
Critics say Horizon and other mass-production dairies don't deserve the organic label -- and that the USDA needs to come up with a real definition.
Apr 13, 2005 | The happy cow on the label of Horizon organic milk flies across the carton like some grocery-store superhero. The ubiquitous red milk carton in your local supermarket is like a stop sign for consumers: go no further, your quest for healthy milk ends here. The back of the carton assures us that Horizon milk is produced on certified organic farms, where "clean-living" cows "make milk the natural way, with access to plenty of fresh air, clean water and exercise." Horizon cows are not hopped up on antibiotics, continues the cheery copy. "Happy, healthy cows produce better milk for you and your family."
Just now, though, at one of Horizon's dairy farms in central Idaho, the cows don't look too happy. Perched amid a stark landscape of sagebrush and expansive brown fields, long silver barns that hold 4,000 cows are linked like barracks in some covert operation. I drive down a narrow, cracked road toward the dairy's main office and pass open-air sheds about 20 feet away, where cows laze in crowded pens atop the brown hardpan of the Idaho desert. Just outside the milking barn, more cows are jammed into an outdoor corral. Amid clumps of dirt and snow, they are lined up, their bodies touching.
In recent weeks, as revelations of Horizon's farming practices have come to light, a collection of consumer groups and organic dairy farmers have erupted in protest. Horizon and similar dairies are capitalizing on the boom in organic foods, they say, but diluting the true meaning of the term. Contrary to genuine organic practices, which entail raising cows on open pastures, where the animals feed on grass, experts say that a substantial percentage of cows at farms like Horizon's are confined to pens, fed a diet of proteins and grains, and produce milk that, while free of hormones, is not as healthy as it could be.
At a recent meeting of the United States Department of Agriculture's organic advisory board, 25 dairy farmers gave public testimony, and 8,000 farmers and consumers sent letters, claiming that by allowing "confinement dairies" such as Horizon and Aurora Organic Dairy, a 5,300-cow operation outside Denver (started by the founder of Horizon), to continue to market themselves as organic, the label's original promise of excellence is lost.
"People are paying more for organic products because they think the farmers are doing it right, that they're treating animals humanely and that the quality of the product is different," says Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association, a network of 600,000 organic consumers. "There has never been farms like Horizon or Aurora in the history of organics. Intensive confinement of animals is a no-no. This is Grade B organics."
Cummins and other critics stress that the USDA has been lax in enforcing current organic standards, which remain vague, and in creating strict new ones. To them, federal organic standards should mandate that cows be raised on pasture and fed grass. Given the USDA's failures, they attest, confinement dairies like Horizon continue to profit at the expense of the nation's small, independent dairies -- ones that do follow organic principles and produce the healthiest milk possible for people, cows and the environment.
