WHY I LOVE ORGANIC VALLEY: tHERE IS NO GREENWASHING. WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET.
Let’s dive deeper and examine how Organic Valley is creating a sustainable dairy business model.
Sustainable dairy seems contradictory; how can any animal byproduct be humane? And if it’s not humane, then it cannot possibly be sustainable. This is the very question that I wanted to better understand. That is why I accepted Organic Valley‘s offer to attend a PR trip to La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Excluding travel, we spent 2 days learning more about Organic Valley. We also learned about their mission to save small family farms, and how they are changing the way we think about dairy and sustainability.
There are two huge reasons why I believe in Organic Valley and why we should not write them off as every other conventional dairy brand: 1) their animal welfare and 2) their supply chain efforts and business model.
animal welfare
First, animal welfare is at the center of what Organic Valley does. Organic Valley has 1,800 dairy farms in 36 states. The average cow herd size is 75 cows. The largest cow herd in a single dairy farm is 700 cows on 700 acres (managed by 7 different families).
Convention dairy farms has an average cow herd size of 7,000 acres and are cooped up in tiny pens all day. In comparison, Organic Valley cows are pasture-raised. Organic Valley requires all their farms to provide cows with 180 days of grazing (owing to harsh winter weather in the Midwest and East Coast) and a 60% grass diet. The USDA organic rules require only 120 days of grazing and 30% grass diet.
OH AND BABY COWS TAKEN AWAY FROM THEIR MOTHERS? IT DOESN’T HAPPEN HERE. Calf care is left up to each farmer, but the majority of them leave the calf close by their mother. When calfs are being fed, they are being fed with the same organic, grass-fed milk that is being produced by their mothers or a nurse cow. (PS we named the baby cow shown in the vlog Buttons)
people and the planet over profit
The second reason I love Organic Valley is because they actually care about the farmers in their cooperate, reducing their carbon footprint, and promoting small family farms. Organic Valley generates $1.2B in sales, and yet, their profit margin is 2%, and there are only 900 employees. The management are all farmers, not city-based executives focused only on profit.
Also, Organic Valley recognizes that buying carbon credits to be carbon-neutral isn’t actually helping the planet or combating climate change. Instead, Organic Valley uses carbon in-setting. Carbon in-setting means they are actively reducing the carbon within their own footprint. They work with specialists to create a plan to plant more native trees and plant species and focus on boosting biodiversity on their pasture lands. In addition, there are no new pasture lands being created; no forests and trees are being cut down to create pastures.
AND OF COURSE, cow farts? Organic Valley is constantly experimenting with different feed management systems to reduce the methane gas. And manure isn’t just left in one big poop lagoon; they are stacked and repurposed as fertilizer.
making sustainable dairy possible
TLDR? When you see a happy cow on Organic Valley’s instagram or on one of their product packaging, what you see is what you get. This is a cooperative of small farms. 51 small family farms in the Northeast was recently saved by Organic Valley from going out of business. Organic Valley puts their animals first, actively minds their carbon footprint and want to reduce it responsibly, and put people first before profit.
