28/02/2012
Organic milk prices rise in the USA
by Kai Kreuzer
Foto: Organic Trade Association/USA
Organic milk prices are surging because of last year's weather - from the drought in the southern plains to the July heat that scorched the mid-west - and the demand for organic milk that has been recovering from the recession. A 65% rise in the price of organic corn over the past year is forcing many organic dairy farmers to feed less to their animals.
Molly Keveney, spokeswoman for WhiteWave Foods' Horizon, the leading brand in organic milk, says consumers can typically expect to pay about $4.18 for a half-gallon of organic milk. And a 14 cent increase in the wholesale price is set to take effect on March 1. The news agency Reuters reports that, according to the most recent industry data, about 4 percent of all dairy products sold are organic. As a consequence of the upcoming price increase, many articles have appeared in the press in the USA discussing the pros and cons of organic milk.
Phil Lempert, a grocery industry analyst, says the demand for organic milk expanded when consumers began expressing concerns about growth hormones in conventional milk. Seeing that the market was shifting, the grocery giant Kroger Co announced in 2007 that it would no longer carry milk that contained synthetic growth hormones. After that, Lempert says, one U.S. retailer after another followed suit. A significant portion of the industrialized world - including Europe, Canada, Japan and Australia - had already banned the substance from their dairy products years earlier. While organic milk costs more to produce than non-organic milk, organic does not account for all of the price difference. Experts say mark-up varies regionally, but overall there is a much higher margin on organic milk.
Comparable reports
11/10/2011
Organic dairy in USA sued for advertising claims
by Kai Kreuzer
Milk is good for your health, especially organic milk.Now a new lawsuit claims that one of the largest producers of organic dairy products in the USA is greatly overstating the brain health benefits of some of its milk offerings, reports the Consumer Magazine Consumerist.
more
16/01/2013
USA: organics thrown out in Farm Bill Extension
by Kai Kreuzer
Mandatory funding for a variety of organic programs written into the 2008 farm bill didn’t qualify for automatic inclusion into the farm bill extension that was decided on January 1st. That outcome is in contrast to the proposed Senate and House versions of the 2012 farm bill hammered out last summer, that had included funding for all of the organic programs (except for one House version). more
05/02/2013
US TV-Star Oprah Winfrey founds organic business
by Karin Heinze
As the New York Times and, among others, the organic online portal Living Maxwell have reported, media star Oprah Winfrey has acquired a taste for organics (the NYT called it “Oprah´s organic appetite”). more
26/11/2012
USA: recommendations for better support of organic dairy farms
by Kai Kreuzer
Cream of the Crop is the title of a study in which conventional and organic dairy farms were compared in two US states. more
20/09/2012
Organics Brazil bets on the U.S. market for organic
by Press Release Organics Brazil
The Organics Brazil Project will participate at BioFach America - All Things Organics (Baltimore between 20 and 22 September), that will bring together more than 20,000 buyers from markets throughout the Americas, Asia and Europe. more