Organic Valley in the News

According to Hollender, the world doesn't need lists of businesses that are succeeding in ways that they have succeeded for decades. The world should instead recognize businesses like Organic Valley, Marks & Spencer, and Linden Lab, businesses that are "doing the innovating that matters and taking the risks that deliver truer rewards."

It's impossible to have a conversation with Jon Bansen without asking about his favorite cow Rosie. She's now 12 years old (she was 9 in the film), and for an active producing cow, well beyond the average productive years for a dairy cow. And yet, Bansen proudly shares, Rosie is producing 120% of capacity compared with the rest of his 165 jersey cow herd. By contrast, Bansen explains, the average conventional dairy cow will last about 4 years, and during their first two years, will not produce any milk at all. To Bansen, organic cows are healthier, and remain on average, productive longer, than their conventional counterparts because of the differences in how they are treated, and their access to open pasture for grazing.

R&G Miller & Sons, Inc. is a rather unusual family dairy farm that combines over 150 years of history and family involvement with some of the newest cutting-edge farming practices of today.

The farm dates to 1852 when Jacob Miller came from Germany and began farming in northeastern Dane county along County Highway V just east of East Bristol and west of U.S. Highway 151.

His son Jacob took over in the early 1900s and in the early 1950s sold it to his sons Reinhold and Gerald.

Over the years the family added adjoining lands to the original 80 acres. In 1968 they combined the dairy herd — which was milked in two separate barns —and built a Double 6 milking parlor.

In 1979, the family formed R & G Miller and Sons, Inc. which today includes 1,700 acres of owned and rented land. There are 320 cows being milked twice a day in a 30-cow Rotoflo carrousel milking parlor that was installed in 1990.

Ten Miller family members are active in the farm operation today: Ron and his wife Stephanie and their children Cindy and Miguel; Tom and his daughter Amanda; Gary, Steve and Jim.

Joe Rick, a nephew of Reinhold and Gerald, joined the operation four years ago. And, Gerald Miller — the G in R & G Miller & Sons — although now in his 80s, is still active in the farm operation.

In 1997 the farm was certified organic and began shipping milk to Organic Valley Cooperative. The family gives credit for the decision to go organic to John Miller, who left the family farm in 1998.

Resulting contamination of non-GE and organic alfalfa hay and seed would devastate livelihoods and organic industry

The National Organic Coalition (NOC) today announced that more than 200,000 people submitted comments to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) critiquing the substance and conclusions of its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on Genetically Engineered (GE) Alfalfa. Groups, including NOC, Center for Food Safety (CFS), Organic Consumers Association, Food & Water Watch, CREDO Action and Food Democracy Now, mobilized their communities to help generate the unprecedented number of comments.

In addition, more than 300 public interest organizations, farmers, dairies, retailers and organic food producers from the U.S. and Canada delivered a strongly worded letter to USDA, calling upon it to deny approval of Monsanto’s genetically engineered, Roundup Ready alfalfa (GE alfalfa). The letter cites the inevitable contamination of organic and non-GE alfalfa hay and seeds and threats to the viability of organic dairies, livestock, and meat and dairy producers as reasons for urging the denial. NOC, Organic Valley, Whole Foods, National Cooperative Grocers Association, CFS and others agree that it would be irresponsible government policy to approve GE alfalfa in the absence of legal requirements holding companies accountable for GE contamination, as is currently the case.

The Organic Dairy Unit at the University Farm was honored for the second straight year with a Silver Milk Quality Award from Organic Valley.

The dairy, which sold its first tank of milk in March 2007, has been successful and profitable in comparison to other similar college programs, said Program Coordinator Cindy Daley.

In October 2009, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo announced plans to reduce its herd from 150 to 30 cows, due to heavy financial losses, according to dairyherd.com.

“We are operating in the black,” Daley said. “We are looking good in comparison.”

Amid ongoing uncertainty over the safety and efficacy of genetically engineered (GE) crops, or GMOs, a new round of fighting has broken out, this time over GE alfalfa and its impact on organics.

As the public comment period on the issue nears the end, sustainable agriculture and consumers groups are emphasizing their concern over potential damage to the organic industry.

George Siemon, CEO of Organic Valley Family of Farms, the largest farmer-owned organic dairy co-op in the country, thinks GE alfalfa "threatens the very fabric of the organic industry."

According to Siemon, organic farmers rely on organic alfalfa for feed and GE alfalfa could threaten the supply by contaminating organic crops.

The wretched economy probably won't dampen the turnout at this weekend's Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse. Organizers of the 21st annual gathering expect last year's record turnout of 2,650 to be surpassed by the time the last walk-in shows up for the Thursday-night-to-Saturday conference at the La Crosse Center.

The gathering is a combination pep rally, reunion, trade show, Chautauqua, political rally and big-time party for farmers who share a common mission of fighting industrialized agriculture and its dependence on chemical additives.

"Something special happens here," says Faye Jones, the conference's long-time organizer and executive director of the Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service in Spring Valley. "It's almost like magic. The conference is a source of inspiration and rejuvenation," she explains, before organic farmers head to their fields for spring planting.

George Siemon, the CEO of the farmers' co-op that markets under the Organic Valley label, agrees. "The conference has a warm, familiar, family-type feeling. Some people think it's the heart of the organic movement."

The current financial downturn hasn't spared Wisconsin's organic farmers, but in general they have been able to ride it out, says a new report about the state's organic sector.

"Organics has held its position as an area where all sizes of operations can find opportunities to meet a loyal consumer demand. Organic producers, with their systems-based, low input approaches to farming, are well-equipped to weather lower prices," say Harriet Behar and Jerry McGeorge, members of Wisconsin's Organic Advisory Council, in the introduction to "Organic Agriculture in Wisconsin: 2009 Status Report."

The report, prepared by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, will be available at the Organic Farming Conference this weekend in La Crosse, Wis.

Rising demand for locally-grown produce means farmers need to adapt new strategies, according to a new UW-Madison study.

Whether it’s at farmers markets, food stands, restaurants or grocery stores, producers are having a tough time keeping up with consumer's appetites. UW researchers looked at 11 operations in Wisconsin and other states, and found that oftentimes producers don’t need to grow more food to meet demand, but rather a better way to distribute their products.

Researcher Michelle Miller says she heard of the issue first nearly 20 years ago, from growers who said they were being forced to “get bigger and bigger” as consumers steadily craved more and more local products.

Miller says there’s no one way to expand distribution, either. For example, La Farge-based Organic Valley has shipped their products along with other smaller companies, in order to share delivery trucks. Organic Valley spokesman Jerry McGeorge says this helped bring down costs.

Eating organic, farm-fresh produce at every meal is no easy task for most families. But a family of farmers southeast of Fertile, Minn., wants to change that.

The Lambrights, an Amish family of 14, plan to pick up where the Mount Saint Benedict Community Supported Agriculture Garden of Crookston left off. The Lambrights moved from southwestern Wisconsin to establish a community with seven or eight other Amish families because land prices were making small-scale farming difficult in Wisconsin. Stacy Erickson of the Fertile area helps the family with communication and transportation.

The sisters at the Mount Saint Benedict Monastery maintained the CSA garden as one of their outreach programs because they felt organic produce was inaccessible to many residents of the Red River Valley. Erickson said those in charge of the Mount Saint Benedict CSA had felt it was “time to move on.” As a result, Erickson said the CSA’s customers were worried they no longer would have access to their produce, which is when she and the Lambrights stepped in and took over.