All I wanted to do was buy some milk, but even at the supermarket, “politics, politics, politics” was all I heard. Markets in general have never been my strong suit: one time I spent 15 minutes in Whole Foods looking for horseradish, and another time I asked for Matzah in Safeway only to have the clerk convince me that I was looking for mozzarella cheese instead. Still, you wouldn’t think that making a healthy bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch with organic milk would require research into Congress.
With the rise in popularity of organically grown foods, the food industry is catching on to the idea that organics may not just be for health nuts in California. In an effort to increase supply, Congress recently weakened the Agricultural Appropriations Bill’s standards of what goods can legally be sold as “organic”. Although all organic milk is antibiotic and hormone free, the bill’s definition of “grass-fed” is deceiving.
According to the USDA, because not all areas of the country can support year-round grazing, farmers are allowed to feed their cattle grass forage—a loose term including leftover corn stalks and fermented grasses. Organic cows have unspecified access to grazing fields, leaving a loophole that allows dairy farmers to keep their cows confined in feedlots. The ambiguous definition of feed and grazing rules gives farmers in all sorts of climates the opportunity to market their dairy products as organic—but isn’t the point of organic foods that consumers pay a premium for the health benefits of an all-grass diet and more humane treatment of the animal?
Preparing my bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in the aisles of Safeway, I discovered that two of the three organic milk brands offered—Horizon and “O Organics”—are currently being boycotted by the Organic Consumers Association for exploiting these feed and confinement loopholes. Horizon milk, whose carton features a smiling cartoon of a leaping cow holding an “Organic” banner, received a rating of zero from Cornucopia Institute and was deemed “Ethically Challenged” by the group, which is dedicated to the protection of organic farming methods and standards.
If you’re a health-minded cereal eater willing to spend the extra few bucks on organic food, talk with the produce or dairy manager at the supermarket to get the skinny on the specific farm before buying anything. At Safeway, stick to the Stonyfield brand if you want those extra dollars to fund an actual organic farm instead of going straight into the greasy palms of The Man himself.
