Demand GMO Free Foods! {How I Almost Got into a Fistfight with the Organic Valley Rep}

Demand GMO Free Foods!  {How I Almost Got into a Fistfight with the Organic Valley Rep}

Guest post by Joanie Blaxter, founder of Follow Your Gut.  Before you read Joanie's story, you may first want to read a basic GMO definition here.

You've probably heard of Natural Products Expo West. It's the biggest show of its kind in the industry (over 60,000 attendees) and is held annually in Anaheim.

And, yeah, it was right there on the red-carpeted aisle in front of the Organic Valley booth.

I didn't mean to make her so mad. I just wanted an answer that made sense…

Organic Valley has always had a place near and dear to my heart. First of all, it is cooperatively owned by the suppliers, which means, hopefully, more of the profits are returned to the ones who need it the most – the farmer owners.

Second, they have a long track record of requiring humane animal treatment in order to be a member of their cooperative. They pioneered the field long, long before consumers knew enough to care, and before the subject became a media soundbite.

But you know what they say about ideals co-existing alongside money…

Financially, Organic Valley has succeeded exponentially since it began in 1988. Organic Valley's (pasteurized) dairy products, eggs and meat (under the Organic Prairie label) can now be found in virtually every natural foods store in this country and the cooperative currently processes milk from over 1,600 dairies.

Because the demand for raw milk has been slowly but steadily climbing since about the mid-90's, and because most states require that the consumer come to the farm to purchase their raw milk on site, a growing number of Organic Valley dairies began supplementing their income with raw milk sales on the side.

God knows dairy farmers, in particular, can use all the financial help they can get. For example, in 2009, due to a sharp increase in the price of feed, this country lost a staggering 1 out of every 3 dairy producers.

In that economic climate, developing a supplemental income from raw milk customers could very possibly mean the difference between being able to remain in the dairy farm business another year versus declaring bankruptcy.

Raw milk sells direct to the consumer for $5 to $10 per gallon when Organic Valley pays about $1.50.

Then, in May of the very next year, 2010, Organic Valley voted to give their milk producers an ultimatum: either cease your side business of raw milk or lose your contract with, and membership in, the Organic Valley cooperative.

About six months after that directive was issued, I was at the big Natural Products show in Anaheim and detoured over to the Organic Valley booth to ask why on earth the co-operative would care if a small percentage of their suppliers (estimated to be only about 10%) had a business on the side selling raw milk?

Apparently the question was too hot for the folks covering the front, so a member of their board was brought forward.

She told me about what a hard decision it was, etc., etc., masterfully avoiding answering my question.  So I asked again, and this time, she said that some producers, on occasion, couldn't fulfill their contract to Organic Valley because the milk had been diverted to the farm's raw milk consumers.

Understood, I said. So you end the membership of those who don't meet their legal obligations to the cooperative. But why penalize all the other farmer members who did fulfill their contractual commitment and were still forced to choose between either their raw milk sales and customers, or the income generated by their Organic Valley contract?

That's when I thought she was going to either hit me or spit on me.

Instead, though, she turned on her heel and refused to speak with me any further. So I never got an answer.

Organic Valley Confronts Its Most Serious Crisis Ever

And now, once again, Organic Valley is under fire, this time for being a member of the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), a trade group that is suing Vermont to overturn that state’s GMO labeling law.

Stonyfield has done the right thing. On December 5, 2014, Stonyfield resigned from the IDFA.

That leaves:  Organic Valley, White Wave/Horizon Organic, and Aurora Organic Dairy, which, as far as we know, are all still dues-paying members of the anti-labeling, anti-consumer IDFA.

Maybe that will change if they hear from thousands of loyal customers who won’t be so loyal anymore… unless their favorite organic dairy companies start supporting consumers instead of Monsanto and Big Food.

From having been in this industry all my life I know that the biggest pressure comes from what the consumer says at the store level.

The next time you're shopping, be sure to tell both the staff person who stocks the dairy case AND the cashier at the register that you are now refusing to buy (fill in the blank – Organic Valley, White Wave, Horizon, Aurora) since those companies are members of an organization that is suing Vermont to kill their GMO label law.

The most important thing to emphasize is the brand you are refusing to buy. Lost sales mean everything to a buyer. As a way to demand GMO free foods, ask this…

Does your store carry an organic label that provides no support to the GMO industry?

That'll get 'em thinkin! It also will signal that your dollars will be withheld from any company that is in any way anti-consumer, anti-label and pro-GMO – regardless of whether or not they produce an organic product.

It's not the product they produce that counts. It's what the company does with the money they make off of you and me, the consumer, that ultimately matters.

Click here to TAKE ACTION to demand GMO free foods: Tell Organic Valley, White Wave/Horizon Organic, and Aurora Organic Dairy: Do the right thing and quit the IDFA today.

UPDATE:

Read Organic Valley's response here.

This was a guest post by my sweet friend, Joanie Blaxter.  She was the Ventura County, California chapter leader of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

photo credit, CC 2.0 — edited with permission