Boston Globe By Jenn Abelson, Globe Staff TROY, Vt. — For the first time in decades, dairy farmer Dexter Randall could pay all his bills on time. Wooed by signing bonuses and the prospect of doubling his earnings, the burly 60-year-old switched to organic milk over the past year. He says it is the only… Read more »
Twins Theory May Make You Have a Cow
Chicago Tribune (link no longer available) Julie Deardorff Cow’s milk, routinely overhyped as an answer to obesity and osteoporosis, might have a potent impact on your family after all. Women who consume dairy products are five times more likely to have twins than those who don’t, possibly because of synthetic growth hormones added to milk, says… Read more »
Organic-Milk Fight Takes Aim at Grazing Time
Seattle Times By Melissa Allison, business reporter Anyone reading the label of an organic milk, butter or cheese container might get the impression the cows behind those products spend much of their time in verdant pastures. The labels often portray cows grazing on grassland, and studies show that consumers of organic milk products believe the… Read more »
USDA Weighs Label for Beef From Cattle Fed Only Grass
Farmers contend their product is a cut above feedlot animals in health and taste; some experts doubt claims By Matthew Chayes Washington Bureau Chicago Tribune (link no longer available) MIDDLETOWN, Md. — The image that schoolchildren conjure up when they imagine how animals live probably looks a little like Eric Rice’s Country Pleasures Farm: a half-dozen… Read more »
Altered Crops in Europe: At What Cost?
By Elisabeth Rosenthal International Herald Tribune ALBONS, Spain: Enric Navarro was dumbfounded when the letter arrived from the testing lab of the Spanish organic farmers association in late February, informing him that his organic crop contained 12 percent genetically modified corn. Hearing that his plants had been modified by biotechnology was almost as traumatic for… Read more »
Whole Foods Shrinks Horizon
Boulder Daily Camera By Alicia Wallace, Camera Business Writer Horizon Organic Dairy is losing shelf space at regional Whole Foods Markets. The nation’s largest natural-foods grocer is expanding its private-label organic milk brand and dropping Horizon’s one-gallon milk product in the Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions. The one-gallon milk produced by Horizon, which is part… Read more »
As ‘Organic’ Goes Mainstream, Will Standards Suffer?
Advocates are cheered by the growing appeal of organic foods. But shoppers, confused by labels, don’t always get what they think they paid for. By Amanda Paulson Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor CHICAGO – Buying organic milk these days – or organic apples, eggs, or beef – no longer has to mean an… Read more »
Organic Shortage
The boom in demand for organic milk is transforming farming villages in the Upper Midwest — and milk producers are trying to persuade conventional farmers to convert. Minneapolis Star Tribune Matt McKinney It’s not like Byerly’s to leave customers wanting, but for weeks this spring, the chic St. Louis Park grocer hung signs in its… Read more »
Wal-Mart Eyes Organic Foods
The New York Times By MELANIE WARNER Starting this summer, there will be a lot more organic food on supermarket shelves, and it should cost a lot less. Most of the nation’s major food producers are hard at work developing organic versions of their best-selling products, like Kellogg’s Rice Krispies and Kraft’s macaroni and cheese…. Read more »
Co-ops, Big Firms Vie For Organic Milk Supplies
Wall Street Journal By SARAH NASSAUER Last month, Peter Miller stood in a small agricultural extension office, pleading his case for more organic dairy farming to a few dozen farmers from New York’s Orange County. “We could use a lot more milk right now and we are looking for farmers in northeastern New York,” said… Read more »
