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

[vfem]

IN all seriousness, we are off the ball a bit... this really needs to stick to being about Raw Milk if we can get back on topic. I'd hate for this to be closed especially since OV was kind enough to allow a rep to post here and give us some insight as well as allow us to speak our minds, whether for or against, and know that we were actually heard on the topic at hand.

 

[Reinbeau]

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Once again, hear, hear. Let's stick to the topic, folks. Raw milk sales.

 

[Katy]

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I don't believe everything that's in your article anymore than you believe what's in mine. Both sides can bend the facts to suit their side of the argument.

Back on topic to the raw milk issue. I can pretty well tell you that the dairymen who are in trouble with their coop for selling raw milk off farm aren't doing it because they think it's healthier....they're doing it because they can charge an arm and a leg for it to a group of people who are so paranoid about their food supply that they're willing to pay an obscene amount for it. If they were getting what they got thru the coop per gallon I would imagine that 99 out of 100 of them would not mess with doing it.

 

[Reinbeau]

I'm not paying an obscene amount for raw milk, I pay $3 a gallon. Everyone isn't out to gouge, Katy. And I'm sure some of those farmers are doing it because there is a demand and they're willing to supply it. It's the consumer who drives the market, not the government, or a coop.

 

[vfem]

I truly believe that if 10% of the farmers are selling off the farm, its for a reason... these people are not rich. Reinbeau is right though, IF I were to drive to the closest dairy (45 minutes away) its only $4 a gallon there for Raw Milk. I pay $5 a gallon for Organic Milk at Walmart! Horizon just went up to $6.

Prices are different all over the country though.... so no doubt some sellers may be asking $6-$10 a gallon somewhere else.

I really think the 10% of farmers that were doing it had good reason, most likely just to make ends meet. I would like to know, if JamieOV would be so kind to tell us... is if the co-op was 100% sticking to their end of the deal on those contracts as well?!

It is was said that some of the family farmers they buy from have as little as 10 cows. Were those the farmers who got booted because they were having affordability issues?!

 

[Wifezilla]

Back on topic to the raw milk issue. I can pretty well tell you that the dairymen who are in trouble with their coop for selling raw milk off farm aren't doing it because they think it's healthier....they're doing it because they can charge an arm and a leg for it to a group of people who are so paranoid about their food supply that they're willing to pay an obscene amount for it.

If I am willing to pay extra for something I consider to be a superior food, isn't that MY choice?

As for the grassfed study...
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=412948&highlight=grass-fed
(They claim grain-fed is healthier because grass fed has more saturated fat. Guess what? Natural saturated fat is GOOD FOR YOU!)​

 

[rancher hicks]

I don't know all the details of these organizations. However.

Suppose "Organic Valley" the organization depends on the farmers to supply enough product to stay in business? Which means 100% of the milk produced.

Now suppose some or all the farmers can sell 10, 20, 30, % raw? This means Organic Valley has less than what it needs to stay solvent. (in business, making a profit).

If 50% or more of the members have decided to make this rule than those who disagree have the "freedom" to opt out of the co-op. Right?

If 50% or more members decide not to make this rule than Organic Valley will become insolvent and go out of business. Right? There will always be the possibilty that a larger percentage of milk could be sold raw and a lower percentage sold to "Organic Valley", if this rule were not in place.

It could also mean that certain farms who do not have enough "raw milk" customers to stay solvent, end up going out of business or sell their milk to some other business that like Monsonato and others don't want them to grow organic milk and dictate "how" they will grow their milk.

If you put this in graph form it would be easier to see the disparity of the possible equations.

Monsanto and others are dictating to farmers "how" they are going to produce their products. That's completely different. From what I understand from the "FoodInc." movie.

Now if those farmers who like to sell raw milk can bring it to the grocery store shelves and stay solvent then they could form a new co-op of raw milk selling farms. Right?

The co-op members are putting the welfare/survival of the co-op over the desires of the few. This way all the member farms are guaranteed a place to sell their milk. A bird in the hand if you will.


God bless the dairy farmers

Rancher

 

[vfem]

Hicks, with all that said, you do not know the details of the contracts! Only the farmers and the co-ops do. So far OV only states what the farmers did wrong, not once did they say that OV stuck to their end of the contract. It becomes a 1/2 sided view we all have here.

What we do know is that the first vote to uphold the no farm side to customer sales was stalemate at 50/50 vote and had to be voted on again, which barely passed at 4/3.

So.... why are 1/2 the farmers on the board ok with it then?

Something seems off.

If it was a handful of deceitful farmers selling out from under OV, just like that...I'm sure a larger number would have voted to out them, and the first time around too!!! I would have voted that way too. But to let it go for years and then almost not want to uphold the contract anyways where the votes had to reoccur!?

Are there any lawsuits filed by said farmers against OV right now?

 

[PineappleMama]

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Pretty clear that this "steward" has changed their tune... and shock of shocks that like so many other "for the people" organizations it boils down to money.

So this 10% just got the boot... because their raw milk is a competitor to the processed milk... so what's next? Any who also have goats, sheep, etc will be banned because THAT milk is a competitor to the majority of the farmers? Ban the ones that only have grass fed because the majority have grain fed?

This organization has just become the money-grubbing, backstabbing same as any other corporation...

Guarantee you I won't be buying their products... not when I KNOW they treat their producers, and thus their animals, this way.

 

[rancher hicks]

You of course are right, the devil is in the details.

Of course this would be a great research question for business students and I'm not one anymore. Thank God.

However if it just came to light that my equation of farmers selling an abundance of raw milk could put the co-op OV in jepardy, at some future (predicted) date, that may have influenced the vote.

Personally I would rather a guaranteed sale to OV than a risk a no sale of raw milk, have to dump milk and risk losing my farm.


Hoping for the best

Rancher