The Cornucopia Institute has released "Maintaining the Integrity of Organic Milk," The Cornucopia Institute’s national survey of organic products in the dairy case. The report and scorecard showcase ethical family farm producers and expose factory farm producers and brands that threaten to take over organic dairying. See which brands and dairy products are produced with the best organic farming practices and ethics. Based on a year’s research into the organic dairy business, the scorecard pulls back the veil on organic dairying and allows consumers to identify those products that best support their vision of organic farming.

Here's the report.
http://www.dirtygreek.org/outgoinglink.php?url=http://cornucopia.org/index.php/dairy_brand_ratings/

From NYT:

""There are producers selling organic products from cows that live with as many as 6,000 other animals and that seldom see pasture, which fits the definition of a factory farm. There are farms where nonorganic cows are brought in as replacements and where antibiotics and hormones are used."

Most important to me are these from the brand ratings:
http://cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html

Organic Valley (CROPP) - 4 Cow Rating (Excellent) - Most of the organic milk I buy comes from here, so I'm glad about that.
Stoneyfield Farm Yogurt - 4 Cow Rating (Excellent) - My favorite yogurt, and the only yogurt I buy.
Harris Teeter - 2 Cow Rating PRIVATE-LABEL (good, but questionable long-term commitment to organics) - I used to buy their milk sometimes, but I guess I won't anymore...
Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream - 3 Cow Rating (Very Good) - I like Ben and Jerry's. Good show.
Julie's Ice Cream - 4 Cow Rating (Excellent) - I was actually going to post that I tried this ice cream for the first time last night (Cookies & Cream), and it is really really good ice cream, though it's the same price as B&J's...
Whole Foods (365 Organic - 2 Cow Rating PRIVATE-LABEL - This is disappointing, but sadly, I'm not surprised...

And, of course, Horizon got a shameful rating of 1. I am not at all surprised about that, since Horizon's been getting a beating from the organic community for a long time now. I hope this maybe pushes them to start ACTUALLY making organic milk instead of pretending to.

3/31/2006 1:08:52 PM

die

3/31/2006 1:34:14 PM

next time summarize and link

3/31/2006 1:36:14 PM

Dirty, can you post some links which point out advantages/disadvantages of organic?

3/31/2006 1:54:33 PM

Summerize and link?

Can you even read?

3/31/2006 1:58:40 PM

Soy milk is delicious

3/31/2006 2:03:07 PM

^^^^ yea dont they have a "must be able to read requirement" for comp sci's?

[Edited on March 31, 2006 at 2:07 PM. Reason : .]

3/31/2006 2:06:41 PM

apparently not

3/31/2006 2:07:14 PM

Soy Milk, like tofu, doesn't really taste like anything.

Though it tastes better then Skim Milk.

3/31/2006 2:08:00 PM

tofu does not have a distinct taste.

but soy milk is far from tasteless. it has quite a distinct taste. skim milk just tastes like cold water.

3/31/2006 2:20:56 PM

hippies

3/31/2006 2:55:04 PM

Quote :

"Dirty, can you post some links which point out advantages/disadvantages of organic?"

organic milk, truly organic milk, comes from cows who get to act like cows. they are pastured, they are fed grass, and they are not injected with growth hormones, rgbh, and the like. it's an animal rights issue

that, and there are supposed to be health benefits as well. I don't know or care much about that, for me, it's an environmental concern

3/31/2006 3:37:23 PM

if a thread's first post is more than 6 lines i don't even read it

3/31/2006 3:58:19 PM

I only buy organic milk when it's on sale (yeah, I'm cheap!), but it really does taste better to me than non-organic equivalents. I'm not as fond of Horizon, but Harris Teeter brand organic is very good. The first time I drank it I was reminded of what milk tasted like when I was little.

3/31/2006 4:16:26 PM

well shit!

that sucks.

my wife and I but Horizon milk for my two year old daughter!

3/31/2006 4:26:27 PM

cows are pretty dumb animals

3/31/2006 4:32:32 PM

So is Panthro.

3/31/2006 6:23:19 PM

Yay! Panthro has succumbed to sensationalism + misinformation!

3/31/2006 7:54:57 PM

I like the milk in glass bottles...not organic, but to me it tastes better than the organic. But damn, it's expensive.

3/31/2006 8:36:38 PM