Organic Valley in the News

Mark and Marcia Kruse's rotational grazing system runs along their ridge top farm straight south from the barn. On a clear day, they can see the Mississippi River and Wisconsin beyond.

Mark runs high tensile wire, spring-loaded on one end, on both sides of a lane about a half mile with no breaks. The waterline follows the lane. He divides the pasture into 24 paddocks, approximately two acres each. The first two paddocks on each side of the lane are for dry cows and heifers, which he likes to keep close to the barn.

Mark raises hay, corn and small grains for winter feed on about 400 acres of tillable ground. He rents about 300 acres. Heifers are pastured on the rented farms.

Dan K. Bansen, Dayton, Ore., is the 68th recipient of the Master Breeder Award of the American Jersey Cattle Association. It was presented on June 24, 2011, during the annual Breeders’ Banquet held at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells, Wis.
The Master Breeder award is bestowed annually to a living AJCA member, family, partnership or corporation that, in the opinion of the Board of Directors, has bred outstanding animals for many years and thereby made a notable contribution to the advancement of the Jersey breed in the United States.
Dan Bansen has become a second-generation Master Breeder Award recipient, after his father, Stanley, who won the award in 1990. They are the only father-son duo to win the award in AJCA history.

It is within that context I wish to offer an organic vision of hope for the next two decades. I see organic farming and ranching as an integrated system modeling the complex web of natural systems as it takes root. All parties will come to celebrate the fertile soil that surrounds them. There will be ecological food hubs linking urban mini-farms with the surrounding countryside. Taking advantage of this indigenous system of organic production will be an educational system that inspires K-12 students to become young cooks and learn more about nutritional balance and preventive health care. New jobs will be created in food transport and processing. Trading collaborations will be established to reach outside of nearly full circle sustaining regional food sheds for national and even international organic products. If grey whales can migrate to Mexico and back within nature’s system of ecological balance, I see no reason why organic fruits and nuts can’t be exchanged for bananas and coffee elsewhere in the hemisphere. Distance traveled must be flexible and provide multiple benefits to all.

We hold in our own hands the key to building a sustainable economic future. Literally. By placing responsibility and ownership into the hands of employees globally, we have the ability to mold an economy that benefits us all.

It's possible by embracing the idea of economic democracy.
Traditionally, economic democracy represents a socio-economic arrangement in which business enterprises are democratically managed and worker-owned. Think Organic Valley, the $500 million leader in the organic dairy industry, which is also a cooperative of family farms.

The Rodale Institute, a nonprofit that since the 1940s has been studying organic farming, welcomed dairy cows onto its Maxatawny Township farm last month. The cows belong to farmers James and Ida Burkholder, who own land next to Rodale. Rodale is helping the Burkholders transition their conventional dairy farm to an organic one. Rodale's farm director of 35 years, Jeff Moyer, is the subject of this week's Q&A.
Q: Where can I buy this herd's milk?
A: The milk that's being produced is going to the same place it was because it will take a year for those cows to become organic. Once it's organic it'll be shipped to Organic Valley. We do hope to be able to sell some raw milk once the cows adjust to grass, in which case they could buy it right from the farm of James and Ida Burkholder.

Bingham transitioned pasture and crops to organic, bought heifers and bred them, and when they calved out, the organic dairy commenced. The dairy started shipping organic milk to Organic Valley in November 2007.
The animal side was pretty easy, the feed crop side was tougher, he said. Without the use of commercial herbicides, the operation -- which also includes his two younger brothers -- had to turn to tight rotations and old-fashioned weeding methods, such as shovels and tillage equipment.
"It's almost as if we stepped back to my grandfather's time," he said.

Pick up a carton of Organic Valley milk, and you'll notice the company is based in La Farge, Wis.

But that doesn't mean the milk comes from Wisconsin farmers: Organic Valley bills itself as the "oldest organic farmer-owned cooperative" in the United States (founded in 1988). It gets its milk from a network of dairy farmers, many here in Central New York.

To underscore that, Organic Valley is launching New York Fresh, a new label that highlights the local nature of its milk producers.

The GRA has created a stars system based on how many points each restaurant scores across various categories. Two-star certified restaurants must have a minimum of 100 points, 175 points for three stars, and 300 for four stars. Currently, only one restaurant, The Grey Plume in Omaha, Neb., has received the coveted four-star certification. Restaurants from Mario Batali and Rick Bayless as well as corporations including Hearst and Organic Valley have received three stars from the GRA.

Renown Dairy sits in a high mountain valley – the Cache Valley – in the southeast corner of the state, just one mile north of the Utah border and 60 miles west of Wyoming. While not in the major dairy zone of Idaho, there are still many smaller operations in the area, Roberts said. Their dairy is actually comprised of four farms that run as two separate facilities – each facility has two adjoining farms. Ellis and Mary Jo live on one of the sites while David and his family – wife, Kayla, and children: Emily, Hannah, Herman, Lottie, Maren and Steven – live on the other, about one mile away.

The Robertses milk 250 cows. About one-half of the herd is purebred Holstein, and half of that is Red and White. There are also a few crossbreds.

Sarah Smith of Grassland Farm likes to talk about organic foods and the $36.6 million in sales it generates annually in Maine.

Smith, 29, will have plenty of opportunity to discuss all things organic Wednesday and Thursday when she travels to Washington D.C. to meet members of Congress.

"I'm excited," Smith said Monday. "I'm certainly a little anxious — I feel confident in my ability to represent organic farmers.
"I feel like I'm going there with two hats — one to recognize organic farmers in Maine, and two, to represent our cooperative Organic Valley — we're going to say we're a $620 million a year co-op with over 700 members and we want the voice of that collective to be heard."