The organic dairy business is becoming increasingly industrialized, says a new report from the Cornucopia Institute that updates the organization’s earlier research on the ongoing evolution of the industry. The report is accompanied by a consumer scorecard that ranks commercially available dairy products on such metrics as whether the cows used to produce them have access to pasture, what they’re fed, and whether they’re raised on industrial farms.
“We thought that the organic label would be the CliffsNotes version of doing your organic and natural food research,” said Mark A. Kastel, co-founder of Cornucopia, in a press call. But, he said, the USDA’s organic label “is all about secrecy, it’s about industrial factory livestock production.”
The organic dairy industry has increasingly become dominated by large-scale, industrial producers, which have, in large measure, replaced the small family farms that once dotted the countryside. Just a few states today account for the majority of organic dairy production. “Texas alone produces 1.4 times more organic milk than Wisconsin,” the report reads, despite the fact that “Wisconsin, commonly known as America’s Dairyland, has 75 times more organic producers (453 versus the six in Texas, according to the most recent USDA data).”
Last year, an investigation by the Washington Post found that one of the largest organic dairy producers in the country was not adequately grazing its cattle. That, and other research into organic standards, has led some advocates and farmers to question the USDA’s process for monitoring its organic label, which allows farmers to hire and pay their own inspectors and certifiers.