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When commercialized in the 1980s, the organic dairy movement was viewed by many farmers as opting out of a rapacious agricultural marketing system that had already driven the majority of dairy farm families off the land over the preceding two decades. Now, a quarter century later, history is repeating itself with giant "factory farms" flooding the organic dairy market with fraudulent "organic" milk and economically devastating family businesses and rural communities.
According to the latest USDA records, organic milk production jumped 18.5% in 2016 alone, far eclipsing the growth in market demand. As a result, wholesale purchasers of raw organic milk have cut prices to farmers by 25-30% or more. In addition, some buyers have set quotas, mandating production cuts, further impacting cash flow. The largest organic dairy brand, Horizon, owned by Groupe Danone of France, is terminating contracts with some farmers, at a time when there are no alternative markets available. Industry experts have called the moves by the world's largest dairy a "death warrant" for farmers.
With the glut of organic milk, and the USDA abdicating their legally-mandated oversight responsibilities, authentic organic farmers and their customers are poised to band together to take their fight to the dairy coolers of the nation's groceries and specialty retailers.
The Cornucopia Institute, a prominent organic industry watchdog, has just released a comprehensive history and study of the industry, exposing how factory farms, some milking as many as 15,000 cows in desert-like conditions in the Southwest, are defrauding consumers by depriving them of the documented nutritional superiority in pasture-based organic dairy production.
The report includes a companion Organic Dairy Scorecard rating approximately 160 brands in terms of their authenticity and quality of production.
"With the USDA's failure to protect ethical industry participants and consumers from outright fraud, using our Organic Dairy Scorecard is a way for organic stakeholders to take the law into their own hands," said Mark A. Kastel, Codirector and Senior Farm Policy Analyst of The Cornucopia Institute. "In every market and product category, consumers can vote in front of the dairy case to economically support authentic organic farmers while simultaneously protecting their families."
With the support of a growing legion of consumers looking for safer and more nutritionally dense food, the organic industry has grown into a $50 billion juggernaut. No longer do consumers have to go out of their way to buy organic produce, dairy products, and processed foods at specialty retailers like Whole Foods or the nation's 300 member-owned natural food cooperatives. Costco is now the largest organic retailer in the country, with Walmart, Target, Kroger, and many more of the country's major food retailers rapidly expanding their organic offerings.
The dairy scorecard rates brands in terms of their procurement practices, separating major industry players, like the private-label milk brands at big-box retailers that exclusively source from mega-dairies, from the many smaller, family-owned operations where cows often have names, not numbers.
"Unlike the industrial dairies, true organic farmers concentrate on soil fertility and nutrient-superior milk production from fresh pasture, and end up with cows that live long and healthy lives in comparison to 'organic' industrial dairies that are so similar to the inhumane and ecologically damaging conventional factory farms consumers condemn," said Ed Maltby, a longtime industry observer and Executive Director of the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance.
True organic, pasture-based production produces milk with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids and beneficial antioxidants. Testing, done as part of an investigative report in 2017 by The Washington Post, found milk from Aurora Organic Dairy, the industry's largest supplier to grocery chains like Costco, Safeway, and Walmart, was nutritionally deficient compared to organic family-scale production.
"Consumers are being ripped off. My family and I have dedicated ourselves, as have the majority of the over 2,000 organic dairy farmers in this country, to creating a superior product in terms of both flavor and nutrition," said Kevin Engelbert, who was the first certified organic dairy farmer in the country in the 1980s. "The inaction by the USDA in enforcing the law is depriving consumers of the healthful benefits they are seeking and competitively damaging ethical farmers."
Engelbert, who farms in Nichols, New York, was appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture during the Bush administration to serve on the USDA's National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), charged by Congress to review and recommend regulations protecting organics farmers and their customers.
"Nonprofit, public-interest groups like Cornucopia should not have to go to the expense of researching comparative brands that are and are not meeting the organic standards. That's supposed to be the job of the USDA and, through successive Democratic and Republican administrations, they have woefully failed in their responsibilities," Engelbert added.
To illustrate the grotesquely disproportionate scale of some of the organic "dairies" operating in the semi-desert conditions of Texas, Idaho, Colorado, and California, the Lone Star State alone produces 1.4 times more organic milk than Wisconsin, the state with the most organic dairies--even though Wisconsin, commonly known as America's Dairyland, has 75 times more organic producers (453 versus six, according to the most recent USDA data).
A decade ago, federal investigators found Aurora in "willful" violation of 14 tenets of the organic law. After career civil servants recommended they be banned from organic commerce, Aurora was allowed to continue to operate, without paying a fine, by the Bush USDA.
The Cornucopia Institute's Kastel added, "After the Bush years we didn't think things could get any worse, but the Obama administration appointed organic industry insiders who sold-out the values the movement was founded upon in deference to short-term corporate profit." He continued, "When the last administration took over, they proclaimed it the 'age of enforcement' but, if anything, the system became even more gamed in favor of corporate agribusiness and their lobbyists at the Organic Trade Association."
The Obama USDA dismissed evidence-filled complaints compiled by Cornucopia that employed aerial and satellite photography of the giant dairies confining their cattle to sheds or feedlots instead of grazing. After the heat was turned up by the Post's investigation, USDA staff visited Aurora's largest operation in Colorado, managing over 20,000 head of cattle. But they conveniently made an appointment prior to doing so.
"Who ever heard of a law enforcement agency calling up a suspected meth lab and setting up a mutually convenient appointment to carry out a search?" said Francis Thicke, a longtime certified organic dairy farmer from Fairfield, Iowa and a former Obama-era appointee to the NOSB.
If some industry observers were hoping the Trump administration would right the listing organic ship, they are likely already disappointed. During its relatively short tenure, the director of the USDA National Organic Program has left under an ethical cloud, and the department has expressed their tacit approval for growing organic fruits and vegetables without soil in giant hydroponic greenhouses and scuttled a regulation, just set to go into effect, that would have forced factory-farm egg producers to offer outdoor access to their birds (an existing legal requirement that continues to be skirted).
"The good news is that for every type of product, fluid milk, cheese, butter, ice cream, and more, consumers can have continued confidence in organic dairy foods by locating the most reputable brand on the Cornucopia organic brand scorecard," said Kastel.
"Parents who have made the decision to switch to organic food, wanting to lower the toxic load and increase the nutritional value of the food they are serving their children, are not about to go back to conventional products. The scorecard allows the most important participants in the organic industry, consumers, to have the final say in this controversy."
Almost all of the beef available in supermarkets across the country comes from sick cows that pose a significant risk to human health. The Cornucopia Institute, a national food and farm policy research group, has just released a video educating consumers on where their burger meat comes from. The informative, short video, Sick Cows/Sick People-The Grassfed Antidote, shows just how unhealthy typical beef production is and what consumers can do to find excellent meat for their Labor Day barbeques.
"Most beef cattle in the U.S. are morbidly obese and likely suffer from diabetes and fatty livers," said Mark A. Kastel, Cornucopia's senior farm policy analyst. "Very few would survive to old age if not sent to slaughter."
Like people, a cow's diet and environment strongly influences its health. The conventional U.S. beef production system depends on a network of farmers and ranchers who raise cattle on grain, with access to pasture, for the initial portion of their lives. But the final "finishing" months of a beef animal's life is invariably spent wading through manure and mud on massive, crowded, grass-free feedlots, where thousands of other animals are fattened on GMO corn-based feed.
"These animals have evolved to eat grass and other fresh plants. High production grain-based rations, along with routinely administered drugs to promote growth and stave off the inevitable illness from their unnatural diet and living conditions, makes factory-produced animals sick," added Cornucopia's Kastel, who narrates the video. "Sadly, this conventional beef is what many will be grilling up on Labor Day weekend."
But Americans don't have to eat meat from sick animals. There is a more humane, healthy alternative: 100% grass-fed organic beef, available at your local co-op, specialty retailer, or farmers market.
While both USDA certified organic and grass-fed beef offer significant benefits compared to products produced by cows confined to a feedlot, these two labels are different. USDA certified organic cattle must be fed entirely certified organic feed, which means the pastures must be certified along with any grain and hay the cattle are fed. None of the feed, including the pastures on which the cattle graze, can be sprayed with dangerous pesticides or herbicides. In addition, organic beef cattle cannot receive antibiotics, growth-promoting hormones, or other drugs banned in organic farming.
Also, unlike conventional ruminants, organic cattle must comply with certain minimum grazing requirements. If beef carries a "100% grass-fed" label, it usually means that the cattle were fed exclusively grass, hay, and other forage. However, beef that carries a grass-fed label, but not the USDA organic seal, may receive antibiotics and hormones, and could be fed grass and forage that was sprayed with synthetic pesticides.
Consumers seek out both organic and grass-fed products because of their benefits to human health, animal welfare, and the environment. A high percentage of green forage in a beef animal's diet imparts much higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the meat, and animals grazed on fresh green forage produce beef with more conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) as compared to grain-fed cows. These fatty acids have proven human health benefits. Eating grass-fed meat and dairy is among the most effective ways for humans to increase the amount of these beneficial fatty acids in their diets.
As ruminants, cattle evolved to eat mainly grass and other fresh vegetation. The microbiome in the rumen, a part of their digestive systems, excels at breaking down fiber to provide the animal with easily absorbed nutrients. Despite this, for economic reasons, most beef produced in the U.S. is grain-fed. Eating grain disrupts the normal digestive process, changing the pH in the rumen, resulting in physiological stress. This "acidosis" from grain-based diets facilitates the growth of harmful microorganisms, including dangerous strains of E. coli, and metabolic disease in animals. Feeding cattle a diet composed primarily of grass not only prevents acidosis and its associated health problems, but grazing promotes cattle's overall physical and mental health and creates safer meat.
But consumers should be aware, greenwashing tactics are common with grass-fed labeling. A simple "grass-fed" label without any other qualifiers can just mean that the product was derived from livestock that received some portion of its diet from grass. That animal could have still received some grain, and may have been completely "finished" on grain, which negates many of the health benefits associated with prior grass feeding. However, a label with "100% grass-fed" language should close this loophole, due to basic laws regarding truthfulness in food labeling.
"One of the reasons we recommend organic certification for meat and dairy labeled '100% grass-fed' is the benefit of independent, third-party oversight and federal law assuring the accuracy of the claims," Kastel said.
"Looking for the organic seal also ensures that you know what you are getting. There is a high percentage of grass-fed meat being imported from countries that might not uphold the same high standards as the U.S. '100% grass-fed,' certified organic, and locally produced is the gold standard when shopping," Kastel added.
Consumers interested in the threefold benefits to human, environmental, and animal health and welfare, should look for beef that carries both the USDA organic seal and a 100% grass-fed label. 100% grass-fed organic beef from local farmers ensures the greatest nutrition and minimizes exposure to agrichemicals, antibiotics, and growth hormones. A cooking tip for Labor Day barbeques: 100% grass-fed beef naturally has less fat, so don't overcook on the grill to enjoy that perfect, juicy, beefy burger taste.
A recent Washington Post investigation illustrated serious flaws in the organic certification program at the USDA, undermining confidence in the organic label and spotlighting the harm domestic organic grain farmers continue to suffer at the hands of unscrupulous competitors in the international supply chain.
The Cornucopia Institute, an organic industry research and policy organization, is taking action to hold the USDA accountable. Cornucopia has sent a formal request petitioning the USDA to enact critical new regulations that will make it increasingly difficult for fraudulent organic imports to cross U.S. borders.
In addition, the watchdog group will be reporting to consumers and wholesale buyers which organic brands exclusively source domestic organic feed for their meat, dairy products and eggs.
"Cornucopia is using both legal and marketplace channels to put an end to this profiteering that damages the organic label," said Will Fantle, Cornucopia's research director. "We are putting pressure on the USDA as we develop tools to help buyers avoid these wholesale scams in the marketplace.""
"Sham 'organic' imports often make their way into the U.S. accompanied by altered paperwork that represents corn, soy, and other commodities as organic when it is actually conventional." Fantle said that "the economic damage to U.S. organic producers is staggering as they struggle to compete with cheap imports that often are not even organically produced."
The Organic Farmers' Agency for Relationship Marketing (OFARM), a group comprised of five organic grain and livestock member cooperatives, estimates that total losses to domestic organic corn and soybean producers from 2015 to 2017 will exceed $250 million. "We must stem the rising tide of questionable organics before the damage is irreparable," said John Bobbe, OFARM's executive director.
Cornucopia's efforts to raise awareness about fraudulent organics started about a decade ago when they published a report, Behind the Bean, that examined the, then, exponential increase in the imports of dubious Chinese organic soybeans.
Complicated international supply chains present challenges in investigating sources of fraud, but the public, especially those involved in organic grain markets, can help. Cornucopia has established a confidential hotline, 608-625-2000, to receive information from industry stakeholders on fraudulent activity involving organics.
Individuals in the farming, transportation, and brokerage sectors, along with wholesale buyers of organics, often have inside knowledge of suspicious activities or that paperwork has been altered, warranting investigation. Cornucopia encourages these individuals to, in confidence, share credible information regarding questionable activities that could help uncover and expose sources of fraud.
Cornucopia's formal request for new regulations on imports calls for enforcement of protocols that require importers to assure audit trail integrity by tracing the imported grain back to the overseas farm. The policy group is further recommending stringent new regulations that would require government agencies to test every inbound load for agrochemical residues and other indicators of conventional production.
"Increased audit trail verification and mandatory testing are critical regulatory amendments which are needed to thwart the influx of fraudulent organic grains into the United States," said Anne Ross, JD, a farm policy analyst for Cornucopia.
Ross added, "New testing requirements can, in short order, be implemented through emergency rulemaking. In addition, the USDA needs to ensure that imports comply with the U.S. organic standards and properly monitor third-party certifiers in other countries."
Meanwhile, while the international investigations continue and avenues for legal recourse are explored, Cornucopia is preparing informational materials for consumers and wholesale buyers that will highlight exemplary organic brands committed to using all North American grain and will, simultaneously, red flag brands that have problematic sourcing procedures.
Because fraudulent organic grains are often used as livestock feed, increased public pressure on poultry, beef, dairy, and egg operations to purchase U.S. grown grain will help protect high-integrity U.S. farmers.
"By exposing fraud, implementing regulatory change, and increasing public awareness, we hope our domestic organic producers will find much needed relief, as many are on the verge of being forced out of business," said Fantle. "Likewise, the American consumer will get what they are paying for when they buy USDA organic labeled products--healthier food, produced in an environmentally responsible way."