As you’ve probably read, in the past several months milk prices have gone from record lows to record highs, which provides desperately needed relief for non-organic dairy farms. What’s driving the price increase? Several factors, including a shortage of “replacement heifers” on large scale dairies. In many large scale dairies, cows live significantly shorter lives and therefore must be replaced more frequently. Whereas some of the smaller scale Organic Valley farmers who supply milk for our products have cows that are well over 10 years old, it’s not unusual on a conventional large scale dairy for the cows to live only to 5- or 6-years-old. With the outbreak of Mad Cow disease in Canada, the U.S. borders were closed to bringing in replacement cows from the north. And with the historically low price paid to farmers for milk, many sold off their herds for beef. The short supply of young females (heifers) to replace the cows has contributed to a milk shortage, which translates to higher prices for these products. You’ll start seeing this at the checkout line, if you haven’t already. But, note: We have no plans to increase prices!
--Nancy, Natural Resources
Current yogurt obsession: Whole Milk Plain and YoBaby Apple
Our Natural Resources person, Nancy Hirshberg, was called upon to comment recently in a San Francisco Chronicle news item about the Bush Administration’s efforts to weaken the standards for organic food labeling. Read the full story.
I just saw the trailer for the new Dennis Quaid movie “The Day After Tomorrow”, a disaster movie about global warming, due out May 28. We definitely can use a heightened awareness of the effects of climate change and how we affect the climate, but will the movie be so fictitious and outrageous that people will discount as fiction the true risks posed by human-induced climate change ? "China Syndrome" and its amazingly well-timed release with the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident marked the beginning of the end of nukes in the U.S. (at least until the recent Bush-Cheney energy plan). We shall see what "The Day After Tomorrow" does for global warming…
--Nancy, Natural Resources
Current yogurt obsession: Whole Milk Plain and YoBaby Apple
Earlier this week the Campaign to Keep Antibiotics Working, a coalition of environmental, health and consumer groups, submitted a letter signed by 140 organizations (including Stonyfield Farm) to Bayer CEO Attila Molnar, urging the company to ban the antibiotic Baytril from use in poultry. Baytril is essentially the same as the antibiotic Cipro, an important tool in fighting infections in humans. There is a concern that the use of Baytril in livestock could result in the development of new strains of bacteria that will be resistant to antibiotics, greatly reducing the effectiveness of Cipro and other important antibiotics for fighting infections in humans.
Based on a growing body of evidence, the American Medical Association and more than 275 other groups have called for an end to the routine use of medically important antibiotics in healthy food animals.
Click here to read the letter and press release.
--Nancy, Natural Resources
Current yogurt obsession: Whole Milk Plain and YoBaby Apple
Today we noticed an interesting report, "Chemical Trespass," from the Pesticide Action Network of North America, featuring data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This study, involving 9,282 people nationwide. indicated that U.S. residents carry toxic pesticide levels that are above acceptable levels. Read the full report and decide for yourself if this is a good thing.
Yesterday I talked about my new refrigerator, and then I ran across the following article on the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) website.
I think that high energy efficiency standards in air conditioners or other appliances are a good thing! Now that the Bush administration is apparently dropping its fight against Clinton-era rules requiring more efficient air conditioning and heat pumps, a 30 percent increase in efficiency will be required by January 2006. According to LCV, this translates into billions in energy savings for consumers, reduces the need for up to 150 new power plants and avoids approximately 8 million tons of carbon emissions! That's an impactful rule! Heating and cooling is a great place to focus energy efficiency efforts for many reasons. According to the Department of Energy, 44 percent of a typical home energy bill goes for heating and cooling. Also, cooling is the greatest strain on our power grid when it's trying to meet our peak energy demands in the summer.
Even here at Stonyfield Farm, heating and cooling are our biggest uses of power. We are constantly either heating or cooling milk, fruits, and other ingredients, and, of course, keeping the final product cool before it heads out the door to you!
--Lisa, Natural Resources
Current yogurt obsession: Vanilla Smoothie