milk2.jpg milk.jpg

Business is booming for Horizon Organic Milk, dubbed “the Microsoft of organic milk” by author Michael Pollan. The label under the happy cow’s face assures consumers that cows have plenty of room, sunshine, and grass, adding that “all of our products proudly carry the USDA Organic seal and that says it all.”

But does a label really say it all? Farms with classic organic values raise a variety of produce and animals to self-sustain similar to the way nature does, which provides its own supplies and cleans up after itself. Animals roam free-range.

But a Horizon milk farm in Idaho looks much different from this ideal, according to this article via organicconsumers.org. Cows rarely have access to pasture, as the organic certification does not specify how long they must be permitted to graze. Cows are housed in crowded pens and fed a diet of organic alfalfa, grains, hay and soy shipped from around the country. A Horizon farm looks much more like a factory farm than the local family farm we imagine.

So, no, the label doesn’t say it all. Is the label misleading? Should further restrictions apply, such as requirements for how long an animal must be permitted to graze and how crowded a pasture can be? Tell us what you think.