A chance to be heard- send thoughts to chris.hill@...

[Guest guest]

The editor of the NewFarm Newsletter is asking for opinions on industrial-size

organic dairies in relation to the USDA's decision not to enforce the " access to

pasture " rules of the National Organic Program.

http://www.newfarm.org

NewFarm Newsletter 8/17/04

Organic mega dairies . There's been a lot of buzz on ag list serves and

elsewhere recently about Aurora Dairy Group's certification of its 4,000-cow

dairy operation in Platteville, Colorado. Sayre provides a careful summary

of the event http://www.newfarm.org/news/0804/081704/dairy1.shtml. and the

issues. We've also reprinted a piece from The Stockman Grass Farmer

http://www.newfarm.org/news/0804/081704/dairy2.shtml that takes the view that

Aurora's move is a direct result of the USDA's decision not to enforce the

" access to pasture " rules of the National Organic Program.

What do you think? Does the certification of Aurora Organic's dairy and bottling

facilities represent a bright new dawn for the U.S. organic dairy sector,

bringing organic milk to millions of regular American consumers nationwide and

prompting the conversion of thousands of acres of farmland to organic

production? Or does it herald a tough new era for small, family-owned organic

dairies, in which the premium for organic milk will erode and the difference

between organic and conventional foods will become less meaningful? Send us your

thoughts by emailing me at chris.hill@....

On a different scale altogether . Dairyman Iles runs a 190-cow

pasture-based dairy herd in North Carolina. During the 1980s and early '90s,

Iles ran a much larger conventional operation and generated lots of dollars-but

he was always in debt. So he transitioned to pasture, cut his production and

started to see consistent profits. Writer Bickers describes Iles'

operation in detail http://www.newfarm.org/features/0804/dairy/index.shtml.

He also describes a dairy pasture research program at North Carolina State

University that has been working for 6 years to develop a new system that will

allow dairies in the Southeast to compete effectively with larger confinement

systems in other parts of the country. Bickers describes the pasture-based

system they've developed-and its benefits.