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Home>Get Involved>Action Alert>30 MAR 2006

Take Action to Save Organic Standards

WESTON A. PRICE FOUNDATION
ACTION ALERT
March 30, 2006

The watchdog group Cornucopia Institute published a long-awaited report on organic dairy practices in the USA on March 22, and the facts are rather sobering. See the report at
http://cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/. While many of us consume raw milk, I suspect that there are quite a few members that drink organic milk. This report provides a rather sobering reflection of current practices in the organic dairy industry. If you do consume organic milk, please check the Cornucopia report to see
whether your milk is being produced according to prescribed organic standards.

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.

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 percent 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.

Send a message to the National Organic Program of the USDA to stop the labeling of factory farm milk as "organic." To get more information and send your message to the USDA, please go to:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/nosb2.htm.

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