And Now Costo & Target Organic Milk is NOT Organic at all! ARGH....

[Anonymous]

PP - I understand where you are coming from... the issue is with the way the cows are boarded/taken care of not what they are fed. What they are fed and the fact that they donot receive hormones does make them "organic".

That said, when I buy organic I want to know I am buying true organic and not milk from cows penned up on top of each other. I guess I need to start looking for "pasture fed, free roaming" on the label. It's a shame the definition is so broad.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if this would apply to Safeway's O Organics line?? All it mentions in the article is Safeway's private label, so I'm assuming yes, but wanted to see what other's thought. And are they saying this has only been going on for the past 18 months? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

how about chicken? anyone know where to find the infomation. this is a really excellent post.

[Anonymous]

Don't know about chicken. You do have to read more than just the ratings on Cornucopia. Some of the milks got a lower score just because information wasn't provided about all the categories that are used for ratings. You can click on the milk co. name and read more about the company -- e.g., did they get down-graded because of their organizational structure, for high "culling" (killing) rates, and so on.

[Anonymous]

Original Cornucopia link poster here. . . . To address LRP's post: Yes, the Cornucopia Institute has an agenda. It is to support family-scale farming rather than industrial farming, and there are other objectives too. For someone like me it is an extremely valuable resource, for these reasons: (1) I do want to support family farms, such as those in the Organic Valley co-op; (2) I want to buy milk that is reflects my values, both in terms of what's in it and how it is produced beyond those "inputs"; and (3) I care about the welfare of the animals that produce the milk I buy (which includes looking for a very low cull rate and a high pasturage rate, among other things). As more and more people are now realizing, the USDA Organic label means very little, especially as large corporations continually seek to water down the legislation and its regulations. And it means nothing in regard to the welfare of the animals involved.

To the poster who asked about chickens: I haven't found a similar resource for eggs or for chickens (though we don't eat chicken now). However, you can look for the Animal Welfare Institute's "Animal Welfare Approved" label, which is a voluntary certification program with high standards, or the American Humane Certified label. At my local food co-op they provide information about all the eggs they sell, which includes not just the "inputs" and whether they're organic, but living conditions information such as whether the hens are free ranging and whether they are debeaked. And Peter Singer's book "The Way We Eat" is full of good resources for finding more humanely produced food, in addition to truly organic food. Since I love food, I am happy to have all these resources! And it's good karma too.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know of any ratings for the Grass Fed brand of milk? That's what I usually buy, at least for nonskim milk, because I assume there will be more omega-3s in grass-fed.

But if I'm supporting factory farming to get the omega-3s, maybe I should switch.

[Organicmania]

I agree this is frustrating, but bear in mind that according to Cornucopia's own rating site, the milk in question here is still rated "better than conventional." This means you did serve milk that was healthier than regular non-organic milk.

[HrCreuzi]

I wouldn't trust the USDA's "organic" labels. They have inconsistent and very lax criteria.

Organic Valley is the best option for organic foods. They're a co-op farm company that uses small family farms. They're based in Wisconsin.

Try Bell Evans chicken (if you can find it- we have it in WI but since I haven't shopped or groceries in MD yet I don't know if it's out there). From what we've found they use no chemicals in feed or raising them, they're free range and organically fed.

For eggs- nothing beats finding a local small farm and buying right from the source.

[zumbamama]

This is a great topic. Is the Organic Valley milk sold only at Whole Foods? I always try to buy organic, but agree that it is a shame it's so hard to figure out if it truly is organic.

[Anonymous]

zumbamama wrote:This is a great topic. Is the Organic Valley milk sold only at Whole Foods? I always try to buy organic, but agree that it is a shame it's so hard to figure out if it truly is organic.

I've bought Organic Valley at Giant and Trader Joes. It's funny but now that I think of it there is a price difference between the Trader Joes brand, OV, Horizon and O Organics that I always wonder about. Like $3.79 for O Organics and $4.29 for Horizon. Not that big of a difference but enough to make me wonder why.... I guess the more organic maybe the more expensive? I can no longer stomach the taste of non-organic milk. It just tastes gross to me now.

[Anonymous]

PP again... I forgot to mention that a friend of mine told me kosher meat was as good as organic as to be kosher the meat needs to meet certain conditions as well as the animals being treated well. I'm not sure how true this is but it makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Actually, kosher meat is not any more kind to animals than any other kind of meat, and some might argue that kosher slaughterhouses are worse than others. See the book "Postville" for an upfront description of a kosher slaughterhouse. One of the largest kosher meat businesses in the country has repeatedly been shown to use pretty inhumane methods for its animals, and to have very poor working conditions for humans too.

As another poster said, Organic Valley milk is sold in a number of stores. Organic Valley is a co-op with very high standards for animal welfare and for its milk quality. The Whole Foods private label milk is supplied by Organic Valley, and its a bit cheaper than OV itself.

To the 15:13 poster, I would argue that Horizon is organic only in the USDA sense (which as I've said before doesn't mean a lot). It is factory farmed, and the animals live in CAFO-type conditions. I don't buy it unless there is no organic alternative.

[Anonymous]

How can one find out what company makes store brand products. I'm interested in how organic is Giant's own brand organic milk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How can one find out what company makes store brand products. I'm interested in how organic is Giant's own brand organic milk.

I am pretty sure the actual manufacturer has to be listed somewhere on the carton of milk, probably in VERY tiny print. I also think if you google it chances are you'll get a hit that says who makes it.

[Anonymous]

Giant Food To Roll Out Its Organic Product Line

By Michael Barbaro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 30, 2004; Page E03


The region's biggest supermarket chain, Giant Food Inc., will launch a line of natural and organic foods this weekend in an effort to cash in on one of the supermarket industry's fastest-growing niches.

The new brand, to be sold under the name Nature's Promise, will include a wide variety of products, such as milk, butter, cookies and frozen vegetables. They will reach the shelves of Giant and its sister supermarket chain, Stop & Shop Supermarket Cos., in New England simultaneously.

Giant and Stop & Shop executives said they developed the brand to meet mounting consumer demand for foods without artificial ingredients. By overseeing production, they hope to cut costs for consumers. Private brands also generally offer retailers a higher profit margin.

"It is time to offer shoppers a better value in this category," said Graham Mitchell, director of product development for Ahold USA Inc., a division of the Dutch conglomerate Royal Ahold NV, which owns both Giant and Stop & Shop.

Nevertheless, consumers will pay more for Nature's Promise than for the 40-year-old line of Giant brand products. A half-gallon of Giant's organic milk will cost about $2.99, compared with $1.88 for Giant brand non-organic milk. The chain sells a national brand of organic milk, Organic Valley, for $3.49, Mitchell said.

Natural and organic foods are becoming big business for U.S. grocers. Consumers spent $20.5 billion on them in 2003, up from about $8.3 billion four years ago, according to the Food Marketing Institute, a trade group.

So rather than letting national organic brands dominate their shelves, supermarkets are rushing to create their own.

Last year, both Kroger Co., which operates more than 2,500 supermarkets across the country, and Wegmans Food Markets Inc., with 66 stores on the East Coast, rolled out private-label lines. Safeway Inc., with about 140 stores in the region, carries about 60 private-label organic products.

"It is growing faster than anything in food retail," said Jason Whitmer, a grocery industry analyst at FTN Midwest's Research Securities Corp.

For Giant, the move will expand the already robust private label business, which accounts for about 22 percent of overall sales, said Barry F. Scher, a Giant spokesman. Analysts said that is slightly above average for the industry.

Nature's Promise will arrive in Giant's 200 Washington area stores beginning tomorrow. The first batch of 25 products will include the organic milk, butter, eggs and juice as well as natural cookies, chips and broth.

Under federal guidelines, natural foods must be free of synthetic preservatives, artificial sweeteners and antibiotics. Organic foods, which must be certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, must be prepared using special farming methods -- barring, for example, the use of hormones in animals.

By the end of the year, Giant will stock about 90 Nature's Promise products. By 2005, it will have about 200, Scher said. Those may range from natural cereal to organic whole-grain bread.

Icons on the products' labels will indicate whether they are gluten- and lactose-free and low in cholesterol and fat.

Giant and Stop & Shop are betting big on the new line, analysts said. With 200 products, Nature's Promise will be bigger than the natural and organic brands of both Kroger and Wegmans. The Wegmans line has 34 products; Kroger's has 140.

Giant's initiative is not without risk. Consumers already have several options for organic food, from Trader Joe's to Whole Foods Market, which offers two private-label organic and natural food lines, including one for children.

Jenny McTaggart, senior editor with Progressive Grocer, a supermarket industry trade publication, said consumers will vote with their taste buds. "Ultimately, if Giant and Stop & Shop can make this taste good, it will succeed."