Organic Valley bans raw milk sellers- Time for a boycott?

[Katy]

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We're having a spirited discussion

 

[JamieOV]

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Hi Katy and Redhen, I can answer that question. Yes, Organic Valley is only owned by farmers, and they are the only ones with voting rights. Employees (even the CEO) work for the farmers and do not have voting rights. Here's a link about different types of cooperatives. Organic Valley falls under the Producer Co-op category: http://www.organicvalley.coop/about-us/our-cooperative/coop-month/

To the other question, each farm gets one vote, no matter how many cows they have or how much they invest in the co-op. Or if by "share" you meant what they get paid, they also each get paid the same rate for their milk as others in their region. In 2009, the OV national average was $27.48 per hundredweight, while the conventional average was $12.35.

 

[redhen]

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Hi Katy and Redhen, I can answer that question. Yes, Organic Valley is only owned by farmers, and they are the only ones with voting rights. Employees (even the CEO) work for the farmers and do not have voting rights. Here's a link about different types of cooperatives. Organic Valley falls under the Producer Co-op category: http://www.organicvalley.coop/about-us/our-cooperative/coop-month/

To the other question, each farm gets one vote, no matter how many cows they have or how much they invest in the co-op. Or if by "share" you meant what they get paid, they also each get paid the same rate for their milk as others in their region. In 2009, the OV national average was $27.48 per hundredweight, while the conventional average was $12.35.

Thanks for answering my questions..

 

[Katy]

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Hi Katy and Redhen, I can answer that question. Yes, Organic Valley is only owned by farmers, and they are the only ones with voting rights. Employees (even the CEO) work for the farmers and do not have voting rights. Here's a link about different types of cooperatives. Organic Valley falls under the Producer Co-op category: http://www.organicvalley.coop/about-us/our-cooperative/coop-month/

To the other question, each farm gets one vote, no matter how many cows they have or how much they invest in the co-op. Or if by "share" you meant what they get paid, they also each get paid the same rate for their milk as others in their region. In 2009, the OV national average was $27.48 per hundredweight, while the conventional average was $12.35.

Thanks for answering the question. We only get one vote per farm too. We get paid our dividend on how much business volume we do...both buying and selling thru them.

 

[dancingbear]

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If OV does in fact, buy 100% of the milk produced, that changes things. I was under the impression that OV was not buying all of the milk, but forbidding the sale of the leftover milk. That was what did not make any sense to me. In that case, I have to say the farmers should abide by the contract.

I understand that legally, a person is bound by a contract anyway, (if it's a legal contract) what I was objecting to was a contract that required wasting excess milk, and not allowing it to be sold. If that's not truly the case, then the issue of raw milk is irrelevant. It will probably be a pain for people to find new suppliers, but sometimes that's just how things go.

 

[greathorse]

I dont think you will get much of an argument from most of the organic producer community about the health benefits of consuming of raw milk. There does need to be a recognition of the liability of producing this product and selling it in an environment where it is either not legal or is not supported by many of the consumers, investors, packers etc etc. I don't care to speculate why there still exists such a bias regarding the consumption of raw milk, but one would need to be blind, ignorant or just careless to assume that selling it in today's climate is without risk.

I don't think the risk is in the consumption of the milk although that may have a bit of calculated risk, but the risk of something bad happening and the blame being placed on the raw milk producer is very real.

It simply does not make sense for a large producer that (let's face it) must sell in a main stream market place to be able to support the number of farmers that are involved, to be in the business of taking any kind of risk beyond the one that is inherent in selling fluid milk in the first place.

It seems it makes more sense for some small producer, such as the ownership shared programs to be the pioneers on products such as this. The organic industry certainly has (and honors) its pioneers, but some of the niche products will still need to be incubated by smaller businesses with more flexibility and not have at stake the livlihood of so many.

Someone on here step up and buy a half dozen cows start milking and see how much you can grow this raw milk product. There are a number of CSA programs right here in Colorado that have very sophisticated programs to serve almost any level of consumption.

JMO
Greathorse

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Right now, here in Ohio, the only way you can get raw milk is to either own your own cow, work for a dairy farm as a milk tech and hope they'll allow you to have milk as part of the job, or buy a share of a cow.

But even the cow shares might be coming to an end, as they're putting restrictions out the whazoo on those.

So I really think the answer for us to breeding our own heifer (which she should be old enough in a few months) and for others who have the ability to keep a dairy cow (or goat) I suggest the same.

For those who can't keep a dairy cow and want raw milk, talk to some local farmers who aren't in a co-op. Find out if raw milk sales are legal in your state, check into dairy shares, etc. etc. Move away from the co-ops that don't allow raw milk sales and support the individual local farmers of your areas.

 

[greathorse]

A lot of those who do sell raw milk sell it as pet food with a big wink, one of the few ways of getting around the legal issues.