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National News Archives

Organic dairy news we gleaned from the national press.
We archive a year's worth of news.

  • September 1, 2010
    Maine organic milk company struggles as money runs out
    By Sharon Kiley Mack BDN Staff

    MOOMilk is undergoing financial difficulties and plans to suspend production this week if additional investors are not found.

    August 30, 2010
    Straus Family Creamery
    Adds Organic Milk Partner
    Natural Products Marketplace
    Correia Family Organic Dairy is the newest family-owned farm in Straus Family Creamery network of organic milk producers

  • August 20, 2010
    Ferrisburgh dairy seeks 'slow money' to fund organic venture
    BurlingtonFreePress.com,
    Glenn Russell
    JD and Cheryl DeVos, who operate the Kimball Brook Farm organic dairy in North Ferrisburgh, want to establish their own milk-bottling operation.

    August 20, 2010
    Campaign urges shoppers to moo-ve to organic milk
    KENT NEWS:
    TV presenter Kate Humble has lent her support to a new campaign encouraging shoppers to switch the milk they buy to organic.

    Aug 16, 2010
    Dairies ‘Too Big to Fail’
    Dairy Today
    Like big banks in the depths of the Great Recession in early 2009, it appears big dairies are also “too big to fail.”

  • August 6, 2010
    'Cloned Beef' On Store Shelves Causes Stir In Britain
    by Vicki Barker
    British food safety officials are trying to determine how a bull from the embryo of a cloned U.S. cow came to be slaughtered and eaten in Britain. Earlier this week a Scottish farmer admitted that he had raised cows derived from an American clone. Meat from at least one of the animals was sold to wholesalers and probably ended up in stores.

    August 4, 2010
    Dairy farmer says mob grazing works great for his herdhthorstensen@agrinews.com
    WEST UNION, Iowa— Mob grazing is helping David Baker's organic dairy operation near West Union.“It seems to do a lot better on keeping the grass even and you get much more of a steady grass growth, or re-growth, in general. It also seems to help the soil and cows milk better off of it. And I think it also helps with weed control," he said.

    July 28, 2010
    French dairy giant snaps up Rachel's from WhiteWave
    Daily Post North Wales
    ORGANIC milk producers in Wales are likely to retain domestic processing facilities after a Welsh dairy company was sold by its American owners to a rival ...

  • July 22, 2010
    Organic milk market grows
    Burlington Free Press

    Retail sales of organic milk have rebounded, allowing Vermont’s 200 organic dairy farms to begin to increase production and — their owners hope — improve their profitability.

    July 13, 2010
    Organic dairy family turns to cheese making
    North Bay Business Journal

    WEST MARIN COUNTY – Seeking relief from wildly fluctuating milk prices, another organic dairy family has turned to cheese making. Nicasio Valley Cheese Co.

    Wednesday July 7, 2010
    Organic Valley's CEO George Siemon on the Crooked Art of Leadership
    Fast Company, by Kermit Pattison

    George Siemon isn't just in the business of organic milk. As the CEO of Organic Valley, he has shepherded the company to its own organic brand of leadership and corporate culture.

    June 30, 2010
    Fonterra’s new deal for Australian dairy producers
    AP-foodtechnology.com

    The company has more than doubled its organic milk supply over the past year to help meet demand for dairy ingredients used in cheese, milk powder.

  • September 9, 2009
    Austria, organic market in troubled waters
    Greenplanet.net
    Austrian organic industry is in a "difficult situation", according to Stephan Mikinovic, head of Agrarmarkt Austria (AMA) - an association that looks after the Austrian organic market business. In the first four months of 2009, sales of organic milk and butter are in fact decreased by 5-10% over the same period of 2008, Italian Trade Commission reported.

    September 8, 2009
    Humboldt Creamery Fosters Corporate Sponsorship
    Lumberjack
    One of the remaining flagships of Humboldt County’s locally-owned and operated businesses has sailed. Humboldt Creamery was recently sold at auction for the sum of $19.5 million to a corporate parent company, Foster Farms.

    September 7, 2009
    More mums give their kids organic milk as survey confirms reduced ...
    Scottish Daily Record
    Researchers found infants raised on organic dairy products are a third less likely to suffer from allergies in the first two years of life.

    September 6, 2009
    Organic lull down on the dairy farm
    Burlington Free Press.com
    Milk processors are cutting rather than adding contracts with farms. The number of certified organic dairy farms in Vermont hit a high of 204 in 2007 and ...

    August 28, 2009
    New England Green Pastures Awards Winners
    Lancaster Farming
    Maine's Green Pastures winner was the first farm in Maine to begin organic milk production back in 2002, and its consistent herd average of over 20000 ...

    August 27, 2009
    Farm 'experiment' tests subsistence
    Bangor Daily News
    Dexter, Maine farmers Fred Sherburne (left) and his nephew Shawn Sherburne are growing five acres of sunflowers on their Top of Maine Farms farm. They hope to render oil from the sunflower seeds to be burned on the farm and in the equipment. The meat from the pressed seeds will feed their dairy herd, while the stalks will provide bedding.

    August 20, 2009
    Organic dairy farmers are taking to the streets today in protest ...
    The Copenhagen Post
    Milk producers face serious consequences when shops cut costs and sell milk at a loss, says the National Organic Association. 'When organic milk is sold below cost price it means less organic farming, fewer organic products on the shelves for the consumers and less consideration for nature and the environment. We all pay a high price for cheap organic milk.'

  • August 3, 2009
    Organic dairies struggling, too
    North Country Public Radio
    The demand for organic milk and dairy products has grown by double digits each year since 2005, until this year. Now the shrinking economy has pushed consumer demand for pricey organic products down and that has left some organic farms in trouble.

  • July 27, 2009
    Farmer's creamery plans move forward
    Explore Baltimore County - Baltimore, MD
    By Pat van den Beemt, 7/27/09
    Dairy farmer Bobby Prigel can almost taste the ice cream. He is finally moving ahead with plans to sell organic milk, ice cream, yogurt and cheese at his family farm. He will order equipment this week for the 10,000 square-foot creamery built on Bellevale Farm on Long Green Road in Baltimore County, and hopes to open for business in the spring.

  • July 28, 2009
    Sanders spars with Dean Foods CEO over milk prices
    By Dan McLean,
    Free Press Staff Writer
    Burlington, VT
    The CEO of the nation's largest milk processor declined an invitation to speak to Vermont dairy farmers about plummeting milk prices and said milk processors "do not set the price paid to dairy farmers."

  • July 17, 2009
    North Coast dairy cows
    sold to slaughter as milk prices fall
    Santa Rosa Press Democrat - Santa Rosa, CA
    In recent months the pain has spread to the premium organic milk market. Clover Stornetta Farms of Petaluma this spring asked its participating organic ...

    July 18, 2009
    NY dairy is feeling the squeeze
    Oneonta Daily Star -
    Oneonta, NY
    New York dairy farmers are in deep trouble, victims of a price squeeze that is threatening to put many out of business. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, ``Dairy farmers in the Empire State received an average of $11.50 per hundredweight of milk sold during June, down 40 cents from May and $7.40 less than June a year ago.''

    July 15, 2009
    Survival getting tough for some organic dairy farmers
    Minnesota Public Radio -
    Saint Paul, MN
    In the Midwest, organic dairy farmers are standing by while prices plunge and survival gets tough. Last year demand grew at a rate of 20 percent, but today it's nearly flat..

    July 11, 2009
    When farmers feel despair
    Bangor Daily News -
    Bangor, ME

    Recently, two central Maine farmers in separate communities — one an organic milk producer — shot and killed themselves. Fellow farmers are blaming the ...

    July 11, 2009
    Organic farmers urge
    Hood boycott
    Bangor Daily News - Bangor, ME, 7/11/09

    In February, Hood told eight Maine organic dairy farmers in Aroostook and Washington counties that their milk contracts would not be renewed. ...

    May 31, 2009
    Dairy producers protest milk prices
    Fort Dodge Messenger, Fort Dodge, IA
    About 150 people, most of them dairy producers, gathered Saturday at the Manchester Livestock Auction building to protest current milk prices, which has declined 45 percent over the past five months.

    May 28, 2009
    Organic Dairies Watch the Good Times Turn Bad
    New York Times
    Last month's meeting of the Maine Organic Milk Producers drew worried farmers seeking solutions to a post-boom bust.

    May 25, 2009
    European farmers protest to demand help on milk prices
    AFB News brief
    Furious farmers blockaded roads and brought some dairies to a halt in Europe-wide protests Monday to demand help for slumping wholesale milk prices.

    May 24, 2009
    A win for common sense, local food
    Baltimore Sun
    By the time you read this, Bobby Prigel, the only organic dairy farmer in Baltimore County, should have a few thousand more bucks to help catch up on his legal bills. His friends and neighbors - at least the farm-friendly neighbors who think that a dairy farmer ought to be able to sell his cows' milk on his own farm - will have thrown a party to defray some of the $130,000 Mr. Prigel has had to spend to get his Long Green Valley creamery open.

    May 19, 2009
    Dairy Outlook: Organic Dairy
    CattleNetwork.com - Overland Park, KS
    Organic milk producers in the United States have suffered much the same fate as conventional milk producers, facing falling milk prices and high feed and ...

    May 7, 2009
    Organic Dairy Manure May Offer High Quality Fertilizer Option
    Science Daily
    Dairy cows that produce USDA-certified organic milk also produce manure that may gradually replenish soil nutrients and potentially reduce the flow of agricultural pollutants to nearby water sources, according to findings by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and colleagues.

  • May 6 2009
    Conditions good this spring, but milk price remains low
    Vernon County Broadcaster - Viroqua,WI,USA,
    With a Class 3 April milk price of $10.78 per hundredweight, following a winter that had milk prices in the $9 per hundredweight range, dairy operations are trying to make due. It’s difficult, Rehbein said, when a conventional dairy farmer needs between $14 and $16 per hundredweight to meet expenses. That price is about $20 per hundredweight for an organic dairy. The Class 3 April milk price in April of 2008 was $16.76.

    May 5, 2009
    ORGANIC OASIS
    By Jim Williams , Minneapolis Star Tribune
    A Sibley County couple decided to farm organically. And it just happened to be a boon for birds and other wildlife.

  • April 30, 2009
     Bankruptcy offers some options to creamery
    Capital Press, Salem, OR
    Being denied credit for a barrel of chlorine at a local retailer is just one of the frustrations dairyman Blake Alexandre has experienced since financial problems at the Humboldt Creamery came to light in February. That was minor compared to the responsibility of keeping feed in front of his 1,600 milk cows and working with fellow creamery board members to develop a plan to keep the 80-year-old company afloat.

  • April 27, 2009
    Tension Builds Between Organic Dairy Farmers And Processors
    gourmet.com
    After a decade of rapid expansion, with growth rates between 20 to 25 percent a year, organic dairy farmers are now being splashed in the face with cold milk.

  • March 28, 2009
    Smaller dairies fight rule change on milk
    The Denver Post
    Ending a 70-year-old exemption would crush them, independents say.

  • March 27, 2009
    Germany's Myster Cow Disease
    Spiegel Online International
    'Holy Mary, Help Us in Our Hour of Need!' A mysterious illness is causing calves to bleed to death on German farms. Veterinarians are stumped over what is causing the deaths: vaccines, genetically modified feed or perhaps even the first mother's milk?

  • March 26, 2009
     Dairy in Crisis - Part 3
    Farmers seek lifeline for dairy industry
    Addison Independent

  • March 25, 2009
    Judge's ruling rises to the top for Prigel's creamery plan
    North County News
    Family's vision includes selling organic milk, ice cream, yogurt and cheese

  • March 23, 2009
    Broken Trust Shakes Web From Farmer to Cow
    New York Times
    Just recently the creamery began selling preferred stock so people here can own a piece of something local and organic that makes them proud. ...

  • March 10, 2009
    State dairy farms seek organic options
    Bangor Daily News, Bangor, ME
    Despite US Department of Agriculture statistics that show a healthy growth rate of 24 percent in fluid organic milk sales last year, Hood spokeswoman Lynne ...

  • Saturday March 14th 2009
    Organic dairy is no-crash cow, for now
    The Daily News Online,
    Batavia, NY
    Organic producers tend to have their price locked in for a year, and that price this year is more than double the current $11 per hundredweight offered to conventional dairies.

  • Medina dairy rebuilds after devastating fire
    January 10, 2009
    The Daily News - Batavia,NY
    This is how a dairy farm rebuilds after a devastating fire: day by day and with some help. Otherwise, the task is too overwhelming, said Linda Cecchini. Her 140-head dairy herd all survived. Otherwise, she and her son Jason, 34, likely would have given up.

  • Dairies are milking it
    January 10, 2009
    The Keene Sentinel, Keene, NH
    In New Hampshire, dairy farmers' move to organic products has aided rebound, despite the costs.

  • November 12, 2008
    Fertilizer business taking root Grays Harbor Daily World
    Pacific Gro’s wet organic fish fertilizer is being used on 70,000 acres of Idaho farmland and Brackins recently secured a contract with Horizon Organic Dairy, the country’s largest organic dairy, in Twin Falls, ID ...

  • October 7, 2008
    Dairy Farming the Organic Way Centralia Chronicle
    Centralia, WA
    At this point in time a farmer can make almost $25 for every 12 gallons of organic milk, compared with $15.30 for conventional milk ....

  • October 8, 2008
    A new take on factory farming
    The Independent, UK
    A New York street artist reflects on factory farming. There is a serious, philosophical aspect to his work, he says: "I wanted to make art that questioned our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming but it ended up as chicken nuggets singing."

  • October 3, 2008
    Dairy industry braces for
    a tough winter
    Addison County Independent
    While prices are more stable for organic dairy producers, who tend to lock into yearlong milk contracts, those prices have not kept up with increasing costs, particularly when it comes to feed prices.

  • September 23, 2008
    Law offers cash to smooth shift to organic farms DesMoinesRegister.com -
    Des Moines, IA, USA
    The new farm bill could help feed America's appetite for organic food by enticing more farmers to switch from conventional agriculture. The bill offers farmers as much as $20,000 a year to cover the cost of converting their farms to organic agriculture.

  • September 12, 2008
    Foxboro dairy farm
    sells its milk raw
    Providence Journal,
    Providence, RI
    NOFA is promoting raw milk from organically kept cows. Agriculture and health officials in MA and CT allow the sale of raw milk, produced under strict regulations for purity. However, the sale of raw milk in Rhode Island is prohibited, except to feed pets and farm animals.

  • September 12, 2008
    Organic has lower carbon imprint: BFA
    Farm Weekly, Western Australia, Australia
    People who consume organic food are a carbon-step ahead, according to the Biological Farmers of Australia, which says those eat organic are almost half a tread lighter than their non-organic counterparts.

  • September 9, 2008
    Organic supply squeeze tightens
    Food Navigator, USA
    Farmers in the US are being forced to leave the organic market because it is too costly, compounding supply shortages already faced by food manufacturers, according to a new report


  • August 15, 2008
    Getting Paid for How You Farm     The new farm bill's conservation programs help growers farming their land rather than those setting it idle.

  • August 8, 2008
    Can Cattle Save Us From Global Warming?
    A small band of activists and scientists believe that farming done the right way can remove carbon from the atmosphere.

  • August 6, 2008
    With a focus on flavor, organic dairy finds a productive niche
    Seattle Post Intelligencer
    The milk from the grazing cows might taste a little different here at Fresh Breeze Organic Dairy. And customers - here's the unusual part for modern-day consumers - also might taste the difference.

April 5
Feed supply, costs squeeze organic livestock farmers
DesMoines Register, IA

April 2: Some Good News on Food Prices
The New York Times
Higher costs for staple foods could spark a national conversation about why inexpensive food is not really such a bargain after all.

April 1: Growing organic crops is complicated balancing act
Agri-News, MN and IA

March 27: How Green Is Organic Milk?
Fox News

March 20: Milking it
Chico News & Review
Each day, the business produces more than 12000 gallons of certified organic milk, which is sold and packaged by Humboldt Creamery. ...

March 19: When Big Business Eats Organic
New York Times Blogs
Does your purchase of organic milk conjure up images of happy cows? Do you buy brands like Nature’s Farm and Nantucket Nectars because you want to support ...

March 9
The Feed: Fighting on a Battlefield the Size of a Milk Label
New York Times

FEB 26, 2008: Organic Trade Association Opposes Utah's Proposed Action on Dairy ... Earthtimes - London, UK. "This rule prevents organic dairy farmers and processors from truthfully communicating with retailers and consumers regarding federally regulated organic ..."

FEB. 26, 2008: Aurora Organic Milk Class-Action Suits to Be Heard in St. Louis AZ Central.com - AZ, USA. The plaintiffs say Aurora claimed its milk was organic after willfully violating federal certification requirements. The USDA notified Aurora last April ...

FEB. 24, 2008: Speaker at organic farming conference derides corporate agriculture La Crosse Tribune

FEB. 22, 2008: Organic producers struggle to keep pace with rising demand La Crosse Tribune - La Crosse,WI,USA. Organic Valley last month saw a 17 percent jump in the amount of milk it bottled — in just one week, said Wayne Peters, president of Organic Valley’s board ...

FEB. 7: On The Bright Side: Milford milk wins national award

FEB 14: Dean Foods CEO sees organic milk prices increasing

FEB 19: Organic dairying just keeps on growing

FEB 20: The dairies are half-pint, but the flavor isn’t

JAN 22, 2008: Cost crises compounds organic milk lull

Fierce responses to FDA cloning safety report

Pa. backs off milk-label change
01/17/08

Local organic dairy earns national award. Owners surprised by early recognition
01/17/08

Health care costs slamming farm families Study finds new measures needed to control costs Cheryl Tevis Successful Farming magazine Farm Issues Editor
12/19/07

The Way We Live Now Our Decrepit Food Factories
12/16/07

If It's Fresh and Local, Is It Always Greener?
12/09/07

Long term fears over New Zealand dairy costs
12/05/07

Farmers wage war over milk hormone
12/05/07

Shamrock Farms milks success against competitors
11/30/07

PA dairy label rule shelved
11/28/07

Price And Credibility Barriers To Buying Organic
11/21/07

Consumers Won’t Know What They’re Missing
But the same argument could be made about organic milk. He also argues that absence labels such as "no artificial hormones" suggest that products without ...
11/11/07

Organic milk may help babies beat allergies
11/11/07

If the eaters make themselves heard, we might end up with something that looks less like a farm bill and more like the food bill a poorly fed

 

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