YES! New USDA rules establish strong organic standards for pasture and livestock

CharlottesWeb

This is awesome news!

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_20216.cfm

Alisha_A

Yay!! I have been disappointed that there have still been a lot of the same types of appointments under this administration, so its great to see some action being taken on the organic consumer/producer side rather than big ag!

"After over 10 years of lobbying, family farmers across the country, who produce organic milk, are celebrating the release of strict new USDA regulations that establish distinct benchmarks requiring the grazing and pasturing of dairy cows and other livestock. Many hope that the new rule will put an end to the abuses that have flooded the organic market with suspect milk from a handful of mega-dairies generally confining thousands of animals in feed lots and barns."

I wonder how/if this will affect Horizon/Dean Foods.

SuperGreen

That is great news!  One part still concerns me though, that organic dairy cows will now "have access to the outdoors year-round."  Access seems to be a problematic word for a lot of things.  Like organic chickens have to have "access" to the outdoors, which for CAFOs means a tiny door that only opens when the chickens are ~4 weeks old when the chickens are already set in their ways and don't use it, and they're slaughtered two weeks later.  The consumer probably thinks they spent a significant portion of its life outside, when in fact they weren't outside at all.

I think Horizon will add a little strip of pasture and let the cows out there in shifts.  They'll still be crammed together and ankle-deep in their own feces.  I think setting a defined herd size, like 200 cows, in addition to mandated pasture times would have helped keep organic CAFOs out of operation.

Horizon has been getting a lot of bad press recently, and I think it shows in their sales.  I was at Whole Foods yesterday and the Organic Valley supplies were getting low, while the rows of Horizon were virtually untouched.  That could be due to stock rotations, but I saw a lot of Organic Valley milks in people's carts

CharlottesWeb

SuperGreen:

That is great news!  One part still concerns me though, that organic dairy cows will now "have access to the outdoors year-round."  Access seems to be a problematic word for a lot of things.  Like organic chickens have to have "access" to the outdoors, which for CAFOs means a tiny door that only opens when the chickens are ~4 weeks old when the chickens are already set in their ways and don't use it, and they're slaughtered two weeks later.  The consumer probably thinks they spent a significant portion of its life outside, when in fact they weren't outside at all.

I think Horizon will add a little strip of pasture and let the cows out there in shifts.  They'll still be crammed together and ankle-deep in their own feces.  I think setting a defined herd size, like 200 cows, in addition to mandated pasture times would have helped keep organic CAFOs out of operation.

Horizon has been getting a lot of bad press recently, and I think it shows in their sales.  I was at Whole Foods yesterday and the Organic Valley supplies were getting low, while the rows of Horizon were virtually untouched.  That could be due to stock rotations, but I saw a lot of Organic Valley milks in people's carts

I agree with what you are saying here. But it gives me hope that something like this can get through. We are moving in the right direction at least. And it certainly doesn't mean I'll be buying up the Horizon dairy from now on.

 

And to the other pp. Yes, I used to read Anne Rice all the time, lol. I had the name Rowan chosen years and years before I became a mom. Glad dh like it too!

Alisha_A

SuperGreen:

That is great news!  One part still concerns me though, that organic dairy cows will now "have access to the outdoors year-round."  Access seems to be a problematic word for a lot of things. 

The new standards set a minimum of 120 pasture days per season, and that the cows get 30% minimum of their feed from pasturing. These were not in place before. The old rules did require 'access' to fresh pasture and it was not given in the case of these CAFOs, and the Bush administration refused to follow up on it.

I really hope this will change some things. Organic milk that isn't really organic, by the standards set forth, should not be on the shelf labeled as such!

hollyfp

That is great!  A step in the right direction for sure-

SuperGreen

Alisha_A:

SuperGreen:

That is great news!  One part still concerns me though, that organic dairy cows will now "have access to the outdoors year-round."  Access seems to be a problematic word for a lot of things. 

The new standards set a minimum of 120 pasture days per season, and that the cows get 30% minimum of their feed from pasturing. These were not in place before. The old rules did require 'access' to fresh pasture and it was not given in the case of these CAFOs, and the Bush administration refused to follow up on it.

I really hope this will change some things. Organic milk that isn't really organic, by the standards set forth, should not be on the shelf labeled as such!

I saw that, and I agree that this is totally a step in the right direction and I also really hope it changes things.  I didn't mean to come across negatively, I am really glad this got through.  I'm just concerned that dairies like Horizon will find a way to circumvent it, like organic chicken farms do with their strip of grass the chickens don't use.