Organic Valley in the News

Two organic food manufacturers, Nature’s Path Organic Foods and Organic Valley, joined with Organic Gardening magazine to support the Farmers Can Be Heroes program. Farmers Can Be Heroes, from the Rodale Institute, is an outreach and education program designed to praise farmers as heroes who feed us and are mitigating climate change and preserving the earth for future generations. Farmers Can Be Heroes offers an online course for conventional farmers interested in transitioning to organic. Consumers can support it by purchasing one Organic Valley product and one Nature’s Path product and then mailing in both proof of purchases. In return, they will receive a free, one-year subscription to Organic Gardening magazine and a chance to win a year of free breakfasts (organic milk and cereal). Organic Valley and Nature’s Path will contribute $1 each for every proof of purchase mailed in for a contribution of up to $50,000 to the Rodale Institute’s Farmers Can Be Heroes program.

The Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance announced a partnership Feb. 13 to field test its Baseline Practices for Sustainability with Wisconsin-based Organic Valley Family of Farms. The nonprofit SBA published its baseline practices in December 2008, after a year long consultative process involving the biodiesel industry, environmentalists and other stakeholders. Organic Valley will be the first organization to test the applicability of the BPS among its farmer members and in its distribution system.

Organic Valley will apply the practices outlined in the BPS document to their existing systems and report its findings to the SBA. The data collected from Organic Valley and other pilot programs which will be launched later this year, will be used to develop criteria and indicators for an independent certification system for sustainable biodiesel that the SBA plans to implement in 2010.

Cows that are given names produce more milk than those that are not, says a new study out of England.

The study, conducted by Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson at Newcastle University in Newcastle upon Tyne, discovered that more affectionate treatment of cattle — including giving cows names — can increase milk production by more than 68 gallons annually. An average cow produces about 2,000 gallons of milk a year.

Douglas says the positive effect of naming cows has always been a belief among farmers, but until now, there was no scientific evidence.

"I think farmers have always thought that a good relationship with cows helped, but I don't think they knew how," says Douglas, who conducted the study as a part of her Ph.D. thesis on the effects of positive treatment of cattle.

The mood was hopeful at the Sauk County Job Center, where about 200 applicants came to a job fair Wednesday for a new Reedsburg-based company.

Wisconsin Specialty Protein will be opening in Reedsburg this March, and it kicked-off its hiring process with a job fair. Call-backs will be starting in weeks for approximately 20 new job openings.

General Motors might be seen as a catalyst for manufacturing in Wisconsin, but Johnson said her business' is propelled by farms such as Organic Valley, considered one of the leading brands for organic milk in the country.

And despite a tough economy, the CROPP Cooperative, of which Organic Valley is a member, reports total sales are expected to increase by 22% over 2007, even with slower growth in the fourth quarter.

When home bakers get out the mixer and the decorating sugar at this time of year, visions of perfect-edged cookies and shapely cakes dance in their heads. But too often, the reality — both for the cookie and the baker — is ragged, fallen, and fraying around the edges.

"I've cried many times at 2 a.m., when the cookies fall apart after all that work," said Susan Abbott, a lawyer in Dallas who tries every Christmas to reproduce her mother's flower-shaped lemon cookies, though she rarely bakes during the rest of the year.

Our favorite butters were salted Kerrygold from Ireland, unsalted Kate's Homemade Butter from Old Orchard Beach, Me., and a "limited edition" cultured butter from Organic Valley, made from May to September, when cows are outside at least part of the time, eating grass rather than feed. Butter from grass-fed cows, rich in beta carotene, is more yellow (not higher in butterfat, as many believe).

Organic inspectors with Quality Assurance International (QAI) recently completed the first three on-site inspections for the Non-GMO Project’s Product Verification Program, with more inspections scheduled soon. The inspections occurred in conjunction with the participating companies’ annual organic inspections, reducing costs and labor. R.W. Garcia, SK Food, and WholeSoy & Co. are the first companies to go through these joint inspections.

According to Allan Perkins of R.W. Garcia, the joint inspections offer “a big time and cost savings way to participate. You can achieve both certifications with one auditor and one audit. The organic and Non-GMO Project audits fit well together.” Aaron Skyberg of SK Foods agrees, saying, “We were very pleased to be able to combine our organic and non-GMO verification inspections.” And Ted Nordquist, founder and CEO of WholeSoy & Co. adds that he thinks combining the inspections is “an excellent idea, and our suppliers feel the same way.”

The onsite audit is second in the Non-GMO Project’s two-step verification process. Prior to inspection, all companies undergo a document-based review of GMO avoidance practices like traceability, segregation, and testing at critical control points. This information is compared with the consensus-based Non-GMO Project Standard in order to assess compliance.

A “Non-GMO Project Verified Seal” will begin appearing on retail packages beginning in October 2009. In the meantime, a list of participating companies and the 350+ enrolled products can be found on the Project’s website: www.nongmoproject.org.

The Project emerged as an industry-wide initiative nearly two years ago, when its Board of Directors expanded beyond the original founding retailers to include stakeholders from every sector. Led by CEOs and top executives from industry leaders such as Eden Foods, Lundberg Family Farms, Nature’s Path Foods, Organic Valley, UNFI, and Whole Foods Market, the Project has successfully implemented North America’s first independent, third party standard and verification program for production systems designed to avoid GMOs.

DePauw Dairy in Port Byron isn't new to the world of organic farming. It's more like a pioneer in raising Dutch Belted cows -- which look like Oreos -- the old fashioned way.

Bob DePauw's family has been farming and raising cattle organically since the early 1950s. Their parish priest, Lyle Sheen, stressed the importance of taking care of the land and spoke out against the use of pesticides, which were just starting to gain popularity in the '50s.

"He warned about people being full, but undernourished, and about kids becoming hyperactive because of all the chemicals," DePauw said. "He believed healthy land would mean healthy crops and therefore healthy people."

The family's decision to use the same methods that had been used for centuries struck their neighbors as odd at the time, but as the saying goes, "everything old is new again."

Raising the cows organically makes them healthier, but for DePauw Dairy, it's more than just not using pesticides.

By noon on Friday of the three-day National Future Farmers of America (FFA) conference we had shook hands with and delivered our elevator speeches to thousands of FFA students, advisors and chaperones, and traffic was finally slowing down. Across the way, Organic Valley, with their large end-of-the-aisle double booth, had finally finished handing out their free organic string cheese that a hefty percentage of conference goers had enjoyed over the previous days. This gave us the chance to meet the farmer-partners manning the 20-year-old farmer-owned cooperative’s booth.

Mariann Holm, a dairy farmer from Wisconsin’s Chippewa Valley, told us that her 17-year old daughter, Sarah Holm, would be giving a presentation entitled “Understanding Organic Agriculture” with fellow farmer-partner Preston Green that afternoon. After gathering pertinent details, such as in which auditorium the talk would take place in the labyrinth of convention center meeting halls, the other interns and I dashed off to grab a bite to eat.

It turns out that 53,000 hungry FFA members can make it extraordinarily difficult to obtain a bite of lunch. Thankfully, Holm and Green were giving their presentation twice, so while our voyage across the convention center through the endless sea of blue corduroy jackets prevented us from seeing the first show, we were able to arrive half an hour early for the second round.

Organic Valley is talking to Western Technical College and Gundersen Lutheran about erecting two wind turbines in 2009 at its Cashton distribution center, an official said Wednesday.

Jennifer Harrison, sustainability program manager for the organic farmers’ cooperative, spoke at a press conference in La Crosse on the Homegrown Renewable Energy Campaign. It was launched by Wisconsin Farmers Union, Clean Wisconsin, the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute and RENEW Wisconsin.

The campaign promotes four of the initiatives recommended this year by Gov. Jim Doyle’s Global Warming Task Force:

* Create a Biomass Energy Crop Reserve Program to pay land owners to plant bioenergy crops such as switchgrass that can be used for fuel;

* Create a Renewable Fuels for Schools and Communities Program to help fund sources for biomass heating systems in schools and government buildings;

* Develop a program to set utility payment rates to fairly compensate small renewable energy producers;

* Set a low carbon fuel standard.

Harrison said BEST Energies Inc., which has a biodiesel plant in Cashton, and the village also may become partners in the wind turbine project. It would be a way for partners to support alternative energy and create educational opportunities for Western students, she said.

While organic milk and food products have become increasingly popular at local grocery stores, dairy farmers Jerome and Julie Walch of rural Rochester will tell you the transition from conventional farming to certified organic farming is a learning experience.

After going three years chemical free, pesticide free, antibiotic free and hormone free, their crop and hay land was officially certified organic in April 2007 and their dairy herd was certified in September 2007.

"We've always tried to use the most environmentally friendly practices we can, and finally we got to the point where becoming certified just fit in," Jerome said Tuesday. "We decided to make the commitment."

Jerome said he has always farmed with as few chemicals as possible, because he just didn't like working with them.

To show stewardship to their land, the couple took 30 acres of their most erodable land and created several paddocks.