Why thinking consumers boycott products from Organic Valley due to its egregious business practices against member farms that border on modern feudalism.
In a very quiet decision that received little media attention even within the natural foods industry, the board of directors of Organic Valley recently voted 4-3 to ban the farmers which make up its 1600 small farm cooperative from selling raw milk to consumers on the side.
The company cited legal concerns and complaints from farmers regarding competition as its reasons for the decision. This is sheer and utter nonsense and a perfect example of corporate smoke and mirrors. The attorneys for Organic Valley even admit that the legal issues are nothing to worry about in actuality.
And, the competition issue? It’s not farmers complaining about competition that is the true worry for Organic Valley.
The truth is the company is terrified of the surging popularity of raw milk. Â This market trend combined with an increasingly savvy and informed consumer that is rapidly moving away from processed milk and back to the “fresh from the farm” variety threatens to affect company profits over the long haul.
Indeed, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the dangers of pasteurization, particularly ultra pasteurization, the type of milk processing favored by Organic Valley for its Grade A milk.
With this knowledge, consumers are seeking out farmers directly for their fresh dairy which ultimately threatens to stagnate profit growth for Organic Valley if this type of trend continues (all indications are that it will).
In an attempt to strangle the competition, protect its source of supply and handcuff its farmers from making revenue elsewhere, Organic Valley has chosen the “bully the farmer” approach to managing its small farm cooperative. The company has now become more like the mega-dairy processors it claims to abhor who make a habit of pushing farmers around to line the pockets of its own executives and to aggressively protect their market interests.
Boycott All Organic Valley Products!
Organic Valley has shown its true colors with this decision.
Taking a step in this direction indicates a basic company disregard and disrespect for farmer independence and consumer choice.
Forbidding what a farmer does with his time and product outside of his contract with Organic Valley is a blow below the belt and just plain wrong.
Direct sales to the consumer are one of the smartest business decisions a small farmer can make to keep his operation profitable. Â Â Forbidding this type of activity threatens the economic sustainability of its small farms, ironically one of Organic Valley’s stated goals.
Such an outrageous and hypocritical corporate decision requires swift and decisive action on the part of the consumer.
For my part, I will no longer be buying any Organic Valley products.
I never did buy their milk, but I will no longer buy their cheese, butter, or other dairy items either.
I hope you will join me in a boycott of this company that pretends to be a friend of the environment, farmers, and consumers but is nothing short of a wolf in sheep’s clothing to the sustainable and local family farm movement.
Organic Valley’s business practices are simply a modern form of feudalism that benefits the nobles and squashes the peasants.
I’m with you, Sarah. No more Organic Valley products for me (or Stoneybrook) – they’ve gone over to the DARK side. Clover and Strauss are the only brands I can still find locally that do not ultra-pasteurize their half and half! Ultra-pasteurization is truly DEAD and not even food in my book. Raw milk is alive and wonderful. Find it if you can!
Is this policy still in effect today? I hadn’t heard of this until now. As a fan of raw dairy I am opposed to Organic Valley banning their dairy farmers from using their already-existing herds and farms to provide raw milk to consumers on the side. If they’re still doing this I’ll be glad to share this and encourage others to boycott them as well. I’m used to seeing the dairy industry try to throw its weight around to crush competition from raw milk sales, but I did not expect to see it come from Organic Valley.
did not mean to include the link in last comment.
Karissa Pearson added some key information to this debate. And I think it calls for serious consideration -even if… and especially if, you have already taken a stance.
This bears repeating: (I have added my words in parenthesis)
“Organic Valley does not completely ban their farmers from selling raw milk. If an OV farmer has a passion for raw milk, he (or she) can start up a separate herd at a separate location and sell raw milk. As long as there is no affiliation with OV and no mixing of the herds or cross-contamination with the milk, the farmer has every ability to do that. Organic Valley is not against raw milk but is working to protect its reputation and the reputations of its farmers. If someone got sick drinking raw milk affiliated with an OV farm, sales would plummet, even sales of pasteurized milk—because uninformed consumers are scared. Since Organic Valley gives such a high percent of its overhead back to the farmers, the small farms WOULD suffer. – See more at: https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/call-to-action-boycott-organic-valley/#sthash.AsWBmRNN.dpuf
This fact changes the entire question for me. I’m not clear why it doesn’t at least give others serious pause.
FWIW my goals -I think -are similar to most here; I am a staunch environmental, animal and human rights activist and generally very much pro boycott as a tool to effect change. I support taking actions to encourage bringing democracy back to ‘the people’, to break up the monopolies of power so that real competition in the market can occur, and most importantly to support the growth of a truly humane, fair trade and environmentally sustainable business infrastructure…all goals we have a long way to go on. That said I am also a realist and recognize that in some cases…. and i think this falls into this category-it can be more harmful to penalize that what is relatively quite good in the name of the absolutely perfect….(the perfect, in this case would be a food system dominated by local small organic farms rather than the factory farms and mass production we now have wherein laws to regulate sanitation of products could safely be weakened…and the very real threats to livelihood, sales, reputation and law suits, currently faced by co-ops like OV would be very much much less likely) That’s the ultimate vision
In the meantime, there are too few coops which still buck the norm of the modern food production system so I want to go out of my way take care that I am not harming such businesses potential to stay afloat especially if the complaint can be addressed in another way.. or looked at in another light In this case, that “other light” is that framers are free to sell raw milk, and consumers have access given the stipulations listed in the above, and that the democratically elected board- NOT owned by a multi-national- can decide to vote to change these parameters if they so desire. If the majority wants it. I ‘d rather send my comments to the board AND co-op members and then leave the members to work out and change their own rules than penalize them by a boycott. Cause right now, that boycott would probably do more harm than good to the ultimate goal of growing more smalls farming business.
Of note too, comparing this situation to the artist/art gallery scenario is s a faulty analogy. In the artists scenario, there is no chance that someone purchasing an art piece from an artist selling both through a gallery, as well as on the side -could then go home and upon putting the piece it on the wall, fall ill, or have bodily injury, as is the very real concern in the raw milk scenario when production does not takes place with the kind of oversight needed to assure non contamination ( and which OV evidently doesnt feel it is equipped to do at the level that could assure 100% safety of their supply). The closest possible flukey analogy I can imagine would be if a piece of art that is made of sharp materials fell apart as the consumer was mounting it, cutting them and at worst requiring stitches, but obviously the odds of this happening are far more remote and even more remote is the possibility that the injury would be so big as to cause serious suffering or hospitalization…which raw milk contamination could do. There is thus no chance that it would impact the reputation or sales of the gallery owner, nor the reputation or sales of other individual artists that rely on the gallery to get their work seen by the public. It would only impact the sales and reputation of the person who made that piece of art.. wheras in the case of Organic Valley which-gives such a high percent of its overhead back to the farmers, the small farms WOULD suffer as well as the brand itself when the media got ofs hands on a case of contamination.
So you are boycotting a cooperative of farmers which will negatively impact the income of these farmers, causing some to reconsider their choice of livelihood. That’s not exactly well thought out. Watching farmers go out of business is the logical result of your actions.
This is how business is conducted. People sign exclusive agreements so that they can make a decent living in an otherwise unstable business. This boycott is dubious. You’re hurting the very people you claim to support.
And I assure you, the following statement from the post is simply inaccurate:
“Direct sales to the consumer is one of the smartest business decisions a small farmer can make to keep his operation profitable. Forbidding this type of activity threatens the economic sustainability of its small farms, ironically one of Organic Valley’s stated goals.”
If you think that direct sales to a small number of consumer is a smart business decision over choosing to have an exclusive agreement to sell a large and stable quantity of milk to a company, you are just wrong. It sounds nice, but it’s wrong.
And forbidding this activity does not “threaten the economic sustainability of small farms” that have agreements with Organic Valley. This is a ridiculous statement. How would selling a bit of raw milk to some local residents threaten the economic sustainability of a small farm? It wouldn’t. Small farms aren’t in urban areas. There generally aren’t tons of residents in the area waiting in line to buy vast quantities of milk.
Think, people. Think. Your actions are hurting the wrong people.
I’d just like to weigh in here as an Organic Valley 4th generation farmer who is also a raw milk advocate. Raw milk is absolutely the best and should be the only way people drink milk. In a perfect world, everyone would have their own cow or have access to raw milk, but in our day and age, that is not yet possible. Y’all are fighting the wrong battle, folks. The focus should be on changing the raw milk rules and regulations at the state and federal level, not targeting a farmer owned and operated co-op that is looking out for the best interest of its farmers.
When we joined with OV back in the nineties, the 30+ dairies in our little valley were slowly dwindling away. The three dairies here that decided to jump on board with OV are the only remaining ones today. For most small family dairies, it’s grow big or go out of business. OV provides a way to stay small and sustainable, yet still make a living that can support a family, and sometimes more. Our herd is considered small at 200, but we are able to support six families.
What hasn’t been said yet is that Organic Valley does not completely ban their farmers from selling raw milk. If an OV farmer has a passion for raw milk, he can start up a separate herd at a separate location and sell raw milk. As long as there is no affiliation with OV and no mixing of the herds or cross-contamination with the milk, the farmer has every ability to do that. Organic Valley is not against raw milk but is working to protect its reputation and the reputations of its farmers. If someone got sick drinking raw milk affiliated with an OV farm, sales would plummet, even sales of pasteurized milk–because uninformed consumers are scared. Since Organic Valley gives such a high percent of its overhead back to the farmers, the small farms WOULD suffer.
As has been said before, the more cows on the dairy with milk going into the bulk milk tank, the more variables there are and the harder it is to regulate and keep things clean. The best model for raw milk is more very small dairies (less than 10 cows) rather than dairies of 100+ cows who follow regulations for pasteurized milk but try to sell raw milk on the side. Models like that are going to cause more sickness and misconceptions about raw milk and they would end up being the death of the raw milk revolution.
In short, Organic Valley is a great organization that has saved hundreds of family farms and a boycott against us is only going to succeed in hurting some small farms, NOT bring about change in the raw milk arena.
THANK YOU!!! For speaking out! It’s because of Organic Valley Farms that I can now stop buying grocery stores’ private-label and huge corporations products, that I’m sure comes from a horrible factory farms!! I can by raw milk from a small farm 20 minutes from my home if I choose also. Because of the inhumane treatment of livestock going on in the world, I have cut my consumption in half, searched organic choices, paid way more money to help the family farmer and even considered becoming totally Vegan.
Karissa, I recently read horrific info on what’s in mainstream milk. I’ve been using OV heavy cream for several years and got my health food store to stock it. Aren’t you all much more careful with the health of your cows and what’s in the milk? It’s stomach turning but I love my cream and use several pints a week in coffee, bone broth, cream of chicken soup, coconut flour baking. I’d have to have a couple cows just for MY cream use. In fact, I found this discussion looking for complaints on how OV cows and milk are handled. Thanks a million!
Although I am from Canada I would not participate in the boycott nor would I buy raw milk from an OV producer at the farm. Something not discussed is the difference between raw milk and prepasteurized (milk produced to be pasteurized) milk. Raw milk needs to be produced for raw and tested as such -t is incredibly different.I have been sickened by prepasteurized and almost blinded when a churn full of bacteria exploded. I drink raw milk produced to be raw and am off very serious drugs. Something to think about…
How can you drink raw milk, since it is completely illegal to sell in Canada? Perhaps you have a dairy? Just curious…
Hey, I just read this. Are they OK now? I can’t get “straight from the farm” so I buy Organic Valley. I will choose another option if they haven’t made good yet. I don’t want to support a farm that bullies small farmers. Let me know please.
these farmers probably have some sort of contract with Organic Valley, so these requests are not really that ridiculous. Organic Valley gives these farms the opportunity to share their wonderful organic/local products with a larger audience.
I just dont understand your complaints.
Thanks, Sir Albert. I appreciate your perspective and you have fully convinced me.