The Organic Dilemma

Let me tell you, it's difficult to get through Christmas without milk. Christmas cookies and chocolates are begging for a tall glass of milk. I've turned in desperation to the milk in our fridge from time to time, but it just isn't the same. It's watery and... weird.

I reasoned that really, I don't have a problem with the pasteurization per se, it's just that I like knowing where my milk is coming from, and that it isn't full of hormones, Johnne's, and puss from infected udders. I don't suffer from arthritis, lactose-intolerance, Crohne's disease, or any other problems that raw milk might help treat. So theoretically, if I could find trustworthy organic milk, all of my problems would be solved.

I asked my mom to buy organic milk, but she has read this blog and she knows that most of the organic brands are owned by the mega-corporations that find loophole after loophole to make their CAFO (confined animal feeding operation) milk count as "organic." All organic milk is not created equal. She knows that non-organic milk is produced under conditions that are less than desirable, but she can't buy raw milk and organic milk might not be much better than the normal stuff. Due to the lack of a clear solution, we continue buying the stuff we've always bought.

So once again, the problem comes down to the access to reliable information. What organic milk sticks to the original spirit of the organic label, believing that great milk really does come from happy cows?

Luckily, I found an organic milk scorecard from the Cornucopia Institute (Slogan: "Promoting Economic Justice for Family Scale Farming"). The investigation covered all kinds of dairy products, including ice cream, raw milk, yogurt, and goat milk and cheese. The original study was published in 2006, but Cornucopia's website says the scorecard is "updated". They rated 107 organic dairy brands on many different factors, including:

• the amount of pasture time for the herd
• the use of hormones and antibiotics
• the health and longevity of the cows (cull rate)
• the source of replacement animals (organic or conventional farms)
• their organic farm certifier

(See http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2008/10/29/horizon-aurora-and-woodstock-organic-milk-get-the-smackdown-from-cornucopia/)

We do our grocery shopping either at Giant or Safeway, both of which get milk from suppliers who were rated in the lowest bracket. It's not a better product; it's a rip-off. There are good brands available, though, including Whole Foods 365 Organic and Organic Valley. Kroger's brand is a no-no, but Harris Teeter's brand scored somewhere in the middle. I was surprised that Trader Joe's organic milk is just as bad as Giant and Safeway's.

My favorite part of the scorecard (aside from the fact that now we know what organic brands to buy) is that the #1 rated brand is Animal Farm, located in Orwell, Vermont. Orwell's Animal Farm is where we find the nation's happiest cows? Really?