FROM LABELING THEIR
PRODUCTS AS ORGANIC

Organic dairy farms in the U.S. and worldwide have traditionally
been family-scale, pasture-based, and humanely operated. Unfortunately
the booming demand for organic dairy products, coupled with
a lack of support for family scale dairy farmers wishing to
convert to organic, have prompted several profit hungry dairy
corporations to set up industrial scale farms, with a wink and
a nod from USDA bureaucrats, to supply grocery store chains,
including Wal-Mart, with millions of gallons of cheap organic
milk. In response, in April 2006, 96% of OCA network members
voted in an online survey to launch a boycott of two leading
organic dairy brands for mislabeling their products as “USDA
Organic.” Shortly thereafter OCA launched a national boycott
against Horizon Organic (a division of Dean Foods, the world’s
largest dairy conglomerate) and Aurora Organic. All of Aurora’s,
and much of Horizon’s, “organic” milk is coming from
industrial dairy feedlots, where the cows routinely have been
imported from conventional dairies and have little or no access
to pasture. Since April, thousands of consumers and a growing
number of co-ops and natural food stores have joined the boycott.
Horizon is apparently feeling the heat. Company representatives
have recently contacted the OCA to see if we are willing to
negotiate. This is good sign in the ongoing battle to preserve
organic integrity and stop the “Wal-Martization” of
organics.

Learn more:
http://organicconsumers.org/sos.cfm