A Federal Advisory Board seven months ago sought to close loopholes to ensure that organic dairy cows are raised in pastures, rather than in confined pens. The USDA has yet to embrace their recommendations. Does this smell like a gallon of sour milk? Some believe the USDA is under extreme pressure from large dairy companies to ignore the board's advice.
The organic milk business is booming and conventional, large-scale dairies want a piece. Only, completely altering sardine-can infrastructure for open pasture is not an option. So the dairy industry is pressuring the USDA to allow "organic" to include sardine-can dairies as long as organic feed is used.
Why such a fuss? The reason is a bit complex. If organic cows are not required to be raised in pastures, it will do little good for our health. Maybe the pesticide count will be lower and growth hormone will not be allowed (which many conventional dairies are doing anyway). More importantly, the feed that cows consume in pens, even if organic, is usually soy and corn, which are genetically incompatible.
Beyond lactose intolerance and casein allergy, milk incompatible for humans because it is inflammatory. Omega-6 fatty acids, which exist in force in corn and soy, promote inflammation. Cows were meant to eat grasses. The grasses give the cow's meat and milk copious quantities of bioavailable Omega-3 fatty acids, which are anti-inflammatory.
A USDA ruling forcing organic cows to feed only in pasture will allow us the opportunity to consume other sources of Omega-3's other than fish (which, because of such high demand, will put a huge strain on fish numbers worldwide).
Steve
Excerpts taken from Andrew Martin's Chicago Tribune article
Friday, October 21, 2005
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