Back to Ratings

       

    Farm Name Horizon (WhiteWave)
    Rating (0)    
    Location Broomfield, CO
    Products Nation's largest name-brand organic milk marketer.  Dependence on large industrial "farms," milking as many as 4,000 cows, for a large percentage of its milk supply.
    Market Area Nationwide
    Web Site http://www.horizonorganic.com/

    Horizon (WhiteWave)
    Started by a syndicate of millionaires whose experience included organic groceries and conventional factory dairy farming. They quickly grew the enterprise, accessing venture capital and eventually selling stock in the company on Wall Street. Horizon is now the largest selling organic milk brand.  It was purchased in 2004 by Dean Foods, a giant agribusiness, with almost $11 billion in sales, specializing in dairy products. Dean is also the largest conventional dairy marketer in the country.

    In 2013 Dean Foods spun-off their branded products division, WhiteWave, with an IPO on Wall Street.  The former Dean Foods CEO, Gregg Engles, and many of the other executives have moved over to WhiteWave.  The new entity continues to market Silk soy drink (was 100% organic when Dean Foods acquired it but is now mostly non-organic) and International Delight nondairy coffee creamer.

    Their former corporate-owned farm in Idaho continues to supply milk to the Horizon label under independent ownership.  Initially milking 4,000-5,000 cows, it was originally a conventional factory-dairy that they converted to organic production. According to widespread industry reports and verified by Cornucopia staff during an onsite visit, it provided the lactating dairy cows with no access to pasture as is legally mandated.  A formal complaint filed by Cornucopia with the USDA was closed without regulators ever visiting the dairy. 

    Today, after reports that WhiteWave spent upwards of $20 million on a new milking facility built for the current capacity of approximately 2,400 cows, the animals now have "limited" access to pasture.  There is still a question of whether this dairy is operating in compliance with  organic law.

    Many practices on a farm of this nature put ethical family-scale organic farmers at a competitive disadvantage.

    In addition, WhiteWave purchases milk from other industrial-scale farms, some of which have a history of other alleged improprieties.

    The corporation purchases at least half its milk from hundreds of family-scale farmers (they lump together the large factory farms with these traditional family farms; there is no clear-cut way for us to determine the exact percentage), and there is no reason to believe these smaller organic dairy farms are not conducting their business just as ethically as farmers shipping to other labels.

    The Dean Foods/WhiteWave management did not respond to either of two certified letters requesting their participation in this study, and Horizon's corporate vice-president also declined another invitation to participate in the survey during a private meeting with Cornucopia staff.

     

    Criteria Points Comments
    Ownership Structure 0 No answer
    Milk Supply 0 No answer
    Disclosure of Information for Verification 0 No answer
    Certifier farms 0 No answer
    Certifier processing 0 No answer
    Cows on pasture time/acreage provided 0 No answer
    Health and longevity of cows 0 No answer
    Replacement animals only from organic farms 0 No answer
    Antibiotics used on young cattle 0 No answer
    Reproductive hormones used 0 No answer
    Farm support oversight 0 No answer
    Outside dairy ingredients purchased 0 No answer
    TOTAL SCORE 0 ZERO COWS (Ethically Deficient) Most produce or purchase factory farm milk. No zero cow producers/brands were open enough to participate in this study.