[Dialogue] USDA Criticized for Helping "Industrialize" Organic Farming

[Harry Wainwright]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 10, 2006
11:05 AM                             CONTACT: The Cornucopia Institute 
608-625-2042
organic at cornucopia.org

USDA Criticized for Helping "Industrialize" Organic Farming
Agency Allowing Nonorganic Cattle in Dairy Production

WASHINGTON - May 10 - Proposed new federal organic livestock regulations are
coming under sharp criticism for failing to close critical loopholes that
are allowing a handful of factory-scale dairy farms in western states to
continue bringing into their milk herd new animals raised with antibiotics,
hormones, and genetically engineered feed produced with toxic pesticides. 

The new rules ignore recommendations endorsed by the USDA's own expert
advisory panel, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). In 2002 and
2003, the NOSB unanimously passed recommendations that all animals being
brought onto an existing organic dairy farm had to be under organic
management starting no later than the last three months of pregnancy. 

"Bringing in nonorganic animals is an unethical management practice that
violates the trust of consumers," said Mark Kastel of The Cornucopia
Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm policy research group. 

According to opinion research, consumers are willing to pay premium prices
for organic dairy products in part because they believe that USDA
regulations prohibit the use of antibiotics, hormones, and genetically
engineered feed on organic farms. 

"In the study that we released last month, Maintaining the Integrity of
Organic Milk, which rates the country's organic dairy brands,
(http://www.cornucopia.org/), we found that the majority of organic dairy
producers are able to replenish their herds, on an ongoing basis, through
on-farm reproduction," said Kastel. "But these large factory dairies, which
are an anathema to organic consumers and farmers alike, push their cows for
such high productivity that their ill health and short life spans require
constantly bringing replacement animals into the milk herd. This is not
organic!" Many of these large dairies have also been accused of confining
their cattle rather than allowing them to graze on pasture as required by
the federal regulations. 

A federal lawsuit, successfully brought by Maine blueberry farmer and
organic purist Arthur Harvey, has required the USDA to correct certain
language in their organic regulations. Industry analysts assumed that since
the NOSB was on record in favor of closing the replacement animal loopholes,
that they would take the opportunity to do so at the same time. Instead, it
appears that the Department might be following the lead of the industry's
dominant milk marketer, Dean Foods, and the Organic Trade Association, an
industry lobby group, which have suggested postponing action on this issue
for up to an additional two years. 

"Some of these large factory farms, including one operated by Dean Foods
that is selling milk under their Horizon label, are gaming the system," said
Kastel. Dean has admitted to shareholder groups that in order to maximize
profits, they sell all of the calves born on their 4000-head farm, allowing
them to save on providing expensive organic feed to animals for the first
year of their life. They then purchase one-year-old animals that have been
administered drugs and been fed nonorganic feed to replenish their herd. 

"It is unconscionable that this $11 billion company, the nation's largest
conventional and organic milk processor, is deceiving consumers by
suggesting that their animals are not raised using antibiotics, hormones,
and other banned substances," testified Ronnie Cummins, Executive Director
of the Organic Consumers Association. "We are particularly concerned that
their calves may have very well ingested BSE (mad cow) risk materials that
are allowed in conventional farming but have been banned in organics as a
safeguard and firewall against the spread of the disease," added Cummins. 

"While other 'legitimate' organic farmers are providing the same quality
organic milk to their calves as consumers would pick up at the store,
Horizon's factory farm in Idaho is selling $700,000- $1,000.000 in
additional milk that they should instead be feeding to their young calves
and future replacement animals. This puts ethical family-scale producers at
a huge competitive disadvantage," stated Kastel, Cornucopia's Senior Farm
Policy Analyst. 

"Not addressing these loopholes after the organic community has worked so
hard to come to agreement is disappointing," stated James Riddle, University
Of Minnesota Organic Outreach Coordinator and the immediate past NOSB
chairman. "The NOSB has solicited public input from the industry and
promulgated recommendations on this and a myriad of other pressing issues
that the USDA has failed to act on," Riddle lamented. 

Some industry observers, and longtime critics of the USDA, have suggested
that federal regulators have become too cozy with giant agribusiness
concerns, like Dean Foods. Many big companies have heavily invested in
organic brands through the acquisition of smaller companies and organic
labels while the organic industry has grown from a small niche into a
booming $15 billion market category. 

The Cornucopia Institute, which acts as an organic industry watchdog, has
also sent a letter to USDA Secretary Mike Johanns requesting that he order
bureaucrats in the National Organic Program to extend the current 15 day
public comment period by a minimum of an additional 60 days to allow
interested stakeholders in the organic industry to have a voice in the
matter. Comments are currently due by May 12th. 

The uncharacteristically short opportunity for public input comes right as
some farmers are working 15 to 18 hours per day in the rush of spring
planting. An additional conflict is the fact that the industry's premier
trade show, All Things Organic, just ended in Chicago. Many organic business
leaders were tied up for as long as a week because of the conference. 

"During the last five years USDA inaction has allowed a handful of
mega-farms, in the arid West, milking 2000-10,000 cows, to grab a growing
share of the organic milk market," Kastel said. "Our study found that over
80% of the name-brand organic dairy products are produced with high
integrity. We cannot allow a few bad actors to economically injure our
nation's family farmers and put the reputation of the organic label at
risk," the Kastel added. 

Farmers and consumers interested in notifying the USDA of their concerns can
easily share their views with the officials by using Cornucopia's Web page
at http://cornucopia.org 

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