Horizon Organic

Ms.MKBT

Ok- someone tell me what I've missed about it- we basically have two options for organic milk at our local grocery store: Wild Harvest or Horizon Organic.  I know some of you said Wild Harvest isn't a reliable organic brand... what about Horizon?

Mrs.A&J

They are "organic" in terms of USDA standards, but they meet the bare minimum requirements for animal treatment and living conditions. They only do what they have to, basically, to put the organic label on their product. I don't know anything about the other brand you mentioned. I'm surprised you don't have Organic Valley, I've seen them in just about every grocery store I've been in. They are a great company because they purchase from small dairies and distribute it locally under their name. So no matter what state you're in, you can buy Organic Valley and know it's pretty local.

Ms.MKBT

Nevermind- I had a brain fart- we do have Organic Valley and that's what I have been buying.  For some reason I thought it was Horizon Organic.   

mestills

Overall Organic Valley is a better company than Horizon, so you should choose Organic Valley.  So it is great that your store offers it.

SuperGreen

Horizon follows the letter of the organic laws, not the spirit.  Yes, they don't use antibiotics and the cows are fed organic corn.  But they're still confined feedlot-style and milked until they're dry and sold to the meat industry.  The dairy laws were recently changed though to mandate pasture times so we'll see what Horizon does with that.

Here's their wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon_Organic.  They've been sued for not following organic practices.  I think of them as the Walmart or McDonald's of the organic milk industry.  Their owner, Dean Foods, is one of the largest food product manufacturers in the country.  So IMHO Horizon is the big agribusiness claiming to be a small family farm, complete with cows grazing on grass on their label.

Organic Valley on the other hand, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_Valley "comprises 1332 farmer-owners located in 32 states and one Canadian province that specialize in sustainable, organic agriculture practices."

 

Alisha_A

This actually came up yesterday on P&CE, so I'll just C&P my response here too -

Dean Foods owns Horizon, and there have been a number of allegations of them sourcing from largescale feedlots in which the animals have no access to forage during growing season. The feedlots themselves are really antithetical to why many of us buy organic (environmental and humane reasons), and the lack of access to organic forage violates organic standards. It will be interesting to see how the improved regulations will affect Dean foods.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Dean_Foods_Company

http://www.bostoncommonasset.com/news/dean-foods-query-032607.html

http://www.familyfarmdefenders.org/index.php/Main/KnowYourDairyGiants-DeanFoods

http://politicook.net/2008/05/31/is-dean-foods-horizon-organic-killing-usda-investigation/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Foods#Controversy

http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/feedlots060905.cfm

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_400.cfm

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_1322.cfm

 

That all aside, buying from local growers directly or through Organic Valley (or Stonyfield/Oikos) supports a more varied, localized food system, while buying Dean Foods supports yet another megacorporation increasing the monopolization of our food system. Dean Foods brands include Silk, Land o Lakes, Rachel's, Altadena, Mountain High, Morningstar, and more. Just recently Dean Foods was forced to return the sale of another dairy in Wisconsin because it created a dairy monopoly there.

http://www.deanfoods.com/brands.aspx

http://foodsafety.einnews.com/pr-news/42349-dean-foods-surge-in-profits-due-to-monopoly-pricing-u-s-dairy-farmers-suspect-price-fixing-agriculture-industry-today-offers-complete-coverage

http://www.just-food.com/article.aspx?id=108353 - log in using aoh613 at gmail.com with password = password

http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=8f6da8d9-cfc5-4099-8773-4d8506323bd6

There has been additional controversy with Dean foods changing their organic soymilk to non-organic, without changing the packaging. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Dean-Foods-Target-Stumble-by-The-Cornucopia-Ins-091214-26.html

http://industry.bnet.com/food/10001102/dean-foods-accused-of-silk-soy-milk-bait-and-switch/