typical.

Horizon got into trouble for the same thing.

Now I buy local milk. I can go see what they're doing if there's any question. Most dairies in Oklahoma use organic methods but are so small they can't afford the fees to sign up as USDA organic. The irony.

wow. ugh. i can't say it's unexpected though.

but it is unexpected. i do expect people and companies to tell the truth. as much as i know this is a naive hope, i can't give it up. and i remain repulsed by news like this. tho i know what you mean. it is sadly very common, greed and profit over truth.

Nez, it is very difficult to produce a genuine organic product. Many companies do make the effort and succeed. But I have noticed that the big box stores seem to have an awful lot of organic items and their prices are lower than I have seen before. Suspiciously low prices.
When I was 16 {1968} I worked in a factory that produced various health food products in Edison NJ. The stories I could tell about that place!
Ever since, I am extremely cautious about labels, claims and certifications.
As for the FDA and the USDA watching out for the food supply, they actually do a very small part of what the public thinks they do. They just do not have the staff.
Very large operations do get inspected more than very small operations, and the biggest places have inspectors there all the time. This pertains to organic and non-organic producers.
Well, enough for today. Best to keep in touch with others who live near the places you buy from. They can go check for you. Sounds strange I know, but it works.
Expect many many more cases like Aurora. There is just far too much product on the market for even 20% of it to be truly organic, even under the new sickly relaxed USDA rules.

i understand it isnt easy. but bullshitting their way through the certification process in any way isn't because of anything but greed. they want to maximize profits, of course. and the big places should get inspected more than smaller places to my mind, because they are more likely to be cutting corners, it is possible that helped them get big in the first place. like you say suspiciously low prices is evidence of a corner being cut somewhere.

i dont know about farm or USDA inspectors. i was a NYSDOH inspector. and i know only the newbies want to be citing violations left and right. the seasoned inspectors know what they can let go and what not to. so if they got written up for ten violations and they are one of the biggest "Organically" certified companies, then really I don't have tons of sympathy for them. i'm very strict in my mind about food and the environment and our bodies, etc. and LIES! sick of 'em.

i also worked at a dairy farm when i was a teenager...we had inspectors there all the time. but i could tell you stories anyway about what went on there.

anyway its not so much about what i'm eating now. the principle really annoys me. i actually buy locally grown stuff which is easy here. so i'm not worried so much about the dairy i'm stocking my house with.

thanks for the education. i do hope more busts come out.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... it's not just organic labeling.

The USDA (BushCo/Monsanto) is steadily lobbying *against* "absence labeling." Do you want to know if your milk comes from hormone free cows? Apparently they claim it "confuses consumers" when you label milk "hormone free."

They really have our best interests in mind... yeah right!

This is really upsetting -- mi esposa has been buying the Costco (Kirkland) organic moo juice, and I know she'll be as troubled by this as I am.

Can anyone comment on what is required of a dairy in order to be "certified organic" by the USDA? Is the standard high, or low?

mister t, that is highly disturbing. and yeah, it "confuses" customers to be informed....or at least the customer-cow they are trying to make of us. where we just shuffle down a long line, pay our cash, and take our goods and never look up.

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tomás, i hear you. i hate learning of these things. i mean, i'm glad to know. but i hate it whenever i hear it.

The standards have recently been lowered. The certifications by the USDA are lax. Certifications by private organizations {some, not all of them} are stricter.

All of the info can be found on line.

Nez, I forgot that you were an inspector for New York State. You wrote about that before.

When I said it was not easy to comply, I meant it. But I did not mean {as we say in PR} Ay Bendito! The poor corporation! The government was persecuting them! They were working so hard and they needed to get a break! No, they were cheating the public so screw them. They should be in bankruptcy already and the fact that they are not is proof enough that the government and the big box bunch are questionable locations for organic purchases.

What I meant was that because it is so hard to produce really organic items {and expensive} the sheer volume of them that are now on the market is almost certainly an indication of fraud somewhere.

And because the stuff sells at a premium and because there are so many great ways to cheat, it has to be going on.

If I were in the states I would be out checking up on the big places, sneaking around, asking the workers what is really happening there. I mean at the farms and processors, not the stores.

I bet someone is doing that because my organic co-op days go back to 1970 in Manhattan and we did do that upstate.

I can still remember what a thrill it was to buy 50 pound bags of organic soybeans direct from the farmers.

I will be paying attention to this topic more at your site and others. Soon I will have to decide if I will go through the expense of certification or not.

I probably will not, as production is very small and my customers are my friends.

They will have to just show up when I am spraying soap and check on me while they buy their veggies.

But not every farm can work that way. BTW, I do not compete with the big box boys, we are too isolated and in fact I have NO competition.

But growing organically is STILL very difficult. However, for the last 50 years it is the only way I have ever gardened or farmed. I did work with hydroponics on occasion, but have not been impressed.

Thanks for the tip. Every time I pick up a product for twice what it would otherwise cost, I wonder if I'm a chump. This kind of news-spreading is the only way we'll know.