Organic Dairy

A Growing Trend

By: Tracy Kracker, NCC News

In New York state, the number one agricultural product is diary. With the popular trend toward organic, some local farmers are converting to organic dairy.

Local Farmers

Since he was a little boy, Ed Scheffler has lived and worked on his 300 acre dairy farm near Groton, New York. It keeps his wife Eileen and him very busy, he says, but they enjoy it. On their farm, they do things a little differently. Five years ago, the Schefflers finished their transition to organic. "We just feel it's a more natural way of producing food," Ed says.

Now, his fifty dairy cows eat only chemical-free organic feed and grass grown right at the farm. The cows are in the pasture from May to November, but during the cold Upstate winters, the cows are kept inside a warm barn. Instead of antibiotic injections for growth hormones, the Schefflers found a more natural way to care for their cows. "We use biological treatments," Ed says, "we use a lot of garlic, aloe, things which strengthen a cow's immune system, and we try to use good animal husbandry."

Organic Retail

The Schefflers help supply America's fast-growing pipeline of organic diary products, more popular than ever among health conscious consumers. Art Zimmer buys organic whenever possible. "My life and my health are worth a few extra pennies a week," he said.

Organic milk, cheese, butter, and yogurt are a big part of an industry marketing hundreds of organic food products, from meat to macaroni. Bud Kennedy, store manager at Green Hills Farm Stand in Syracuse, says he has seen organic sales go up a lot at his store over the past year.

With organic milk sales up 25% from a year ago, Central New York's Byrne Dairy has taken the lead in processing milk for Organic Valley, a farmer-owned cooperative. William Byrne, the chairman of Byrne Dairy, says the company felt that the growth of organic milk was something it couldn't ignore anymore.

Health Benefits

After all is said and done, and the milk makes it into the stores, some experts say organic milk is not much better for the consumers than conventional milk. Bobbie Harrison from the Onondaga County Cornell Cooperative Extension says the claim with organic milk is that it has no antibiotics, but that's the same for conventional milk as well. "In the dairy industry, cows that are milking every day do not have any antibiotics in them either," she says.

Nutritionists also caution that the organic label is no guarantee the milk is healthier. Registered dietitian Ruth Sullivan says there are no health differences between organic and conventional milk.

Local organic dairy farmer Ed Scheffler is not convinced that's entirely true. He says people choose organic because they are more concerned about health problems. "And if you want a product that's as close to as nature intended, then that's what we're trying to produce," he says, "I think that's what our bodies are built for."