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"Organic" Factory Farms - A Contradiction in Terms!

Due to the vagueness in the wording of the "access to pasture" rule in the national organic standards, different interpretations abound as to how often animals need to be on pasture and if all animals must have access to pasture. Some large factory farms have been endangering the integrity of organic agriculture by creating loopholes for corporate organic farming, such as raising chickens without access to the outdoors and operating an intensive factory farm with 70,000 chickens or 5000 cows. Since organic agriculture is now a billion dollar industry, some large meat, egg and dairy industries – purveyors of egregious animal and environmental abuses – are seizing a financial opportunity by tapping into a 'niche-market' due to growing consumer demand for products raised in a less abusive way.

Consumers of organic milk expect organic dairy cows to be treated humanely and provided with access to sunshine and healthy pastures. Unfortunately, consumers do not always have the guarantee that the cows were actually allowed to have access to pasture. Pasturing represents a natural behavior of the animals and is a basic component of farm animal welfare. A dry lot is not a pasture, just as a parking lot is not a park. A cow or other animal left outside, but on a dry lot, has no real connection to the land.

According to the Organic Consumers Association, after years of inaction, the USDA's National Organic Program (NOP) has finally "been forced to address a number of large, industrial dairy farms who are producing 'organic' milk without adequate pasture. These factory farms range in size from approximately 3,000 to 4,000 cows and are basically confinement feedlots without legitimate access to pasture for feed and exercise, as required by the federal organic regulations. Milk from most of these mega-farms is being distributed by Dean/Horizon, the largest milk bottler in the United States, and under a number of private-label brands that are available at natural food and conventional grocers. These corporate farms and their wealthy investors are jeopardizing the livelihoods of organic family-scale dairy farmers throughout the United States, along with the more modest-sized companies and cooperatives that market their milk."

Due to growing controversy, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) drafted recommendations earlier this year to establish true pasturing standards for the USDA National Organic Program and received public comments. The NOSB will have a board meeting in Washington, DC on November 16-17, 2005. On their agenda, is a public comment session for Pasture for Organic Livestock. In fact, according to The Cornucopia Institute's Organic Integrity Project, concerned consumers and farmers asked the NOSB five years ago (in 2000) to address the troubling new trend of factory farms producing "organic" milk in confinement conditions. The NOSB board responded in 2001 by adopting a guidance document that would have helped farmers and certifiers understand what is expected of them and closed the obvious loopholes which were being exploited by industrial-scale farms. However, the USDA did not enforce or even publicly post this document! This spring The Cornucopia Institute filed legal complaints with the USDA alleging that a growing number of factory farms were ignoring the organic law that requires ruminants (dairy cows) to have "access to pasture." Finally, after years of delay, the USDA asked the NOSB to revisit their recommendations. The board responded by passing a rule change and new guidance document. But once again the USDA is jeopardizing organic integrity since they rejected the language adopted unanimously by the NOSB. These years of delays continue as factory farms expand.

What You Can Do

• Please send a message to USDA Secretary Chuck Connors appealing for the Secretary to step in and demand that the will of the people, as evidenced by thousands of comments, letters, and petitions in support of pasture enforcement, not be subordinated to corporate interests. Download sample letter.
  The Honorable Chuck Connors
  Secretary of Agriculture.
  U.S. Department of Agriculture
  1400 Independence Ave., SW Whitten Building - Suite 200A
  Washington, D.C. 20250
  Phone: (202) 720-3631
  To email Secretary Connors, click here
  or use: Chuck.Conner@usda.gov
• Get the word out about Farm Sanctuary's recent report, The Facts About Farm Animal Welfare Standards, which dispels the myths of farm animal welfare standards. In this comprehensive report (available as a summary or full report), Farm Sanctuary finds that food labeling and marketing claims, like "grass fed" and "cage free," are generally subjective and not verified. Since the regulations of the National Organic Program are vague, non-specific as to species, and inconsistently applied, organic egg and dairy producers have been allowed to use loopholes to deprive animals of the opportunity to graze and forage in a natural setting.