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TechnoratiAfter years of being in short supply, organic milk is expected to flood the U.S. market as a regulation change and higher margins push more dairy farmers to produce it.
The dairy industry is expecting organic milk supply to surge by at least 40 percent this year from a previous annual growth rate of 20 percent, creating an excess of 25 million gallons, according to some estimates. 
Meanwhile, consumer demand for organic milk will continue to grow at 25 percent annually, leading some industry experts to predict that a retail promotion war is imminent.
U.S. dairy processors and distributors like Dean Foods, Stonyfield Farm and Organic Valley, a dairy farmers' cooperative that sells to retail grocery chain Whole Foods Market and others, are welcoming the news because it provides an opportunity to expand the market and offer more organic milk-based products.
"The oversupply situation is going to result in a pretty competitive marketplace," said Molly Keveney, a spokeswoman for Dean, which owns the best-selling Horizon Organic brand of milk. "Until last year we were in a supply constraint situation. We weren't innovating at all."
Greater quantities of organic powdered milk, yogurt, ice cream and cheeses are expected to hit store shelves as dairy processors divert their excess supply.
Consumer prices for organic milk, however, are unlikely to drop because the industry expects the glut to be short term.
"It would take a year before demand for fluid organic milk could catch up, assuming zero percent growth in supplies the following year," said JPMorgan Securities analyst Pablo Zuanic.
"But factoring in other potential uses for organic milk, we estimate the oversupply situation may last six months," Zuanic wrote in a research note.
NO SURPRISE
The dairy industry was expecting the glut, said Ed Maltby, executive director of the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance, representing 820 organic dairy farmers.
The change in regulation came last year after Arthur Harvey, a farmer in Maine, filed a lawsuit demanding stricter rules governing organic milk production.
The "Harvey rule," which goes into effect this June, requires farmers to feed their livestock 100 percent organic grain, compared with the earlier standard of 80 percent organic grain and 20 percent conventional grain.
Dairy farmers had a year-long grace period to switch to organic milk production. The new standard will increase costs to farmers because organic grain costs more.
As a result, organic milk production went up 30 percent in states like New York and Pennsylvania in the past year, Maltby said.
"Everybody is going to take a hit this year" as the oversupply causes some raw organic milk -- which typically sells at $24 to $28 per hundred pounds compared with $11 to $15 for conventional milk -- to be sold at lower prices.
"But from the long-term perspective, all projections for growth in demand are good," he said.
HANDLING THE FLOOD
Companies have used the grace period to encourage more farmers to go organic and lock in higher long-term supplies, on the expectation that consumer demand will eventually catch up. They have also planned uses for the short-term excess supply, or are stepping up promotions.
Dean Foods, the No. 1 U.S. dairy processor and distributor, added 64 organic farmers in 2006, taking the total to 350. Another 167 farmers are in transition, Keveney said.
Dean Chief Executive Gregg Engles warned last week of a "wall of milk" hitting the industry in the second half of 2007, and said second-quarter earnings would take a hit as the company aggressively promotes Horizon in stores.
The oversupply is allowing Horizon to introduce new products, such as an Omega-3-fortified organic milk and organic ice cream.
Yogurt-maker Stonyfield Farms, majority owned by France's Danone, said in April it will buy 48 percent more organic milk this year than in 2006 from Organic Valley/CROPP, a Wisconsin dairy cooperative of 966 organic farmers.
Stonyfield will resume using organic milk in its yogurts, after removing it in 2005 due to the shortage.
Beginning 2008, organic milk supply is expected to trickle off as retail promotions expand the market.
Raw prices for conventional milk are also expected to hit new highs in 2007 on strong cheese prices, global demand for whey and skim powdered milk, and higher grain costs.
"The conventional market now looks a lot more profitable so there will less incentive for farmers to move into organic," said Maltby.
Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited.
40 Comments so far
Show AllTO: ragnarok May 13th, 2007 2:04 pm
What’s the difference between organic milk and regular milk?
It's in the Cow !
Organic milk is produce by cows that eat bio grain only and receive none or very little antibiotics and no growth hormones. The purest cow for the best milk. As simple as that.
Where does milk come from???? COWS!!!!! Organic milk comes from organic fed cows, cows that are not injected with hormones, not fed GMO grains, milk tested for BST. The real benefit of organic is for consumers. While organic might be a new market to some corps and consumers, its the only way to go...hormones account for the early onset of puberty, supersized populations and overweight children.
DO NOT LET YOUR CHILDREN DRINK ANYTHING BUT ORGANIC if you want healthy kids. Now we need to be sure its available for all people.
The reality based world is famous by now. However, one notices that many people are not living in it. Let me do a sample from the responses to this article.
"my raw milk gets tested for everything. Each batch." No, it doesn't. There are just too many different things that could be in that milk to test for them all. And that is only considering disease causing organisms. As for raw milk being easier to digest because of natural (there's that magic word again) factors, baloney. Your own digestive enzymes from your stomach, pancreas and intestinal tract along with bile salts from your liver are responsible for digesting milk.
Milk from a cow that has ever been treated in its adult life with antibiotics can never be sold as organic. If a cow gets sick, it has to either recover on its own or die under the rules of organic food. As for Dean Foods, I really question how organic they are. There is a big dispute right now over some of the changes that they are trying to make. Also, the rules say that a cow has to have a certain amount of time outside the barn. The outfit in Idaho that is making such a big deal about organic milk keeps its cattle under conditions that would normally not be considered humane, but they are outside for the minimum time, in a feedlot environment.
In the comment on soy, I didn't notice a mention of one of the major human problems, hormonal dysfunction related to phytoestrogens. The soy phytoestrogens may adversely affect various cancers, particularly breast cancer, that are stimulated by the presence of estrogen. In addition, no farmer will feed raw soy to his animals because it causes destruction of the central nervous system, a condition called polioencephalamacia, which is distinct from poliomyelitis in humans which is caused by a virus.
Somehow people think that milk is more disgusting than digging carrots out of the ground, especially where manure has been used to improve soil fertility and texture with worms and all sorts of disgusting bugs. I don't understand. And the same people who try to foist fish that have been swimming in their own poop all their lives onto us as a health food. Please! And don't forget that they are drinking water that comes out of the ground and paying premium prices for it!! Yuck.
The bovine growth hormone that everyone seems to be bent out of shape about is no different from the BGH that the cow is producing herself. It doesn't get into the milk because there is too little of it and, as a protein, it is relatively rapidly degraded by the animal herself. Insulin that is produced for human use is also a hormone similar to growth hormone. How many people get sick from its use? Human growth hormone supposedly is some sort of alternate medicine antiaging substance. It varies insignificantly from bovine growth hormone. The same alternative medical people who are hyperventilating about BGH are also pushing HGH. Go figure.
And then there is someone frantic about a component of arctic fish used in ice cream to prevent ice crystals from forming. This is one of the same fish that we are supposed to eat to prevent heart problems and only one of many that contain organic antifreeze in their blood. Are you worried because they use seaweed in ice cream as well to give it a smooth texture? Why not? It hasn't been tested for safety, either.
If you really want something to worry about, consider this. Aflatoxins are produced by a common mold that grows on moist, not necessarily wet, seeds and causes hepatic failure and/or liver cancer. It really is toxic as hell. Look it up. It is so common on peanuts and corn that there has to be a regulatory "safe limit" because otherwise, no corn or peanut products would get to market, sort of like the allowable amount of insect parts and mouse poop that is found in food.
will all the vegans and vegetarians please get off their high "beanstalk", talk about speciests, plants are living things too, seeds are plant embryos. Just because they don't scream when you kill or cook them doesn't mean they don't care about being alive. Compassionate consumption is what is needed, it isn't so much what you eat as it is how it is produced. It's also about how much you eat, this country is the most obese population on the planet. The corporate march to fascism began with the industrialization of the food chain.
agricultural industrial complex +
military industrial complex+
medical industrial complex = where we are today, the fascist states of america.
and we're worried about an organic milk glut?
I live in Vancouver, Washington, and last year we had a big outbreak of illnesses caused by people drinking raw milk. Several people were children and were very sick. State law prohibits raw milk, but they were doing some scheme where they bought part of a cow or some weird thing like that. I drank raw milk once in my youth some 30 years ago, but I'd never consider it now. It's just not worth the risk. The idea that you would be lactose intolerant to pasteurized milk but not raw milk is simply ludicrous. Do you like to drink untreated water from mountain streams, too? Drinking raw milk is analogous.
xntrk: my raw milk gets tested for everything. Each batch.
izitfree:
You're missing the connection bewteen vaccines and soy.
Many omnivores chew on bones of animals they kill or find already dead. Mice will chew up bones from dead animals to get calcium. Vitamin supplements for people and animals are made from bones or in nifty chemical plants. Go for it!
Frankly, milk is more useful and convenient source of calcium for me. I could care less what you eat, extend me the same courtesy.
I've heard that drinking cows milk is not good (unless you are an infant). I've also heard that soy is very bad. Try here for example: http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/index.html
So I've been using Rice Dream for years and years. But now someone will probably tell me there is something wrong with that.
Its all so hard to know what to do, sigh.
SOY IS TOXIC, EXCEPT IN SMALL AMOUNTS AND CERTAIN FORMS
Below are several clips from articles about soy. Go to the first link listed here and you can access all the others. If you read nothing else, read the article "Newest Research on Why You Should Avoid Soy". I have been a lacto-vegetarian for 17 years. For a long time, I was not aware of the mounting evidence that soy is toxic; other than in small, occasional amounts. When I did some reading, I became very angry because I realized we had once again been duped by slick marketing and selective science. It makes me so angry that the public are always the guinea pigs and bear the consequences of greedy corporations who produce their own flawed scientific data and then go on marketing campaigns, enlisting the support of corrupt/ignorant politicians to convince us that their products are safe and healthy; all for one thing - their bank accounts. And this is the case throughout the food and drug industries, not just for soy.
Beware of The Toxicity of Soy Products
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/soy.htm
(Sorry if these links do not work directly. You may have to copy and past it into browser. I'm new to this blog and not familiar with how everything works.)
Excerpt from:
Newest Research On Why You Should Avoid Soy
by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD
"...the soybean contains large quantities of natural toxins or "antinutrients". First among them are potent enzyme inhibitors that block the action of trypsin and other enzymes needed for protein digestion. These inhibitors are large, tightly folded proteins that are not completely deactivated during ordinary cooking. They can produce serious gastric distress, reduced protein digestion and chronic deficiencies in amino acid uptake. In test animals, diets high in trypsin inhibitors cause enlargement and pathological conditions of the pancreas, including cancer. Soybeans also contain haemagglutinin, a clot-promoting substance that causes red blood cells to clump together. Trypsin inhibitors and haemagglutinin are growth inhibitors. Approximately 25 per cent of bottle-fed children in the US receive soy-based formula - a much higher percentage than in other parts of the Western world. Fitzpatrick estimated that an infant exclusively fed soy formula receives the estrogenic equivalent (based on body weight) of at least five birth control pills per day. Scientists have known for years that soy-based formula can cause thyroid problems in babies." CLIP
"Dr Fitzpatrick's literature review uncovered evidence that soy consumption has been linked to numerous disorders, including infertility, increased cancer and infantile leukemia; and, in studies dating back to the 1950s, that genistein in soy causes endocrine disruption in animals."read moe about the this fascinating document
The health claims of the soy industry have one purpose and one purpose alone - to sell more soy! That's why you'll only hear about the benefits of soy from the industry, but Soy Online Services thinks all consumers deserve the right to make an informed choice about what they are eating and feeding to their children, their household pets and their livestock. CLIP
The Hidden Dangers of Soy Allergens - by Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN © 2004
From Chapter 23 of her book: The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food
www.wholesoystory.com
The huge rise in allergic reactions to soy is in line with the increasing use of soy products in processed foods during the 1990s, and should be regarded as a major public health concern.
The Whole Soy Story blows the lid off nutritional dogma
Soy is NOT a miracle food. - Soy is NOT the answer to world hunger - Soy is NOT a disease-preventive panacea. Hundreds of epidemiological, clinical and laboratory studies link soy to malnutrition, digestive distress, thyroid dysfunction, cognitive decline, reproductive disorders, cognitive, immune system breakdown, and even heart disease and cancer. Infants on soy formula, vegetarians who favor soy as their main source of protein and adults self-medicating with soy to prevent cancer, heart disease or relieve menopausal symptoms are especially at risk. CLIP
Soy: The Poison Seed by Dr. William Wong
This piece will be short and very much to the point. As Americas largest cash crop soy is being touted as having a myriad of health benefits. Far from! Soy is poison, period! All paid for opinion to the contrary. CLIP
Let's see ...
Milk is not good for you because it makes you have more mucous, the way they treat the cows is bad, the hormones, the antibiotics, the pasteurization, and many people are lactose intolerant.
Meat is bad because it is taking the life of another sentient being, they are treated bad - especially when loading, hauling and slaughtering, the hormones, the antibiotics; heart attacks/high cholesterol, cancer and many other health problems are linked to consumption of meat - particularly red meat.
Fish is full of toxins from the pollution in the oceans.
Chickens are only good from a health standpoint if you raise them organically and kill them yourself.
Soy, peanuts, wheat and corn are all difficult to digest and cause many allergic or unhealthy conditions in your body.
Beans are difficult to digest.
The additives that are put in American foods are staggering - MSG, rancid over-processed oils, preservatives, artificial flavors and colorings, and the fact that most of the nutrition is just processed out of the food.
Then, there is the ongoing contradictory debate in the health food/experts field between vegetarians/vegans and meat-eating/grain-avoiding proponents. It is undeniable that the vast majority of vegans I have come across do not LOOK healthy. They are too thin, pale and have poor muscle tone. However, we are barraged with info about how bad meat is - and that's only the health issue, not to mention the spiritual issue.
I've had this conversation with vegetarian friends recently. What do we eat?!!
A few things are clear:
The less processed and fresher something is, the better - that goes for animal products and plants.
GM (genetically-modified), chemical-laden food, whether plant or animal is bad.
A varied diet is essential.
A good amount of raw food is beneficial.
Beyond that, it seems everything is up for interpretation.
If you want to drink cows milk, why not just drive out to the country, find a cow, and suck on its teat for a while. Because that's what drinking cow's milk is about.
For more info on cow's milk see Marilyn and Harvey Diamond's "Fit for Life". Cow's milk, organic or otherwise, is nasty. Once again, we are victim of a special interest, this time the dairy industry.
I think I'm going to buy my own milk cow. It seems to be the only way to know for certain what one is getting.
I am confused, therefore I am.
For those of you interested in bovine growth hormone, here is a site with a history of the controversy.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/rbghlink.cfm
Most countries including Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and all of the European Union have banned it. It has been linked to ailments and death in cattle and cancer and other problems in humans. Why is it still allowed here?
human consumption.
I am also angry about the fact that there are no labels on food indicating country of origin. The Farm Bill of 2002 had a provision for labels that was to take affect in 2004. Our ethically-challenged Congress bent to the will of agribusiness and took it out. Another bad problem is that small farms in this country are disappearing because they cannot compete with cheap (albeit contaminated) food from China.
Like another poster here, I use a lot of Organic Valley products. I trust them and love them.
I'm not a huge fan of milk but I do like cereal (the crunchy kind that comes in boxes). So I've been eating it with organic soy milk instead. Is there anything bad I should know about driking organic soy milk? I've heard contradictory things about organic soy in this country - some people tell me it's really not organic at all and I'd be better off x-raying my head every other day.
Raw milk is fine, but I would want to see current TB free certificates on all the cows in the dairy producing it. Milk is pasteurized because cattle carry TB. Dairies that are not meticulous about cleanliness and TB testing can easily pass the disease on to unwary customers.
I have to say that if you are going to drink the milk of another species of animal, it may as well be as natural as possible. Of course as a vegan this doesn't really concern me because I do not support the enslavement of one species for the benefit or exploitation by another species. That is speciesism, and it is directly analogous to racism, sexism, ageism and other social inequities which we deal with today.
Not to mention the fact that the worlds animal enslavement policies have a detremental impact on the environment. The standards for "USDA Organic" are a joke anyway. The giant agro-business' of the world are quickly chipping away at the market so they can invade and control it. Monsanto is of course leading the way in this, and these institutions are in cahoots with the Pharmacuetical industry to keep the citizens of the world sick and feed off of illness for the almighty dollar. Codex-Alimentarius is the next major step in the NWO's quest to render the populous completely dependant on government support . Read about it for yourself, it is very disheartening!
~C.S.W
ND,DO,DC,PhD
(Some day)
I'd have to agree with the others who point out that it is unnecessary to consume dairy and that the abusive, toxic industries that come along with its production make it even more needless.
Good to see someone post about raw milk here. I've drunk raw, organic milk for a year now. Wow! It's had a powerfully positive effect on my overall health.
ragnarok: pasteurized milk is simply not good for you. I'm lactose intolerant but raw milk contains everything I need to process the lactose. I no longer suffer the way I used to. Pasteurization kills off all the beneficial bacteria and nutrients in milk (and fruit juices.) Consequently it spoils much faster than raw milk. When raw milk spoils you get sour cream. When pasteurized milk spoils you get a horridly awful pile of pus! Not to mention that once one pasteurizes something, it MUST be kept cold or else.
I trust Organic Valley over Horizon any day. I simply don't believe Horizon is authentic organic. I believe Organic Consumers broke that. Basically the intense demand for organics in general has lowered the standards for some companies. Stonyfield Organic yogurt is actually made from powered milk from New Zealand.
Buyer beware. If you're in Whole Foods ask for locally produced milk
Side not: http://www.realmilk.com/ to find raw milk sources near you. It just so happens that the local provider for Organic Valley is the source of the raw milk (and butter) that I consume.
And remember this: buying only locally grown organic foods is the ultimate practice of democracy.
It seems that it was just a few years ago that a dairy farm in New England was labeling its milk "free of rGBH hormones," and got sued (by Monsanto?) for doing so. The farmer was told that he was free to not use such hormones, but that it was not permissible for him to tell his customers this, as the milk produced by cows with such hormones was not detectably different than his organic milk. I'm surprised that this issue isn't even mentioned in this article. Does this mean that this issue has blown over? Obviously producers can label their milk "organic" but are they still prohibited from stating that no hormones have been used on their labels?
Yep, watch for the term 'organic' being redefined by the Republicans to match with the greed objectives of corporations. Like how Republicans like Arno Schwazi are now pretending to 'Go Green' and take over a rallying point for political progressives, while cashing in big time on inflated alternative energy rackets.
Also note that Candidiasis has become increasingly widespread, and many people cannot eat dairy products (or sugar) without weakening their immune systems (the source of many popular 'allergies'). Where does this fit into the picture? Driven down the milk demand significantly?
Maybe we should quit pinning up and abusing so many cows and instead grow soy and make healthier and cleaner dairy substitutes (like those eaten for example by the very healthy Japanese). Or is that too radical a divergence from 'conservatism'?
Soy is much less expensive to grow and maintain than cows, cheaper to store and maintain than meat or milk, relatively far freer of bacteria and disease, and does not abuse or take the lives of animals. Another good alternate protein source is all sorts of nuts... walnuts, almonds, filberts...
delicious and don't carry the diseases inside the bodies of cows, especially cows pinned up in artificial environs, and fed foods not natural to their diet... or steroids.
I am not an expert, but someone told me that organic dairy is better because most toxics (pesticides, herbicides etc ) settle into fat cells, and milk includes fat cells. It is in milk and that you have a high concentration of the toxics that the cow is eating.
Also, I don't know if an animal has an infection that it couldn't be treated with antibiotics and still be considered 'organic' after a certain period of time. The concern is the continuous use of antibiotics that many dairies practice.
And I agree that animals should be treated with respect and allowed to live as close to their natural life cycle as possible (Mad Cow desease comes from feeding cows meat by products, and cows are vegaterian).
I buy free range eggs, natural grass grazed beef, and I eat a lot less of it. (I don't know if I will reach my goal of being a vegetarian)
And we shouldn't let our guard down just because something is labeled "organic." Corporations are attempting to change the organic law so that they can redeem the marketing benefits of being labeled organic, but not have to actually to comply with the spirit and intent of being organic. There must still be checks and balances to ensure that the label means something relevant, that eating organic is leaving a smaller footprint on our environment.
respect the environment, the creatures and all people.
AG
Am I the only one who found the caption for the picture hilarious?
"Milk is poured into a glass in this undated file photo."
Stop the press! Milk poured into glass!
Thank you RuthK and ragnarok for pointing out that the main reason Organic Milk became popular was because word spread about the use of Monsanto's bovine growth hormone on dairy cowsand its side effects on those cows and their milk.
I became aware of this in the late 1990s when two reporters were assigned to cover this story in Florida but Monsanto threatened to sue. The story never aired and the reporters lost their jobs but later won a suit.
http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/11.html
"Accurate, effective, efficient methods for applying pesticides using aircraft and boom spraying systems are needed" -USDA
"USDA makes no claims that organically produced food is safer or more nutritious than conventionally produced food." -USDA
The USDA boldly claims a "need" to apply pesticides but has no comment on fundamentals of evolutionary biology. Organisms are simply better adapted to native environments than to alien environments.
Considering overpopulation, we should probably limit our consumption of meat/dairy to something like one meal per week. And let the animals roam around eating wild flora in a natural environment, for maximum health and nutrition.
The idea of feeding animals grain in a pen is inspired by a race for profits, promoted by an agenda of economic growth through increased production inputs (grain, pens, etc). Let's trade economic growth for satisfaction growth. Let's trade increased inputs for increased efficiencies.
We want animals eating wild flora instead of grain because even organic grain is relatively devoid of nutrients and eventually depletes both the soil and human health. This is because monoculture and industrial practices are not covered under organic regulation. In monoculture, a single crop that cannot sustain the soil is planted year after year, decade after decade. Organic monoculture over the centuries caused much of the land desertification, e.g. Oklahoma dust bowl. Monoculture also creates vulnerabilities to pathogens/toxins, e.g. Irish potato famine.
The other thing: Grain varieties are selected for rapid growth in the crop and the animal. Rapid growth has nothing to do with long term health. Macronutrients are emphasized at the expense of minerals and micronutrients in the entire food chain. The result is industrial disease epidemics.
Talk to any vet who works on organic cows and 99% of em will tell you it makes them sick. To qualify as organic, even new born calves can't receive any of the basic veterinary treatements - so if they get cut, you can't give them antibiotics and they end up with nasty, completely preventable infections. They can't use anasthesia for any procedures they might need either. I'm so sick of the mentality promoted by hypocritical, yuppie liberals who think their privileged consumption patterns will somehow save the world and that they make em more enlightened than the rest of us.
ragnarok: dream on. If your sources are limited to the USDA and to Big Dairy, keep your thoughts on organic dairy products to yourself and diversify your reading materials on the subject. Check out www.cornucopia.org for another opinion on milk, especially "faux" organic dairies.
Dean, Aurora, Horizon, and a number of store brands are not considered authentically organic by some.
I have been using organic dairy for a long time.
Monsanto bovine growth hormone is not considered safe in most countries. Here is not only allowed, but the FDA (sometimes referred to as Monsanto's eastern branch office) has tried to ban labelling of BGH-free milk, claiming that "Milk is milk". BGH not only gets into the milk, but it causes so many infections of the cows udders that the milk contains more antibiotics and pus. Yuck!
Moreover, odd things can show up in non-organic products. For example, Breyers Ice Cream is beginning to utilize what it calls an "anti-freeze" technology, derived by utilizing genetically modified fish proteins from the blood of the ocean pout (a polar ocean species). The experimental biotech substance, which is supposed to help the ice cream recrystallize if it warms above freezing, has undergone little, if any, safety testing. In fact, the FDA approved the ingredient as "safe" based on human safety protocols conducted on codfish blood proteins, not on blood proteins from the ocean pout. Codfish and the ocean pout do not even belong to the same sub-class, in the "Order of Species," thereby making the studies worthless. The "anti-freeze" ingredient is currently used in Breyer's Light Double-Churned, Extra Creamy Creamy Chocolate ice cream, as well as a Good Humor ice cream novelty bar. The ingredient is referred to as "ice structuring protein" (ISP) on the products' ingredient panels. If you don't believe this, check:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/ob99live.htm
Sometimes, names and ingredients don't match. Kraft Easy Cheese (sounds good) actually contains no natural cheese.
Check:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4015.cfm
I'll stick to my organic milk, yogurt, ice cream, and cheese.
ragnarok:
Short answer, organic milk is most certainly not a marketing gimmick. The reason as to why those "equally safe" claims are made because the FDA and USDA are in the back pockets of corporations like Monsanto, who makes billions on the rBGH (bovine growth hormone). Back in the early 90's when it was introduced, they funded their own "research" that concluded no differences in health or safety. For that same reason, for years it was ILLEGAL in many states for dairy products to be listed as rBGH-free, because the "official" results indicated zero difference. That has now changed, but you will see on any organic or hormone-free dairy nothing extolling health benefits with any certainty. In America it's essentially libel to say anything beyond "organic" or "chemical-free"... the moment you talk about the ACTUAL benefits it becomes unsubstantiated by regulatory organizations.
Also, the thing about the cost of milk going up as grains must be 100% organic... cows are not meant to eat grain in the first place. They graze, they have a 4-chambered stomach to turn that yummy grass & clover into substantial protein (and fat?). There's plenty of farmers who graze their cows and bring them in for the winter with bales of hay, but there are plenty of "organic" farmers that simply keep their cows in the feedlot, substitute organic corn, and spare them the syringe full of antibiotics. That's what the USDA can allow as "organic" milk. Horizon is the worst example of this. Abusing the label for profit. Factory farming is an insult to nature, creation, and all life, and it is certainly not organic. But some companies think otherwise.
If you're going to buy milk, buy it locally, know how the farmers treats his cows, or buy it from an organic co-op of small farmers. Organic Valley is a good example. Raw milk, if from a reliable, safe source, is the best choice bar none.
Me, I went vegan 2 months ago and preferred soy milk anyway. Whether they're for milk or beef (or ultimately both), cows are methane monsters. Animal livestock more responsible for global warming than all the vehicles in the world, great wealths of our oil and grain supplies being fed to animals, while the powerless go hungry and people cry about resources. Change comes on an individual level.
P.S. Happy Mother's Day from the milk and veal industries.
"Milk is for babies"
This is true. Humans are the only species I know of that continue to drink milk into adulthood. Embrace lactose intolerance. Dairy is gross.
Is organic milk a marketing gimmick ?
I like chocolate milk, use milk with cereal, banana shakes, smoothies, oatmeal, etc...
So I would prefer organic milk to regular milk if it is healthier, even if it cost twice as much.
However according to the National Dairy Council FAQ:
http://www.nationaldairycouncil.org/NationalDairyCouncil/Nutrition/Produ...
What’s the difference between organic milk and regular milk?
There is no difference between organic and regular milk. Both contain the same unique package of nutrients that makes dairy products an important part of a healthy diet. An 8-ounce serving of organic or regular milk offers the same amount of nine essential nutrients, including calcium, vitamin D and potassium.
Is organic milk safer than regular milk?
No. Strict government standards ensure that regular milk is just as pure, safe and nutritious as organic milk. According to USDA and the American Dietetic Association (ADA) conventionally produced food is equally as safe as organically produced food: www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/home_4143_ENU_HTML.htm.
There are similar claims about Hormones, Antibiotics and Pesticides...
The most common organic compounds are not edible, such as fuel oil and gasoline. Some inorganic compounds are essential for life, such as water, oxygen, nitrogren, carbon dioxide, table salt, etc. Cow manure is organic but does not appeal to me as a food, although I have sometimes seen dogs eating excrement (their own droppings or from other dogs). Also when cows fart they produce another organic compound, methane, that contributes to global warming.
Cow manure is a crude form of fertilizer. There are more efficient fertilizers availble that increase yield thus decrease the cost of food.
I'd say that the increase in production represents a big success: farmers are confident that the public will continue to buy and pay extra for organic milk. That's terrific.
Hopefully, the trend will continue. The public is showing that it cares, not just about food safety, but also about environmental impact. Farmers are following the public's demand with increases in supply. This is one instance where the "market" is actually behaving in beneficial ways.
hmmm, let's see. As I recall, there are pretty stringent "rules" about what constitutes "organic." Farmers, for example, can't just stop using pesticides but have to be sure the pesticides from non-organic farmers next door don't blow over the fence (so to speak). There is also a waiting period -- a few years I believe -- for "filtering" out the poisons that have been used for decades before a farmer can declare "Organic".
I wonder... how do dairy farmers prevent pollution like, oh, the sh**t in the air, jet fuel debris, from settling on their grassy pastures where the dairy cows graze?
For now, we are kinda stuck with the S**T that we've created. Let's deal with the reality of that and not try to put a veneer of nice, clean, and, oh yes, "organic" on foodstuffs like milk and act as if all is well. It isn't.
But the dairy industry aint' gonna tell you that.
Some would say that "Milk is for babies".
However, some have ancestors who bequeathed to them the ability to digest bovine dairy products quite well.
If you are going to drink milk, make it organic. For those who can't afford that, it would be good for society to improve the quality of all milk. Unfortunately we are very much moving towards a two-tiered food system: real-food for the well-to-do and pseudo-food for the less fortunate.
what stuff, Nietzcshe? milk? organic milk? and why not drink it?
DON'T DRINK THAT STUFF
The benefits of milk are mostly propaganda by the dairy industry in America. People on the other side of the world, in Asia, never drink milk, they have strong bones, less arthritis.
"Most of the world's peoples do not consume cow's milk, and yet most of the world does not experience the high rates of osteoporosis found in the West. In Asian countries, for example, where consumption of dairy foods is low (and where women tend to be thin and small-boned, universally accepted risk factors for osteoporosis), fracture rates are much lower than they are in the United States and in Scandinavian countries, where consumption of dairy products is considerably higher." - Dr. Campbell - http://www.nutrition.cornell.edu/ChinaProject/
If you're worried about not getting calcium, eat some broccoli and almonds, also green tea has been shown to help keep bones strong.
I don't eat red-meat or dairy products, yet I support the widespread killing of all cows, permanently. If we stop all sources of man-made global warming (unlikely which makes this a moot point)... the methane-producing cows will still be here, and they'll most likely push the world into catastrophic climate change. That's unacceptable to me, and I don't care what PETA says, all cows need to die a horrible death ASAP. It's either us or them.
milk drinkers and those partaking of milk products might consider The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell and son, on the effects of casein, milk's main protein.
Hurry, hurry hurry step right up. this snake oil will cure everything!!! People we are the Human vacuem cleaners, cleaning up our mess so future generations will be better off. just don't go digging in toxic grave yards! though that may be the new source of fuel in the future, the dinosour bones of our ancestors,,,,thanks grampa!!! for cleaning up the earth and powering my new Sky-ski... eerrrp, registered trademark, thanks Joe Clark, the once and future king...who drinks milk, because "I'm never going to grow old, and am always gonna like milk", are any of you asshole farmers? dosen't sound like it, most cuts do not get infected, and there are conciencious guys out there who would apply topicals as well as stitch it up if needed, who can afford vets, medical care same as human, expensive,,,but this is your bread and butter, so keep 'em healthy,like my friend and I do, another thing this anti-biotic fear is bullshit,,I take horse and cattle anti-biotics myself, and I'll wipe the floor with any of you, raw-milk whinny organic petal pushers, besides jesus is cummin....for dinner, fondu anyone?
To David B: There's been a recent change in organic milk labeling laws. The brand I buy, Tuscan Dairy Farms, has a big notice on the front of the carton: "Our Farmers Pledge: No Artificial Growth Hormones." Then there's an asterisk, which connects to a small print line in the Nutrition Facts box on the side: *"No significant difference in milk from cows treated with artificial growth hormones." (That's the obligatory government propaganda, but I bet most people don't read it.)
To Bleeding Hearts Club: Thanks for alerting everyone to the Horizon Dairy scam. I shop at Wild By Nature, which is an organic supermarket on Long Island, and when I learned the truth about Horizon I sent a letter the president of WBN asking him to remove their milk and other products. To my delight, he wrote back and agreed to do so. They now carry Organic Valley.
Here's good news, dairy farmers in Colorado were just told by the coop they would no longer be buying milk from dairys that use BST. O bye the way, milk from every dairy is tested for every thing you can think of and if it tests pos. for anything that farmer not only doesn't get payed for his milk but he buys the other farms milk that was in the same tanker as his.