Small family dairy farms losing out to corporate operations
Traditional organic farms squeezed out by large enterprises
FAIRFIELD, Iowa — Small family-operated dairy farms with cows freely grazing on verdant pastures are going out of business as large confined animal operations with thousands of animals lined up in assembly-line fashion are expanding into the organic market.
Many traditional smallscale organic farmers are appealing to consumers to look closely at the organic
milk they buy to make sure it comes from a farm that meets the idyllic expectations portrayed on the cartons. While the large operations say they’re meeting U.S. Department of Agriculture standards, the smaller farms say relaxed enforcement of strict organic standards has allowed confinement dairies to grow and put intense competition on small family-operated dairies.
The dairy industry, like much of U.S. farming, has trended toward fewer but larger farms since the 1980s, when organic milk was available only at farmers markets or specialty grocers and the milk came
from small-scale dairy farms selling to a local cooperative. Now organic dairy products are widely distributed by mainstream grocers and mass retailers including Costco, Target and Walmart. But much of those companies’ store-brand milk comes from dairies with thousands of cows maintained in immense confinement operations.
Mark Kastel of the Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute, a nonprofit public interest group focused on farm policy, says that style of farming is contrary to what the founders of the organic movement envisioned and what consumers
believe they’re buying. His group on Thursday released an updated Organic Dairy Scorecard ,
which will rank 160 brands evaluated for their organic practices including quality of pasture, how frequently
cows graze and how often they’re milked.
A spokeswoman for Aurora Organic Dairy, the industry’s largest supplier to grocery chains such as Costco, Safeway, and Walmart, said activists are inaccurately portraying large-scale organic production.
Sonja Tuitele said the company’s farms have more than 10,000 acres of organic pasture, and the farms exceed minimum requirements for grazing days and percent of diet from grazing.
The company has nine barns in Colorado and Texas with about 26,000 cows.