From the Real Organic Project
After decades of lobbying the National Organic Program, last Tuesday the USDA, at last, announced an Origin of Livestock Final Rule. It will require all certified organic dairy cows to be raised as organic from the last third of gestation. This will close a giant loophole that industrial “organic” dairies have been using to cut their costs by raising calves on conventional feed and then cycling them back into organic production for milking. If there is enforcement, the industrial dairies will be required to do what is simply a given for the real organic dairies.