Stonyfield: Organic Farms are quite real, thank you.

The Nezinscot Family Farm in Turner, Maine is one of many certified organic dairies that supply milk for Stonyfield’s organic yogurt.

by Britt Lundgren, Director of Organic and Sustainable Agriculture for Stonyfield Organic Yogurt

Last week I took a couple of days off of work around the 4th of July and went to Maine to spend some time with friends and family.  While I was there, I made a point of stopping in to visit Gloria and Gregg Varney, who own and run Nezinscot Farm in Turner, ME.  I spent a life-changing summer working on their farm years ago, when I was just out of college and trying to figure out what was next. I have tried to get back a couple times a year ever since, both so I can stock up on the delicious cheeses, jams, and baked goods they sell in the store but also so that I can visit with Gloria and Gregg.

Nezinscot Farm is an inspirational place, and Gloria and Gregg are inspiring people.  Together they manage 100 organic dairy cows, 250 acres of pastureland, corn, and hay, several acres of vegetables, and raise chickens for meat and eggs, hogs, dairy goats, and sheep.  You might think that’s enough to keep them busy, but on top of this list Gloria also runs the farm store and produces over a dozen different kinds of cheeses and 4 or 5 different kinds of freshly baked bread every day.  And, they do all of this while raising 5 kids, who all help with running the farm. (You can see what I mean in the video below.)  Gregg and Gloria are also organic pioneers – they were the first dairy in the state of Maine to become certified organic, back in 1994.

As I stood in the kitchen last Friday afternoon talking to the Varneys about the quality of the hay they were cutting that day, the weather, and just catching up, it struck me how lucky I was to have gotten to know this place, and how proud I was that Stonyfield gets our milk from the Varneys and hundreds of other Organic Valley farms that are a lot like this one.  Places like Nezinscot Farm are becoming a rarity in an era when over 80% of the non-organic milk at the grocery store comes from cows that have never once stepped outside the barn and spent the day grazing on pasture.  I believe farms like Nezinscot are a model for the future of sustainable agriculture.

Cattle graze at an organic dairy farm in Vermont.

Fortunately, we know that Nezinscot Farm isn’t entirely unique – all of the Organic Valley farms that supply the milk for our yogurt are all closely adhering to the organic standards.  Organic cows are required to spend 120 days a year on pasture, eat 100% organic feed, and cannot be treated with antibiotics or synthetic growth hormones.

The organic standard also has strict animal welfare requirements.  Every certified organic farm is inspected annually, by a third party inspector, to make sure they are in compliance with the standard.

This is why it was so upsetting when, two days after my visit to the Varneys, I opened the Sunday New York Times and saw Stephanie Strom’s story “Has Organic Been Oversized?”

The article takes aim at organic companies that have been bought in recent years by larger, non-organic food processors.  It claims that these larger corporate parents are pushing these organic companies to abandon the true values of organic, to the point where Strom states “The industry’s image — contented cows grazing on the green hills of family-owned farms — is mostly pure fantasy.”

We now estimate that over 200,000 acres of farmland are in certified organic production to supply our ingredients, and that this avoids over 200,000 pounds of pesticides being applied to that land every year.  This has important benefits for human health and the environment.

Now, I confess that on occasion I do fantasize about going back and working at Nezinscot Farm again (and I swear it’s not just because of the delicious cheese).  But Nezinscot Farm, along with all of the other Organic Valley farms that supply our milk, is a very real family farm, with cows out on pasture every day they can be.

In fact, one of the things I discussed with Gregg last Friday was how most of the organic dairy farmers he knew were feeding their cows nothing but pasture these days, because the cost of organic grains is so high.  To suggest that these farms are a fantasy is a grave disservice to the hard work and long days that farmers like Gregg and Gloria put in every day, 365 days a year, into ensuring that they produce the purest, healthiest organic milk possible.

Yes, several organic companies have been purchased in recent years by larger, non-organic corporations. In recent years Stonyfield has become one of them; we are majority-owned by the French company , Groupe Danone. Contrary to what this article implies, this hasn’t changed a thing about the way we do business or where our ingredients come from – we’ve been buying milk from Nezinscot Farm and others just like it for many years now.  In fact, inspired by Stonyfield,  Groupe Danone launched  its own organic yogurt brand at home  in France, called Les Deux Vaches, which is modeled on Stonyfield, and has invested in an organic dairy in Ireland as well.

The Beidlers are one of many families whose hard work results in the organic milk Stonyfield uses each day.

Being part of Groupe Danone has also allowed us to grow our business.   And as we’ve gotten bigger, we’ve also made an effort to measure the impact that our organic sourcing practices have made.

We now estimate that over 200,000 acres of farmland are in certified organic production to supply our ingredients, and that this avoids over 200,000 pounds of pesticides being applied to that land every year.  This has important benefits for human health and the environment.

Pesticide exposure has been linked to a long list of human health problems, including cancer[1], Parkinson’s disease[2], ADHD[3], and lowered IQ for infants whose mothers were exposed while pregnant[4].  The certified organic seal is your best insurance that the food you’re buying was produced without the use of these chemicals.

Right now, the organic sector, including both farmers and food processors, is adding jobs at 4 times the national average rate.  If growing our business and others like it bigger means that we can keep adding more farms like Nezinscot to our list of suppliers, and keep even more pounds of pesticides out of our soil, water, and air, then I say let’s keep growing.

Hear what the Varneys have to say about organic farming in this video

[1] Reuben, Susan for the Presidents Cancer Panel.  “Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now”, US Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Panel, April 2010.

[2] Wang, Anthony, Sadie Costello, Myles Cockburn, Xinbo Zhang, Jeff Bronstein and Beate Ritz “Parkinson’s disease risk from ambient exposure to pesticides.” European Journal of Epidemiology Volume 26, Number 7, 547-555, April 2011.

[3] Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and urinary metabolites of organophosphate pesticides. Bouchard MF, Bellinger DC, Wright RO, Weisskoph MG. Pediatrics 2010, 125:31270-e1277.

[4] Engel, Stephanie M., James Wetmur, Jia Chen, Chenbo Zhu, Dana Boyd Barr, Richard L. Canfield, and Mary S. Wolff “Prenatal Exposure to Organophosphates, Paraoxonase 1, and Cognitive Development in Childhood.” Environmental Health Perspectives, 21 April 2011.

Rauh, Virginia, Srikesh Arunajadai, Megan Horton, Frederica Perera, Lori Hoepner, Dana B. Barr, Robin Whyatt, “7-Year Neurodevelopmental Scores and Prenatal Exposure to Chlorpyrifos, a Common Agricultural Pesticide.” Environmental Health Perspectives, 21 April 2011.

Bouchard, Maryse F., Jonathan Chevrier, Kim G. Harley, Katherine Kogut, Michelle Vedar, Norma Calderon, Celina Trujillo, Caroline Johnson, Asa Bradman, Dana Boyd Barr, Brenda Eskenazi “Prenatal Exposure to Organophosphate Pesticides and IQ in 7-Year Old Children.” Environmental Health Perspectives, 21 April 2011.