Organic Valley in the News

Before he was a scientist or "serial careerist," Scott Harding was an "ice-cream fan and devotee."

Before Harding composed ice-cream "formulas" on computer spreadsheets and referred to dessert in terms of "solid, liquid and gas," he churned batches by hand in a wooden bucket.

Fifteen years after receiving his first ice-cream maker, Harding applies scientific precision to his home-style harbinger of summertime.

Using milk and cream from the Organic Valley co-op of dairy farms, Harding brags of being the only organic, artisanal ice-cream producer between San Francisco and Seattle. To make the base, Harding adds certified-organic sugar and eggs. Flavoring agents, whether fruit, coffee, herbs or spices, also are organic, Harding says, even if the source isn't certified. Many local sources of high-quality foods, he adds, are not.

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The social enterprise—a sustainable business that creates social or environmental value alongside profit—is no longer a niche concept. Social entrepreneurs inhabit nearly every sector of the economy, from banking and insurance to energy and manufacturing. That breadth is evident in Bloomberg Businessweek's second annual U.S. roundup of promising social entrepreneurs.

With Organic Valley already adding jobs, the village of La Farge will receive nearly $1 million in federal aid to build infrastructure for its growing organic food industry.

The U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Admini-stration announced the $990,286 grant this week, saying the investment will fund a road extension, street lights, sewers and water mains to a site where the village anticipates Organic Valley could build another facility.

Watching Little House on the Prairie while growing up (more times than one should admit to in a blog) led me to be fascinated with people who could make things themselves at home, instead of running to the store. This probably explains why I spent most of my time at Maker Faire in the Homegrown Village, where food growers, tofu makers, coffee roasters, and all sort of homesteading experts and food DIYers converged under one tent. Maker Faire is about getting your hands into projects and learning how to do "it" yourself. I didn't try the tofu and yogurt making, but did check out the butter making workshop with California Organic Valley farmers. Now I went in thinking any butter I made would a) require a churn or a food processor, b) take a long time and c) taste gross. Happily I can report I was wrong on all counts. You can make butter by hand, it is pretty easy, it takes only ten minutes and it tastes delicious.

For years, the state has watched textile mills close and tobacco farms turn to seed. More recently, technology jobs have been lost, and the state has 10 percent unemployment.

But at N.C. State University, there's a woman quietly bringing together farmers, businesses, politicians and individuals to nurture a new economic sector in North Carolina: locally grown organic food.

Nancy Creamer, director of N.C. State University's Center for Environmental Farming Systems, is cultivating sustainable, organic farms and the infrastructure they need to get their food to market across the state. It's a plan that she hopes will create small businesses and jobs, as well as boost local economies that have lost jobs to overseas competitors.

It's a fascinating experiment. Paying farmers to flood their fields instead of planting them to create habitat for shorebirds. On average 35,000 to 40,000 shorebirds stop to feed in the Skagit Delta during their migration to and from their Arctic breeding grounds. Traditionally, farmers have drained the wetlands to grow their crops, depleting the feeding grounds.

For the last three years, a prgoram called "Farming for Wildlife" paid farmers to intentionally flood their fields for a season to provide a rich habitat for birds and other wildlife and kill pathogens in the soil. Third generation farmer Dave Hedlin called it a "win win" experience.

Back in January, many of you, 3p readers, told us that when it comes to sustainability, George Siemon was the top CEO in all the land. For the rest of you who might not know about this organic farming pioneer, we’d like to introduce you.

Triple Pundit talked with Siemon recently about what it means to focus on sustainability, the challenges and opportunities that co-ops create in the business world, and some of the lessons he has learned throughout his career.

A group of 12 organic farmers has taken over the former Blue Seal grain mill in Auburn, creating what they believe to be the only organic grain mill in Maine.

Maine Organic Milling is currently leasing the Goldthwaite Road facility, taking in organic corn, barley, wheat and other grains from the Midwest and Canada, grinding and mixing them and then distributing the mixture. The feed is being distributed among the 12 organic dairy farmers who own Maine Organic Milling, but they plan to distribute to farms throughout the state in the next few weeks.

John Palmer led approximately 25 people out to his pasture near Waukon on a windy May 5. He stopped at an imaginary line.

He was leading the group on a pasture walk, part of a series hosted by Northeast Iowa Graziers and Great River Graziers. Many of the people who attended were other dairy farmers.

On one side of the group, the area had been pasture in 2008, then plowed and re-seeded in 2009. The other side was in corn in 2008 and seeded for pasture in 2009.

Palmer's goal was to switch the corn area into pasture and rejuvenate his pasture plants. He also wanted to see how well turning under the pasture and re-seeding it directly back into pasture would work. He was concerned about the alfalfa's toxicity and whether he would need to grow corn for a year before being able to re-establish his grazing ground.