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Tell the USDA to Include Animal Welfare in Its Proposed Organic Standards

For years, consumer and animal welfare advocates alike have been concerned about the USDA’s questionable standards for the production of organic animal products, particularly organic dairy products. The Cornucopia Institute estimates that 30 to 40 percent of all organic dairy farms are actually massive factory farms or CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) that confine up to 10,000 cows at a time on huge, barren lots.

Recently, the USDA published a lengthy, complex rule amending standards for the treatment of animals in organic livestock and dairy facilities. The proposed rule would basically stipulate that for milk to be labeled organic, the cows must be on pasture for half of the year, and 30 percent of their dry food must come from grazing.
 
Not surprisingly, large CAFOs with organic certification (like Aurora, which the USDA recently found to have willfully violated 14 tenets of the organic regulations) are taking issue with the proposed rule requiring that animals have true access to pasture and will likely try to weaken the grazing standards, as well – effectively attempting to avoid making even these very modest welfare improvements.

TAKE ACTION
The USDA public comment period on this proposed rule closed on December 23, 2008. Read Farm Sanctuary’s comments here.