UPDATE: As one of the first organic dairies in the West, and well respected, events at Straus Dairy since the initial publication of our organic dairy scorecard have been troubling.

The vast majority of all organic dairy farmers around the country, and the groups that represent them (in addition to The Cornucopia Institute the three regional producer groups: Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance, Midwest Organic Producers Association and the Western Organic Dairy Producers Alliance), and the Organic Consumers Association, among others, all came to a consensus regarding new rules at the USDA designed to require and ensure genuine, season long grazing of ALL organic dairy cows. However, Albert Straus, Straus dairy owner, testified publicly against the rulemaking.

Appearing on a panel, at a symposium sponsored by the USDA on pasture, in State College, Pennsylvania, Mr. Strauss complained that he would be unable to graze his animals, even at the very low minimums proposed, because of the climate. Other dairy farmers from California on the panel challenged his contention and suggested that maybe he needed to reduce the size of his herd so it was compatible with the amount of pasture acreage he had available.

It's troubling that Straus dairy would lobby against rulemaking that would help crack down on the giant corporate dairies that have been skirting the law.

In addition, with great fanfare, Straus Dairy announced that they were generating electricity on the farm from animal waste using a methane digester. The only problem with this technology is… it only works financially when you have lots of manure collected from cows when they are in confinement. A steady supply of manure is needed to run these systems that require hundreds of thousands of dollars in investment. You can't run them effectively when your cattle are depositing their own manure, as fertilizer, out in your pastures.

Straus Dairy milks their cows three times a day unlike almost every organic dairy in the country that finds it challenging enough to move cows in and out of pasture, milking twice a day. This is consistent with running a high-production dairy operation which is very hard on the health and longevity of the cattle but produces more milk.

And finally, unlike over 90% of all name-brand dairy producers, in our initial survey, after repeated contacts by e-mail, phone and registered mail, Mr. Strauss opted not to openly share with his customers particulars about how their cows are treated and their milk is produced.

We hope that they will participate in the future and we will be in a position to reevaluate the downgrading of their score in our study. Until then, customers will have to decide whether or not to switch to a higher-ranked brand and/or to convey their concerns directly to the ownership at Straus Dairy.

The Straus family operates a processing plant and buys additional milk from two neighboring farms. Their brand is widely distributed in California and received a four-cow rating in our study.

They write, “Straus Family Creamery, the first Organic Dairy west of the Mississippi has been producing artisan organic dairy products for over a decade. Straus European-style organic butter is used by leading gourmet restaurants across the country. Straus small-batch super premium organic ice cream, the newest addition to the product line, is available in vanilla, chocolate, raspberry, coffee, and chocolate mint. Straus European-style yogurts are generating rave reviews.