Private-label, or store-brand, dairy products rated with one cow
are sold by grocers or distributors who have the obvious desire of
wanting to grow their presence in the organic marketplace.
Unfortunately, there is an inherent limitation in private-label organic
products: organic consumers tend to want to know where their food is
coming from and how it is produced, and private-label products are
anonymous by their nature. As a case in point, although over 80% of the
name-brand organic dairy marketers responded to our survey and are
rated in this report, not one of the private-label marketers was
willing to tell consumers, openly, where its organic milk was
purchased.
Even though none of the one cow–rated brands responded to
our survey request, we were able to determine that these brands were,
at the time of our research, buying some or all of their organic milk
from factory-farm sources. We conducted our research in this area
through interviews with a number of industry sources and through
federally maintained records
Many of these grocery chains have very little past experience in
marketing organic food. Making organics more convenient and affordable
to consumers is a laudable goal. We operate on the assumption that many
of these marketing entities were unaware of the five-year-long
controversy concerning factory farms producing "organic" milk, and that
they entered into contractual agreements in good faith. Some of the
inaccurate and misleading claims or images made in their labeling are
likely just rhetoric that the factory-farm suppliers of milk passed on
to them.
We hope that these organizations will make immediate plans to switch
milk suppliers. Staff at The Cornucopia Institute will be happy to help
them connect with potential family-farm producers and assist them in
crafting a message to their customers. It would be unreasonable to
expect that they could instantly change suppliers in a very tight
supply market. But announcing a plan to phase out milk from ethically
questionable sources would be an excellent start.
So the bottom line to private-label organic products, whether a
dairy item or any other commodity, is "buyer beware." We encourage
consumers to be vigilant and contact stores to confirm who is supplying
their private-label milk, or to just pay an extra quarter or two for
name-brand milk from farmers and brands that are willing to be open
with them and who share their values. Based on the plant code their milk is bottled at the Aurora Dairy plant in Platteville, Colorado
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