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After a seven-year-long battle between
organic farmers and consumers and the
USDA, the first of a handful of industrialscale
dairies, producing what they claimed
was organic milk, has been shut down by regulatory
authorities. In early June the Vander Eyk Jr.
Dairy, a 10,000-cow feedlot dairy, near Fresno in
central California, was found to be operating outside
of the organic law
and has had their certificate
to produce organic
milk suspended.
In early 2005, The Cornucopia
Institute, an organic
watchdog non-profit
organication, filed the
first of a series of formal
legal complaints with the
USDA against large factory-farm operators,
including Vander Eyk, alleging that the mammoth
"factory farms" were violating the spirit and letter
of the organic law by confining their animals to
pens and sheds rather than grazing them.
According to governmental regulators the dairy lost
its ability to ship organic milk in May, after receiving
a notice of suspension from its USDA-accredited
certifier, Quality Assurance International (QAI), for
serious questions surrounding the record-keeping
such as assuring that cows are actually managed
organically (without antibiotics and hormones), fed
organically produced feed (without toxic pesticides
and herbicides), and are allowed to graze rather than
being confined in a feedlot.
The Vander Eyk dairy is an aberration not only in size
but because it is also a "split" operation milking both
organic and conventional cattle in the same facility.
Although not specifically banned by law, most
organic milk marketers prohibit split operations and
require their farms to be 100% organic. Split operations
leave too much opportunity for error or potential
fraud.
QAI has been widely criticized in the organic industry
for certifying Vander Eyk and a number of other
large industrial-scale dairies in the desertlike conditions
of the West, where cattle have little if any access
to pasture. The Cornucopia Institute has also filed legal
complaints against dairies owned by Dean Foods
(Horizon Organics), which owns an 8000-head dairy in
Idaho, and Aurora Organic Dairy, milking thousands
of cows in Texas and Colorado, which produces
private-label milk for grocery
chains including Wild Oats,
Trader Joe's, Safeway, and
Wal-Mart. Until recently Dean
Foods, the industry leader,
was purchasing some of its
organic milk from Vander Eyk.
“It's excellent to see QAI fulfilling
their responsibility
under the organic law and
protecting the interest of farmers and consumers,”
said Lisa McCrory, a certification expert with 13 years
of experience for Northeast Organic Farming
Association of Vermont. “This is an example of the
system working as it was designed—organic inspectors
uncovering problems and protecting the public
by shutting down farmers or processors if problems
are discovered.”
In addition to concerns about animal welfare, Vander
Eyk also paid out $360,000 in January 2005 as part of
a court-supervised settlement with their mostly
Hispanic employees who had accused the dairy of
exploitive employment practices.
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