Sneak Attack on Organic by Horizon/Dean/Kraft , USDA, Indu...

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> Sneak Attack on Organic Dairy Pasture and Feed Requirements by

> Horizon, Dean, Kraft , USDA, & Industry Bureaucrats

>

> By Mark Kastel

> The Cornucopia Institute, Dec 21, 2006

> Straight to the Source

>

> See the note below from the Cornucopia Institute regarding the

> fate of the National Organic Dairy Pasture & Feed Standards.

> Write a note today! (see email addresses at the bottom of the

> letter)

>

> Dear Organic Consumer,

>

> We believe that you need to know about an important

> behind-the-scenes development occurring at USDA that may very

> well determine how the agency resolves the controversy on pasture

> and the origin of organic livestock.

>

> A small group of the nation's largest conventional and organic

> dairy processors and their powerful lobbyist (who works for,

> among others, Dean Foods, Kraft and the OTA) collaborated with

> bureaucrats at the National Organic Program to develop a proposed

> regulation that USDA could offer and adopt on pasture. These

> large players, representing the vast majority of the organic milk

> in this country, have crafted and provided the USDA with a

> proposed regulation. We understand that the guts of this proposal

> will be what the agency releases by as soon as the end of this

> year.

>

> The proposed regulation does not include a 30% DMI requirement

> (dry matter intake), only that animals be pastured for 120 days.

> The proposed rule that the vast majority of the organic dairy

> industry came to a consensus on, with support from the USDA's

> expert advisory panel, the National Organic Standards Board

> (NOSB), would require all dairies to graze animals for the entire

> growing season, but not less than 120 days. And it would have

> included the 30% requirement (it should be noted that farmers

> truly dedicated to grazing might be feeding as much as 50-80% DMI

> from pasture during the growing season & shy;so 30% is a quite

> reasonable compromise figure that the dairy farmers across the

> country could reach consensus on).

>

> One of the guiding principles of organic food and agriculture has

> been transparency. It is terribly troubling that this proposal

> has not been the subject of public debate and/or input from the

> broader organic community. This is highly disrespectful and

> utterly undemocratic & shy;politics as usual in Washington in the worst

> sense.

>

> Over the past six years, more than one hundred thousand

> consumers, farmers, businesses and non-profit groups have

> commented to and engaged with the USDA about specific

> rule-making, scores of farmers made the trek to Washington to

> testify on their own, and the National Organic Standards Board

> has passed their own guidance and rule-making recommendations.

> Yet now this small group of industry players and their powerful

> Washington lobbyists might very well have more influence in the

> entire process.

>

> We ask you as partners in this industry: We're you consulted in

> this process? Would you have liked to have had a voice in shaping

> how this will affect your operation and relations with farmers

> and consumers?

>

> We are told that USDA believes the organic community is fractured

> on a consensus proposal and that they cannot support a 30%

> guideline. But the farm community & shy;and their three major regional

> producer associations & shy;have all been visibly united behind the 120

> day/30% proposal. When we circulated a sign-on letter to the USDA

> last year supporting the 120 day/30% proposal approximately 150

> different consumer and farm organizations signed on (available

> upon request). Furthermore, the only independent survey work that

> we are aware of that has actually gone to rank-and-file organic

> dairy farmers and asked for their views (conducted by Cornucopia)

> found 97% support for the 30% proposal from the nearly 600

> organic producers polled who offered their perspectives (also

> available upon request).

>

> This past spring, the voices on the USDA's producer panel didn't

> all agree at the national organic dairy forum in Pennsylvania.

> But it is important to note that the panel, selected by the USDA

> and screened by at least one industry lobbyist, was deliberately

> constructed to present conflicting views & shy;not to air the

> overwhelming majority view & shy;heavy on Western dairies milking

> hundreds or thousands of cows in confinement-type conditions. It

> is disingenuous for USDA to now point to their hand-picked panel

> and throw up their hands saying we can't agree on a common course

> of action.

>

> It may not be too late to change what USDA will shortly offer as

> their new regulation. But that will only be true if you and other

> important members of the organic community are aware of the

> process taking place. We urge you to use your influence to ensure

> that all voices have a say in the drafting of this very important

> dairy regulation.

>

> We are presently fund-raising for a legal challenge that will

> assert that the present law is not being enforced by the USDA

> (additional language to close loopholes would be fine but the

> USDA has not even made an attempt to crack down on confinement

> dairies currently milking as many as 10,000 cows). This is a

> separate action we are working on to protect pasture-based

> organic dairies and marketers.

>

> Please stay tuned, we hope to give you some tools to help you and

> the farmers who supply your milk respond aggressively. The bottom

> line is that this weakened rule, that the larger dairy processors

> and USDA appear to have reached consensus on, will soon be put

> forward and willallow the scores of new 1000-3000 cow industrial

> dairies (mostly in the West) to drive down the price of organic

> milk and force many of the family farmers and smaller marketers

> out of business.

>

> Today we sent a letter to USDA Secretary Mike Johannes asking him

> to intervene and prevent the NOP from joining with major organic

> dairy marketers selling and selling out to the factory-farm

> interests. We suggested in our letter that if the department puts

> this draft rule forward it will be met with the most aggressive

> consumer and farm response since the initial draft rule of the

> organic standards (generating 300,000 angry responses) was

> published in the mid-1990s. We hope that he will save the organic

> community from going through this disruption and the USDA from

> widespread public displeasure and harassment in the media.

>

> We understand the USDA has also been working with these same

> manufacturers to promulgate a weakened rule that would allow

> conventional cattle to continue to be transitioned and brought

> onto existing organic dairy farms. These large factory farms

> cannot continue to operate without a constant stream of

> replacement animals because of their high slaughter rates. Some

> of these provisions are also in conflict with the spirit of

> organics that so many in the industry are trying to uphold.

>

> We think this is a watershed event in the making. We will keep

> you posted on further developments. If you have questions please

> feel free to contact me.

>

> Sincerely,

>

> Mark Kastel

>

> PS: A very short note from you today, as a business

> owner/manager, to the Secretary of agriculture, Mike Johannes:

> agsec@..., with a copy to his Chief of Staff, Dale :

> dwm@..., could make a difference.

>

> Mark A. Kastel

> The Cornucopia Institute

> kastel@...

> 608-625-2042 Voice

> 866-861-2214 Fax

>

>