Aurora Dairy: Either Moo-ve Out of Organic Market or Comply with Standards

September 2nd, 2009. By janem

Most everyone knows that buying organic anything is pricier, including milk. And we know how difficult and expensive it is for family dairy farmers to convert their farms to organic.

The big guns have also jumped on the organic wagon– much to the dismay of small, indie farms because a national surplus of organic milk largely created by these factory farm dairies has been driving down prices paid to farmers. And what we didn’t know is that they aren’t all playing by the rules.

This week the Cornucopia Institute, an organic industry watchdog, filed a formal legal complaint with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) alleging that one of the five industrial-scale dairies operated by Aurora, its High Plains dairy near Kersey, Colorado, is failing to graze their dairy cattle as required by the federal organic standards.

According to Cornucopia Institute, Aurora is allegedly primarily confining their dairy cows in giant barns and pens instead of being allowed to graze on fresh forage, and exhibit their natural instinctive behaviors, as the federal law mandates. When the cows are let outside they often only have access to substandard crops that are planted on an annual basis, and wither in the desert-like heat, instead of more hardy perennials that stand up to continual grazing throughout the growing season.

In response to a previous legal complaint filed in 2006 by The Cornucopia Institute, the USDA found that Aurora was in violation of 14 tenets of the organic regulations including confining their cattle to feedlots, instead of grazing.

Wake up, USDA! If I were buying Aurora Dairy’s supposed organic milk, I’d want my Moo-ney back.

Tags: Aurora, Organic

This was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 8:47 pm and is filed under Emerging Issues . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.