| Today I learned some good news about organic dairy. Well, good and bad. The good - no, great - news is that the USDA took a step towards putting factory farm "organic" dairies out of business by issuing new rules that would disqualify them as organic. The bad news is that the proposed rule is so flawed that we can't even advocate for it.
First of all - if you are concerned about your own milk, check out Cornucopia Institute's dairy scorecard. They assure me that MOST organic milk does meet the high standards we expect them to, and their dairy scorecard is crucial to any consumer who wants to know for sure that their organic milk is organic.
That said, there are some bad apples (namely, Horizon and Aurora). The new rules strive to put them out of the organics business by requiring organic dairies to allow the cows to graze on grass for a significant part of the year. This is also great news for milk drinkers because when the cows eat grass, their milk contains a healthy nutrient called CLA. The problem with the proposed rule is that it would also put an estimated HALF of legitimate organic dairies out of business.
Forgive me for leaving out the details for now - I've read through them and my head is spinning. It's clear that organic dairy farmers are needed to weigh in on the proposed rules. The other problem with the rule is that it includes rules for organics other than dairy (beef, honey, and fish).
It seems to me that our major requests as of now are three:
First, separate the dairy rules from other livestock rules so that we can get the changes we need in dairy without slowing that process down with controversy over other foods;
Second, allow the National Organics Standards Board (NOSB) to weigh in on fully on the proposed rule (apparently the USDA issued this proposed rule without running it past NOSB);
Third, please extend the comment period on this proposed rule so that the organic community has time to decide what needs to be done and communicate that back to the USDA.
Currently there's a comment period open until mid-December. I will continue to cover this issue and I will certainly let everyone know once we foodies have a unified message to send to the USDA in our comments. |
