There's a bruhaha over Aurora Organic Dairy's milk. Aurora provides the milk for retailers like Wal-Mart, Costco, Wild Oats,Safeway to sell under their own brand names.Aurora's also sells its milk under the High Meadow label.
According to many bloggers the U.S. Department of Agriculture threatened to pull the dairy's "organic" certification because it was not allowing cows enough time to pasture From the Big Green Purse Blog,
The dairy agreed to make major changes in the way it operates a Colorado facility and, reports Environmental News Service, stop posting the organic label to some of its milk after the U.S Department of Agriculture threatened to revoke its organic certification for not allowing its cows enough time at pasture. To continue operating as a certified organic dairy, Aurora must provide daily access to pasture during the growing season.
However, when you visit the Aurora Web Site you read a very different message. From their news release:
USDA Dismisses Complaint Against Aurora Organic Dairy
Organic Leader Accelerates Transformation Plan for
Platteville, Colo; Organic Dairy
The News release ,which is in a PDF file and formatted so it is impossible to copy any of the release,basically says that under the agreement the dairy will amend the farm plan for the Platteville Dairy to reflect Aurora's existing transformational plan and inform the USDA of its progress.
Spin baby, baby.
Barry Brownstein of Give Up Control has a different take on Aurora's situation.
"Aurora was cited for fraudulently selling milk that really wasn’t organic. Aurora’s widespread violation of the organic standards included raising their cows on feedlots instead of providing grazing space. According to the Cornucopia Institute these “were willful and premeditated violations of the law.”
Where is the consumer in all this? The Cornucopia Institute offers a a Dairy Report and Score card where you can see whether your organic dairy earns five cows or one cow.
What rating did Aurora earn?
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