Co-Op Brings Back Horizon

By Alicia Wallace, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.

Mar. 23–The happy cow is smiling again on the shelves of the Boulder Co-op Market.

Nearly a year after the store, other co-ops and consumer groups boycotted Horizon Organic, the WhiteWave Foods division’s dairy products are back in the local cooperative. Some other retailers, however, have not budged from their stance, saying they don’t believe the brand fits with organic ideals.

The boycotts came last year as a firestorm of debates — from pasturing to farm size to animal care — raged within the organic dairy industry. During that time, Horizon and Boulder-based Aurora Organic Dairy were given low scores by a farm policy group, the Cornucopia Institute, in a report called “Maintaining the Integrity of Organic Milk.” Co-ops, markets and groups like the Organic Consumers Association subsequently boycotted the product. Horizon and Aurora said they did not participate in the survey.

Tom Morris, a member of the Boulder Co-op’s management team, said the market’s board of directors was concerned about Horizon’s practices after hearing arguments and accusations in the debate. The biggest concerns for the co-op included how often the cows were grazing and how Horizon raised its calves, Morris said.

“We feel as a result of our boycott they actually listened and made some changes,” he said.

For Horizon, it was a matter of educating others about how its farms are run.

“We’re hopeful we’ll get others in the natural channel to restock once they hear more information about us,” said Molly Keveney, a spokeswoman for Broomfield-based WhiteWave Foods, a division of Dean Foods Co.

However, not all markets have gone in the direction of the Boulder Co-op after hearing Horizon’s side. The Seattle-based PCC Natural Markets pulled all Horizon products last year. PCC, which has eight markets and 40,000 members, met with WhiteWave president Joe Scalzo last year and was not convinced, said Trudy Bialic, PCC’s manager of public affairs.

“We don’t want to hear what they’re going to do. … It’s got to be here and now, today, not off in the distant future,” she said.

One of the biggest issues, she said, is the size of Horizon’s company-owned farms.

“You can’t have thousands and thousands of cows and truly pasture them,” she said. “Having huge industrial-scale operations with thousands of cows … puts small farmers at a disadvantage.

About 4,000 cows are on the Paul, Idaho, farm that has about 2,860 pasture acres, and about 500 cows are on the 130 pasture acres at Horizon’s farm in Kennedyville, Md., according to Horizon. The dairy producer said it purchases about 80 percent of its milk from its network of family farms and it plans to increase the Idaho pasture to 3,700 acres by May.

Horizon recently released its “Standards of Care” guidelines for its own farms, which include raising the company’s own calves that come from certified organic mothers; taking a holistic approach to animal care; ensuring cows graze on organic grass every day during the active growing season and as many days as possible during the dormant season; and ensuring cows are outside year-round to exercise and socialize.

A day after Horizon released those standards, Ellen Feeney, WhiteWave’s vice president of responsible livelihood, said during an interview at the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif., that having the co-op lift the ban was important for the company, but also for her, personally.

“We just wanted a chance to be heard,” said Feeney, a member of the co-op.$E

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