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Organic Dairy: A Sour Deal for Small Farmers

by · May 29th, 2008
Grocery, Holidays, Milk, Organic, Shavuot

butter1.jpg

Yesterday I popped into one of those new organic bodegas that seem to be sprouting up around my Brooklyn neighborhood. My goal was simple: buy organic butter for a cake. But when I got to the dairy case and picked up the squat foil-wrapped package, I literally gasped out loud at the $7.65 price tag. Seven dollars. and fifty six cents!!

Now, I am all about paying a little more for organic/local food, and I did receive the memo about food prices going up, but I had not yet come face to face with the brutal reality of taking out a loan to go grocery shopping. Granted, I normally shop at the member-run Park Slope Food Coop, where my monthly labor ensures me a little financial cushion from the rough world out there.

When I got home, however, I found out that as bad as that moment in the store was for me – the organic dairy farmers have it significantly worse.

Farmer and writer, Tom Philphott, recently wrote the following for Grist:

“If you think things are getting pricey in the organic dairy aisle, imagine trying your lot as an organic dairy farmer. Over the past year, farmers have been hit with a dramatic jump in their input costs – everything from organic feed to diesel fuel to family health care. At the same time, the price they actually get for their milk has been relatively flat.

According to the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance, the price of two primary feedstocks, organic corn and soy, has jumped by 59 percent and 77 percent, respectively, in the last year. The price of diesel fuel — essential for running tractors — has spiked by 60 percent. But farmers selling their milk to processors saw their rate nudge up only 12 percent.”

What gives? Philpott points to mega milk brands like Dean (which recently purchased organic brand, Horizon). These companies care what consumers think about them enough to slap an organic label on their products, but are unwilling to practice the organic philosophy with any integrity. Philpott writes:

“To protect their own profit margins, such mega-players buy “organic” milk from the cheapest sources possible – including factory-style farms that confine thousands of dairy cows into pens year-round, giving them no meaningful “access to pasture,” as they are required to do under USDA organic code.”

In the end, I sucked it up and bought the arm-and-a-leg butter. My decision had something to do with Shavuot coming up, and feeling justified in splurging on butter for the Jewish calendar’s “dairy holiday.” Still, I’m well aware that many people (myself included) can not afford to do that on a regular basis. Problem is, the farmers we want to support can’t afford for us not to.

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8 Responses to “Organic Dairy: A Sour Deal for Small Farmers”

  1. devadeva mirel Says:
    May 29th, 2008 at 12:23 pm

    I am totally in support of organic farmers. I live in Central PA, which is totally rural (I drive my kids an hour each way to take them to the nearest registered/certified preschool). I get my organic, raw milk locally from either one of my friends with cows or a local dairy farm which sells to an organic co-op milk company found on all the supermarket shelves(not Horizon or Stony Field which are big mega-feed lot monsters).

    I buy my raw, organic milk for $3 a gallon. If I want regular milk, that is available from local dairy farmers around here for $2 a gallon.

    I think the price of food is crazy. I think the general quality of food offered to the masses is too low. I believe food is preventative medicine and good eating is more important to me than the right to bear arms…and a whole lot of other truths this country holds to be certain.

    That being said, if you want to live in the city, you have to understand that your food is going to cost more. It is simple economics. You live far from the source.

    Oh, and did I say that the milk I get has a full layer of cream on top? Throw that in the food processor and you’ve got yourself fresh butter…. Or you can do what I do and feed it to your cat.

    Around here the dairy farmers say the only way to make it is to go organic.

  2. Rhea Says:
    May 29th, 2008 at 2:13 pm

    Good for you for sticking with organic ideals for the butter (no pun intended!). When organic products go above 2 or 3 times the cost of conventional, I often cave in.

    I think buying local is key. And I don’t think you have to give up living in the city to be close to the source. Colin Beaven of “No Impact Man” fame manages to get pastured dairy from within 100 miles of NYC and I’d imagine farmers’ markets also have affordable products. Those farmers are probably hit hardest by the skyrocketing gas and feed prices. It may not be certified organic, but will probably be a lot more sustainable than factory farm-produced stuff.

  3. devadeva mirel Says:
    May 29th, 2008 at 5:46 pm

    Honestly, I am like you and just try to remain practical about the whole thing. Like most people, we try to eat well without breaking the bank.

    I guess for me I am somewhat sensitive to the fact that the regular dairy farmers are making even less than the organic dairy farmers. And in both cases, the middle man is the one who is cleaning up. Organic grains have more than doubled. Here it is $20 a bag of grains for cows. Hay has gone up. The cost of land has gone up. And the cost gets passed on to the consumer and the farmer (organic or not) has to carry these expense increases. Many of the farmers out here work second jobs or rely on their spouses income to make sure ends meet.

    I really like Leah’s point that many people cannot afford to do that (splurge on butter) on a regular basis. I’m sure many of these farmers responsible for the milk which goes to the processing plant can’t afford it either (how ironic!). As Leah says, they can’t afford us not to. I keep thinking that if organic just became the norm, prices would go down because the demand would be higher, thus making production more affordable. But with organic dairy–milk particularly–the demand couldn’t be higher. It keeps increasing, yet so does the price.

    Where we live, the organic farmers do far better than the commercial milk farmers, yet these are relative truths. Compared to the usually affluent demographic buying the milk, they are in the poor house. I don’t want to gloss over that.

    Rhea, of course I love farmers’ markets and agree that the way to go is local. But still, unless you live in a rural area, the produce at farmers’ markets are still out of many people’s price range. Did anyone see this article in the NYTimes last week?

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05.....lphia.html

    It is a great example of a new paradigm for getting fresh produce to populations which can’t get (or often afford) what is available.

  4. Debra Says:
    May 29th, 2008 at 11:15 pm

    I think the problems lies within the very words of this article and its comments- the cost of feed! Feed?! Cows who are fed corn/soy/hay feed produce lower quality milk. We, the consumers, are buying a more expensive milk that may not even be worth it. Grass-fed milk (if you can find it in your community) has far superior fat quality, including more Conjugated-Linoleic-Fatty-Acid (CLA). CLA is the type of fat that cows are supposed to produce and may help prevent cancer.

  5. Charlene Says:
    May 30th, 2008 at 7:25 am

    I also feel that the more important aspect of milk production is grass-fed cows. I live in brooklyn and buy organic raw milk from a source. Now, due to transportation of the product, I’m paying $6.00 for a gallon or 3.50 for a 1/2-gallon of raw milk, and I have to go to manhattan to pick it up, but it’s such amazing milk and the nutritional value is way better. the suppliers I get it from also sell butter, cheese, cream, meat, granola, etc. it’s great because it’s supporting a small independent farm, who is committed to biodynamic farming practices, which includes organic farming, and they only grass feed their cattle. since grains make cows sick, grass (hay in the winter) is best for them, and keeps them from getting sick, thus no need for antibiotics. and because the farmers are independent, they don’t have to try to push the cows to meet milk production quotas, so the cows aren’t being fed growth hormones or fed lots of grains to push their milk output.

    whew! okay after all that preachy-ness, i’m just saying that i totally hear you that the cost of things are going way up across the board. and while there is some planning involved, there are ways to get organic/grass-fed dairy products from farmers by either finding a raw milk source or by buying it from a farmers market and then of course from the Coop (i’m a member also)…

  6. Debs Says:
    May 30th, 2008 at 9:05 am

    Our organic, grass-fed, local raw milk out here in Seattle is $6-$8 for a *half* gallon, so I envy ye of the $6 gallons or $3 gallons! Wow.

    Yes, the point about grass-fed is key. Cows are not meant to eat grain, and Debra’s right about the effect on the fats.

    Debs

    Food Is Love

  7. Leah Koenig Says:
    May 30th, 2008 at 9:50 am

    Thanks for all of your comments. The point about grass-fed cows vs. corn-fed cows is a good one. Philpott actually addresses that point in the Grist article:

    Now, some may wonder why true organic dairy farmers would be affected by feed prices at all. Given that cows evolved to eat grass, not corn or other grains, shouldn’t organically managed cows feed only on pasture? Ideally, the answer is yes. But in harsh northern climates like those of New England and the Midwest, grass only thrives for part of the year. When winter hits and pastures lie under snow, farmers face two choices: feed their cows strictly hay, which lacks the nutrient density to keep production at a high clip; or supplement with some corn and soy.

    The all-hay option means a seasonal collapse in income; the corn-and-soy alternative, in the current market environment, means a seasonal surge in production costs. For small family farms, either can spell disaster.

  8. devadeva mirel Says:
    May 30th, 2008 at 1:30 pm

    One thing is certain, it’s good to be an organic hay farmer.

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