The rest of a dairy's story

Aurora Organic planned changes before USDA inquiry

Mark Retzloff

Saturday, September 22, 2007

I've devoted most of my life to building natural- and organic-food businesses. Companies I helped develop - Alfalfa's Markets (later acquired by Wild Oats) and Horizon Organic - enabled consumers to make better food choices, created thousands of jobs and rewarded investors who put their money at risk.

The natural- and organic-food business is filled with self-appointed experts who believe they've cornered the market on values and virtue, claiming they know best what consumers expect from the organic label.

So I was distressed, but not surprised, to see the Sept. 8 opinion piece concerning our company, Aurora Organic Dairy, by Sam Fromartz ("Organic system mending/USDA forces Boulder-based dairy farm to change practices").

I respect Sam's knowledge of the natural- and organic-foods business and his passion for its values. In fact, I share many of them, including compassionate animal care, sustainability and environmental stewardship.

But the column left out some inconvenient truths that don't fit a simplistic "good guy-bad guy" narrative. Here's the rest of the story.

The recently completed USDA review of our operations was prompted in part by complaints made by an advocacy group whose goal is protecting the interests of family-owned dairy farms. This group accepts sponsorship money from organic producers who compete with us. Readers can judge for themselves whether their attacks are motivated by concern for the integrity of the organic label or by simple competitive interests.

Following USDA's review, we agreed to redevelop our original organic dairy in Platteville, reducing our herd to 1,000 cows and increasing the amount of pasture to 400 acres. Much work toward this goal, including a significant reduction in herd size, has occurred over the past year.

Fromartz claims we accelerated our redevelopment because of the USDA inquiry. That's false. These plans have been on the drawing board for more than two years. If not for the uncertainties created by the USDA review, we would've been able to move ahead more quickly.

Our practices have evolved since our first farm was certified organic in 2003. The dairies we've developed since then - such as our High Plains organic dairy outside Kersey - consist of state-of-the-art milking parlors and barns, surrounded by hundreds of acres of pasture, where our cows graze daily during the growing season.

Fromartz criticized our pasture policies but failed to mention there's no USDA standard for how much pasture an organic dairy must have, how many cows are permitted or how much time they are to spend grazing, beyond the phrase "access to pasture for ruminants." We support a stricter standard requiring that all cows graze on pasture for at least 120 days during the growing season, and we encourage the National Organic Standards Board to implement the new pasture rule.

Since our company was founded, we have converted more than 50,000 acres from conventional to organic, including land we farm ourselves and land farmed by our farmer-partners. Many of these are independent family farmers who supply feed, pasture and animal-care services to our dairies.

Some observers, whose glasses of organic milk are always half-empty, lament the fact that what began as the organic-food movement has evolved into a large, growing business. But converting thousands of acres of land from conventional to organic agriculture is one of the resulting societal and environmental benefits.

Affordability is another. Economies of scale have brought the benefits of organic foods to many more dinner tables. Organic milk shouldn't cost so much that only the elite can afford it.

At Aurora Organic, our mission is making high-quality organic milk and butter more affordable. Along with our CEO and co-founder, Marc Peperzak, I'm proud of the work our people do to fulfill this mission. We're determined to demonstrate that a large-scale organic dairy can operate with integrity while meeting or exceeding all USDA requirements.

Mark Retzloff is president of Boulder- based Aurora Organic Dairy.