Organic Valley in the News

Organic Valley Family of Farms is opening its membership to organic crop growers with the introduction of its Grower Pool. Growers joining the pool will benefit from a guaranteed floor price for their crops on a long-term contract basis and will be able to enroll all or portions of their crop acreage in the pool. Organic Valley will offer contracts for feed-grade grains, beans, oilseeds and hay beginning with the 2008-2010 cycle.

Similar to Organic Valley's current dairy, meat and produce pools, the Grower Pool's prices will reflect differences in the co-op's 15 grower regions. Members will form their own executive committee to develop policy and pricing guidelines...

Last year I got this e-mail from a woman named Linda: "I have a decent job and do it well, but I'm constantly thinking I'm wasting my time. I want to begin doing something useful to contribute to changing things, at least becoming a cog in the wheel that's on the right vehicle."

She's hardly alone in her yearning to escape the corporate tentacles and defy the stultifying insistence of conventional wisdom that "success" is money. The powers that be don't want us thinking that breaking from the given order is even possible. But as a friend of mine puts it, "Those who say it can't be done should not interrupt those who are doing it."

For idealistic entrepreneurship, consider a brand of foods that you might have in your kitchen: Organic Valley. This purveyor of organic milk, eggs, butter, juices, etc. was organized by a group of farmers to be the "un-corporation," embracing not only profit but also the common good of what they call their "partnership society," including employers, consumers and communities. It has not been easy, but the Organic Valley cooperative has held fast to its progressive principles over the years while building a business that now includes 1,201 farm families in thirty-two states, racking up $432 million in sales in fiscal year 2007.

consumers find themselves faced with the choice of either paying extra for organic, or buying the conventional version of the same product at a much lower price. The dilemma is that plenty of shoppers still don't quite know what that gap in price is all about -- why organic products cost more, and what "organic" really means for them in terms of perceived personal health benefits, as well as benefits to the environment.

Many core players in the organic food industry are convinced that grocers themselves can bridge that gap in understanding and thus unleash greater sales potential for organic foods, even at a time when economic pressures are bearing down both on the industry and the consuming public.

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Steve Harrold, director of whole health and organics at Indianapolis-based Caito Foods Service, a leading supplier of fresh fruit and vegetables to retailers throughout the Midwest, says a lot of good science is emerging that proves organic foods have definite health benefits.

Among this recent research on organics is a four-year study released last fall by the European Union, indicating that some organic foods are more nutritious than their nonorganic counterparts. Preliminary results showed organic fruit and vegetables, for example, have up to 40 percent more antioxidants than nonorganically grown produce. Organic milk contains up to 60 percent to 80 percent more antioxidants than conventionally produced milk in the summer, and 50 percent to 60 percent higher levels in the winter. It also found organic milk to contain higher levels of vitamin E.

Yet another source of pro-organics ammunition is a research study published last August by The Organic Center, an independent nonprofit firm based in Boulder, Colo. The study claims that the average child in America is exposed to five pesticides daily in food and drinking water. "Our research found that switching to an organic diet for just five days virtually eliminates any sign of exposure to organophosphate insecticides among school-aged children," says Steven Hoffman, managing director of The Organic Center.

Siobhan Griffin of Raindance Farm was recently named by NMC as a top innovator of quality milk production in its 14th annual National Dairy Quality Awards, placing in the silver category.

Although the farm has been winning quality awards since 2001 from her dairy cooperative, Organic Valley Family of Farms, this is the first national award from an independent group, she said. She has been in business for 20 years.

She said the intensive grazing technique she started using in 1989 has a lot to do with the quality. The technique she first saw in practice as a child visiting family in Ireland, she said, and it is still in use there. It provides cows with a fresh section for grazing every 12 hours during the growing season, she said.

"It does a lot for the milk quality," she said. "Grass is better than anything that can be harvested." There are a number of environmental benefits from the practice, she said, including less use of fossil fuels.

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NICHOLS - For five generations the Engelbert family farm has stood as a beneficiary in Southern Tier New York. “Everyone used to farm in this country,” stated Kevin. “Even by the 1950s I think 50 percent had ties to the farm, and now less than two percent of the U.S. population is engaged in farming. 98 percent just get their food from the grocery store. Food has just been taken for granted in this country.” He added that every day thousands of farmland acres are lost to gravel pits and development, and when farmland is lost it never comes back.

“I think this country is very close to becoming a net importer of food for the first time in its history,” Kevin added.

Over the years the Engelbert family farm has undergone plenty of changes, including a gradual shift from diversified to primarily dairy, and most recently to certified organic.

Washington, DC —Co-op America presented the fifth annual Green Business Leadership Award to Organic Valley Family of Farms, a pioneer within the farming community. Organic Valley, a cooperative based in LaFarge, WI, was chosen as the winner from amongst five nominees, all of them leaders in the green business field.

“Organic Valley started 20 years ago with $1,000, eight farmers, and a goal of supporting family farms,” said Co-op America’s Green Business Division Director Denise Hamler. “Now, with over $420 million in sales and the most innovative environmental practices in the industry, Organic Valley has proven that being green and being successful can walk hand in hand. We’re proud to have Organic Valley in our Green Business Network and thrilled they won this year’s Green Business Leadership Award.”

In addition to building a network of successful organic family farms, Organic Valley recently established a “Cashton Greens” Partnership, which includes the first local Green Business Park, a biodiesel site, and a biomass site. Their 1,200 farmers nationwide develop land conservation, biodiesel, solar, wind and other innovative green technologies on their farms. Organic Valley also constructed a LEED Silver certified headquarters.

This year, Fast Company embarked on an experiment: to apply to the for-profit sector the rigorous methodology developed by our partner Monitor Group for the Social Capitalist Awards. With help from Sara Olsen at Social Venture Technology Group and R. Paul Herman of HIP Investor, we assessed 31 for-profit applicants, from big corporations that graft socially responsible practices onto a traditional investor framework to smaller for-benefit outfits that explicitly place social good ahead of shareholder return.

Organic Valley was one of the ten companies that passed the test.

Farmers are constantly struggling to maintain their livelihood while ensuring a supply of nutritious food for residents of Maine and people throughout the nation.

For Maine's organic farmers, the choice to farm organically is being threatened by regulation recommendations soon to be submitted to the state Legislature. Citizen voices can help ensure that solid regulations protect farmers' right to choose how they farm, including farming organically.

The Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been named as lead agency in a six-state area for a new national program to encourage schools to serve more locally grown food.

As regional lead agency for the National Farm-to-School Network, CIAS will be the hub for farm-to-school activities in the Great Lakes region, encompassing Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Indiana.

The national network is supported by a three-year, $2.4 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The national network allots funds to the regional agencies with the proviso that its contributions be matched dollar-for-dollar with funds from other sources.

Thanks to a pledge of $30,000 from the Organic Valley Family of Farms, fundraising in the Great Lakes region is off to a strong start.

Organic Valley's success is a lifeline for family farms

"We've tried very hard to be the voice of reason between the purist radicals and the big corporate farmers," says Organic Valley's CEO, George Siemon. Click "Gallery" for graphs charting Organic Valley's growth.

North of Sun Prairie not far from Highway 151, on 1,600 acres of silt loam soil, sits R & G Miller & Sons, one of the state's largest organic dairy farms and Exhibit A in a remarkable agriculture success story.

The Miller farm, with its rotational fields for corn, oats, soybeans and pasture, supports a 320-cow dairy herd of mostly Holsteins. The eight members of the extended Miller clan who own the farm belong to the hugely successful co-operative that sells the Organic Valley line of products.

Organic Valley's sales topped $330 million in 2006, and its 1,183 farmer-owners — 409 in Wisconsin; the rest scattered in 32 other states and Ontario — are prospering.