There is a row fermenting in the UK over the organic status of milk. As more and more people in the UK chose organic milk there is growing concern about the welfare of cows involved in production. In non-organic milk production it is common practice for male calves not good enough for beef production are slaughtered or exported for intensive veal production. Now an investigation by Channel 4 reveals that the practice is common among organic dairy farms and the problem seems to lie with conflicting organic standards between certifying bodies in the UK, such as the Organic Food Foundation, and their counterparts at the Soil Association. The Soil Association's position on the issue is that the export of live male calves for intensive veal production is not 'organic' and I would have thought the majority of organic consumers in the UK would be of the same opinion.
The article concludes that a solution won't be reached until all standards organisations agree to a total ban on live calf exports. Surely exploring options for marketing humanely raised veal can help.
For more interesting news items and stories from the world of organic agriculture check out the relevant section of the Agricultural Biodiversity Blog
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2 comments:
Thanks for drawing attention to this. I'm not sure why anyone is surprised that organic dairy farmers, like their "conventional" colleagues, export half the calves. It is the direct consequence of focussing on a breed, the Friesan, that is no good for anything else. And the English (or, just maybe, British) objection strikes me as hypocritical. It is possible to produce very good young beef, pink veal, but not from a Friesan. On the other hand, the kind of breed that produces good young beef does not produce enough milk. so this is a consequence of over-specialisation.
When I was working on this sort of thing we calculated that if everyone in England bought 100 gms of veal a year that would account for surplus production of male calves, even if they fed it to their dogs or flushed it down the toilet it would stop live export.
And of course the British banned sow crates, only to vote with their pockets for Danish bacon, cheaper by about tuppence a pound and raised from crated sows.
I should add, on this basis all milk is hard to swallow.
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