The Organic Milk You Buy From Costco, Target and Wal-Mart May Not Be Organic

Horizon Dairy and Aurora Dairy farms have been implicated in scams involving selling conventionally produced milk as “organic milk” under storebrand names such as Costco’s Kirkland, Horizon Organic, and Wal-Mart’s organic.  Under the Bush admin, organic standards were very lax, and big corporations, seizing the organic market, jumped to compete.  Problem:  conventional dairy suppliers stuck the organic label on milk that was produced the same way all milk is produced, using hormones, homogenizing, and all sorts of other processes to which organics objects.

Target admitted that all their milk with the organic label might not have been organic, but no real plans were made to address it.

Happy day though with a small victory.  Read the letter below:

Action Update: A Special Thank You to the Organic Consumers Association and Its Members

The organic community has something to be proud of – the recent victory in Washington with the publication of new regulations that will crack down on factory farms scofflaws producing “organic” milk.

As an organic farming watchdog, on behalf of our farmer-members, we want to sincerely thank Ronnie Cummins and the rest of the staff at OCA for their decade of hard work that has helped lead to this victory.

For years OCA has been an invaluable partner in the efforts to rein-in abuses by Dean Foods’ Horizon brand and Aurora Dairy (producer of private-label milk labeled organic for the likes of Wal-Mart, Costco and many grocery chains).

For years, during the Bush administration, the USDA looked the other way while giant corporations overtly cheated.  But the potent partnership between organic farmers and consumers has proven that people power still can still trump corporate money and clout.

Less than 2% of our citizens farm today, both conventional and organic. Farmers have no clout in Washington or the marketplace.  But when the leading organic farming group partners with the most powerful representative of organic consumers, OCA, we are all potent force to be reckoned with.

To all of you who have, over the years, contacted your elected officials, written the USDA and, most importantly, carefully continued to buy organic dairy products – but only from the true heroes in this industry – we want to sincerely thank you.

-Mark A. Kastel, Co-director
The Cornucopia Institute

Organic milk drinkers united, and now they drink up!

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