Growth in Organic Dairies Tests Supply of Organic Feed

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- It comes as no surprise to anyone that the number of organic farms is booming to meet consumer demand for healthy food. In Washington, a state known more for its apples than any other crop, there are 45 organic dairies. Five years ago, there were just two.

Acreage of organic forage, such as hay and alfalfa, has grown 40 percent in the past two years, yet isn't keeping pace with demand. In particular, high-protein crops like soybeans that are necessary feed for dairy cows are in short supply in some regions, forcing some companies to import them from as far away as China.

Given the recent problems with food and ingredient imports from China, in which a slew of products have been turned away by U.S. inspectors amid claims they are tainted, one might wonder if organic feed is actually organic.

"That's a legitimate concern. We do have organic standards, which apply even to producers overseas if they want certification," said Bill Freese, the Center for Food Safety's science policy analyst in Washington D.C. "But I think the oversight of organic standards to be sure there's compliance is generally better in the United States than overseas."

Organic products are grown without pesticides, fertilizer, hormones or antibiotics. They make up only a small slice, about 3 percent, of the nation's food market, but increasing demand is pushing more farmers to make the switch in hopes of higher returns.

Dairy farmers are no exception. Demand for consumer organic dairy products has grown by more than 20 percent each year, a trend that is expected to continue at least in the near term.

The federal government also encouraged conventional dairy farmers to convert to organic operations by easing organic certification to reduce feed costs. Under a federal rule, the farmers could feed their cows 20 percent conventional feed, which is less expensive, in the first nine months of operation. However, the rule expires June 9, and dairies across the country made the switch to beat the clock.

"So many people came on board at once, and the system didn't know they were all going to go on board," said Lynn Clarkson, board member of the national Organic Trade Association and president of Clarkson Grain Co. in Cerro Gordo, Ill. "You have to start with feed a year ahead of time or you're not going to have it."

Clarkson estimated that demand for organic feed is growing 20 percent each year, while U.S. production of organic row crops, such as corn and other feed, is growing only by as much as 4 percent.

Add in the "ethanol tsunami" that is encouraging more farmers to grow corn for biofuel rather than feed, he said, and the shortage could continue for organic growers "for a long time."

Shannon Andrews, a Portland, Ore., feed ingredient trader for San Francisco-based agricultural commodities distributor Wilbur-Ellis Co., said she, too, can't meet demand.

"I have customers that are looking for six railcars a month of corn, and I can't get that quantity coming from anywhere in the U.S.," she said, adding that the harder-to-find, high-protein feed is coming from China and other countries because "it's where you can get it."

Imports from China have come under increasing scrutiny amid a series of scandals concerning tainted or unsafe food, medicines and other Chinese exports. Products that have been banned or turned away by U.S. inspectors include wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine that has been blamed for dog and cat deaths in North America, and monkfish that turned out to be toxic pufferfish.

Soybeans are among the highest protein crop for feed when ground into soymeal. The United States is the world's largest producer of soybeans. China is fourth, but is a net importer as well, much of it coming from the U.S. in the form of genetically-modified soybeans.

Wilbur-Ellis in Portland imports about 120 tons of organic soymeal from China each month, or roughly enough to feed 2,000 cows. But Andrews stressed the feed is tested and certified organic.

"Every single load that we do is tested up to FDA regulations. Every single container that comes in is tested," she said. "We don't have any worries on that."

Others raise questions about the viability of such tests when so many other unsafe products from China have slipped into the country.

"I think the concerns should be for real. You have to wonder what organic means in China. It's certified, but how credible is the process there?" asked David Granatstein, Washington State University sustainable agriculture specialist.

In the Northwest, shipping feed from the Pacific Rim can cost about the same as hauling it by freight from the Midwest.

Jay Gordon, a dairy farmer and executive director of the Washington Dairy Federation, believes more feed crops need to be planted to meet local demand. He grows sunflower, canola, and safflower on 700 acres in western Washington's Chehalis Valley to feed his 104 organic cows.

The price for conventional canola meal runs between $150 and $170 per ton, while organic prices can reach $480 per ton. Crop farmers should recognize the potential in organics, he said.

"There's a lot of dairies that have decided they would not be in the business if not for organic," Gordon said. "This is a nice niche that's fit well for dairy farming. We just have to go talk to our crop farmers."

Agriculture officials in Washington state have already taken notice. State officials held two seminars in the spring to encourage more farmers to become certified as organic growers, including Jim Arvidson, a hay grower in Sunnyside, Wash.

"You lose some production because of the lack of ability to use commercial fertilizer or maintain weeds the way I normally would," Arvidson said. But at the same time, he said, "There's probably a 25 percent, maybe 30 percent increase for the organic feed. It's good."

I'm yet unaware of un-organic cows or feed. ...haven't seen plastic cows, feed, fertilizer, or anything like that.

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :


  Organic \Or*gan"ic\ ([^o]r*g[a^]n"[i^]k), a. [L. organicus, Gr.
     'organiko`s: cf. F. organique.]
     1. (Biol.) Of or pertaining to an organ or its functions, or
        to objects composed of organs; consisting of organs, or
        containing them; as, the organic structure of animals and
        plants; exhibiting characters peculiar to living
        organisms; as, organic bodies, organic life, organic
        remains. Cf. Inorganic.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Produced by the organs; as, organic pleasure. [R.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Instrumental; acting as instruments of nature or of art to
        a certain destined function or end. [R.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Those organic arts which enable men to discourse and
              write perspicuously.                  --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Forming a whole composed of organs. Hence: Of or
        pertaining to a system of organs; inherent in, or
        resulting from, a certain organization; as, an organic
        government; his love of truth was not inculcated, but
        organic.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. (Chem.) Of or pertaining to compounds which are
        derivatives of hydrocarbons; pertaining to, or denoting,
        any one of a large series of carbon-containing compounds
        which are related to the carbon compounds produced by
        biological processes (such as methane, oils, fats, sugars,
        alcohols, ethers, proteins, etc.) and include many
        substances of artificial production which may or may not
        occur in animals or plants; -- contrasted with
        inorganic.
  
     Note: Borderline cases exist which may be classified as
           either organic or inorganic, such as carbon
           terachloride (which may be viewed as a derivative of
           methane), but in general a compound must have a carbon
           with a hydrogen atom or another carbon atom attached to
           it to be viewed as truly organic, i.e. included in the
           subject matter of organic chemistry.
           [1913 Webster +PJC]
  
     Note: The principles of organic and inorganic chemistry are
           identical; but the enormous number and the completeness
           of related series of organic compounds, together with
           their remarkable facility of exchange and substitution,
           offer an illustration of chemical reaction and homology
           not to be paralleled in inorganic chemistry.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     Organic analysis (Chem.), the analysis of organic
        compounds, concerned chiefly with the determination of
        carbon as carbon dioxide, hydrogen as water, oxygen as the
        difference between the sum of the others and 100 per cent,
        and nitrogen as free nitrogen, ammonia, or nitric oxide;
        -- formerly called ultimate analysis, in distinction from
        proximate analysis.
  
     Organic chemistry. See under Chemistry.
  
     Organic compounds. (Chem.) Chemical substances which are
        organic[5]. See Carbon compounds, under Carbon.
  
     Organic description of a curve (Geom.), the description of
        a curve on a plane by means of instruments. --Brande & C.
  
     Organic disease (Med.), a disease attended with morbid
        changes in the structure of the organs of the body or in
        the composition of its fluids; -- opposed to functional

        disease.
  
     Organic electricity. See under Electricity.
  
     Organic law or Organic laws, a law or system of laws, or
        declaration of principles fundamental to the existence and
        organization of a political or other association; a
        constitution.
  
     Organic stricture (Med.), a contraction of one of the
        natural passages of the body produced by structural
        changes in its walls, as distinguished from a spasmodic
        stricture, which is due to muscular contraction.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :


  integrated \integrated\ adj.
     1. Formed or united into a whole.
  
     Syn: incorporate, incorporated, merged, unified.
          [WordNet 1.5]
  
     2. Formed into a whole or introduced into another entity; as,
        an integrated Europe. Opposite of nonintegrated.
        [Narrower terms: coordinated, interconnected,
        unified; embedded; incorporated; tight-knit,
        tightly knit]
  
              a more closely integrated economic and political
              system                                --Dwight D.
                                                    Eisenhower
        [WordNet 1.5]
  
     3. Having different groups treated together as equals in one
        group; as, racially integrated schools. [Narrower terms:
        co-ed, coeducational; desegrated, nonsegregated,

        unsegregated; interracial; mainstreamed] Also See:
        integrative, joint, united. Antonym: segregated.
        [WordNet 1.5 +PJC]
  
     4. Resembling a living organism in organization or
        development. [Narrower terms: organic (vs. inorganic)]
  
     Syn: structured.
          [WordNet 1.5]
  
     5. combined. Opposite of uncombined.
        [WordNet 1.5 +PJC]
  
     6. having constituent parts mixed to form a single unit.
        Opposite of unmixed. [Narrower terms: blended[2]]
  
     Syn: amalgamated, intermingled, mixed.
          [WordNet 1.5 +PJC]

You got that right. The so called “Organic”food is a lot less healthier than The stuff animals and plants that are grown with the pest control stuff.

Two examples. Free range chickens - they roam out in the barnyard and mingle with infected birds, get sick and infect the flock. Be sure an throughly cook these free range chickens. OTOH - the Tyson type chickens are rasied in a tightly sealed and sterilized coops. Air is filtered and no varmints are allowed inside. If a chicken gets sick it is quickly removed. Constant testing goes on.

Celery Natural celery that is attached by both pests and fungus etc. What it does is naturally generate internal toxins ti fight off the bacteria, pests and etc. Those toxins are much more harmful than all the washed of pesticides and fertilizers.

“Organic” is not healthy. I could go on......

I am not a “hippy”, although I do wear “patchouli oil” occasionally just because I like it and I do buy some organic foods, especially dairy products and some produce because I prefer the taste and I like having the choice.

I do agree that pesticides, chemical fertilizers, hormones and such have increased food production and fed a lot more people. It enables “agri-businesses” to grow more crops with less acreage and raise more cows, pigs and chickens and bring them to market faster. For example, hormones make the animals grow faster and make cows give more milk. But is that as Nature intended and is it good for us in the long run?

There are some downsides. For one, the traditional family farm can’t compete with the big scale agri-corporations or with farmers in places like China where “melamine” and God knows what else, is perfectly OK as a food additive. And some studies suggest that the hormones given to cows passes on to humans and “may” cause premature puberty and other health problems like cancer, although that theory has yet to be proven conclusively.

There is also a theory that the increase of people with serious allergies to all types of things that people didn’t used to be allergic to, like peanuts and the so called “super bugs”; bacteria and viruses that are now drug resistant, is because we are in essence, “too clean”. Everything is “anti-bacterial” now days so when something does creep in, we have no natural defense because we’ve had no natural exposure. Ingesting a little “nature” now and then may actually be good for us.

Some people around here are virulently “anti-organic” because they think everything is organic. Yes, all elements are natural in that they are found on planet Earth but it’s the man-made combination of naturally found elements that are “synthetic”. Some are beneficial but some are not. For example, steroids are natural; our bodies produce them, but artificially injecting them in mass quantities have serious and negative effects on a person’s health because we are forcing our bodies to do something in a way that we were not designed to do. The same might be said for fruits, vegetables and animal crops.

A few years ago I changed my eating habits. I eliminated “fast food” and decreased the amount of “processed” foods and red meat I ate. I ate more fresh organic fruits and vegetables and whole grains and I lost weight, gained more energy and sleep better and I actually started looking and feeling younger.

Speaking as someone who has sold thousands of tons of alfalfa to dairies, here’s the central problem here:

The organic dairy industry simply isn’t paying what is necessary for organic feed.

The wrinkle in the USDA organic regulations that is the killer is that even the fertilizer needs to be organic. Organic fertilizers come from three sources:

- mineral deposits, like gypsum, rock phosphate, etc.
- manure (cow, chicken, turkey, etc)
- plow-down crops, like winter peas or other legumes for N

The costs associated with getting enough of any of these types of fertilizers is overwhelming unless you live next to a dairy or feedlot. For a plow-down crop, you’re talking of taking a revenue-producing field out of production for at least part of a season to grow the plow-down crop. There aren’t that many mineralized fertilizer mines in the US, and they’re usually at a great distance from where the rest of farming happens.

For example, on 250 acres of alfalfa, I can fertilize three cuttings of alfalfa (about 1300 tons of alfalfa per year) with three truckloads of liquid fertilizer (actually acid) that is injected through the irrigation machine. Expensive, but the irrigation machines have to go around and around anyway, so in terms of how readily available and how quickly/evenly it is applied, this is a great deal.

If I wanted to use manure instead of these modern liquid acid fertilizers, I would need about 180 truckloads of manure at 20% moisture per year, about 30 truckloads per cutting per field. Unless you live right next door to the source of this fertilizer, the trucking costs (about $30/ton) kill you. Then there is the cost in diesel fuel for me to spread that manure on the fields — also rather substantial.

The dairies won’t pay for these huge increases in costs of production. Dairy alfalfa here in Nevada goes on the truck at about $140 to $150/ton this year. The conventional dairies would be paying $60 to $70/ton for trucking of the alfalfa down into California or up into Washington/Idaho for that hay, so by the time conventional alfalfa gets to these dairies, they’re paying at least $200/ton.

For organic alfalfa to pencil out for us, we’d have to get at least $230/ton *here*, at the farm, for that alfalfa, Then add on the $60/ton or more for transportation to the dairy and you’re up in the $290 to $300/ton for alfalfa hay.

Suddenly, the organic dairy (who is likely charging something like $6/gallon for retail organic milk) would have to be charging $12/gallon for organic milk to pay my cost increases and still have their tidy profit margins.

I don’t see customers paying more than $10/gallon for organic milk in this universe or any other.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.