Dr. Mercola April 04 2007 58,399 views
There has been a continuing erosion of organic standards since large corporations started struggling for a share of the market. According to this recent NewsTarget interview with Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association, the standards for organic milk have been particularly compromised.
Horizon Organic, the company that supplies Wal-Mart, has continually ignored federal organic standards -- specifically, a cow's access to pasture.
Their "organic" milk actually comes from factory-style dairy farms where the animals are kept in intensive confinement and have been imported from conventional farms as calves.
In fact, the problem has gotten so out of hand that the Organic Consumers Association has called for a consumer boycott on Horizon and its partner Aurora Organic, its first for an "organic" product.
Dr. Mercola's Comment:
I've warned you before about the destruction of organic standards, especially since mega-companies like Wal-Mart and Dean Foods (the parent company of Horizon Organic) have jumped on the organic milk bandwagon. Evidently, the deception regarding organic milk is even worse than you probably ever imagined.
All of the milk from Aurora Organics and most from Horizon is produced by cows that came from factory dairy feedlots and existed on disgusting diets of genetically modified grains, slaughterhouse waste and chicken manure.
The only good news here is that all the attention paid to this organic problem by news outlets and Web sites like mine is forcing the USDA to act. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean you should be drinking organic milk anyway, considering it's pasteurized just like all the other conventional varieties of milk found at your corner grocery store.
The real issue is not organic versus non-organic milk, it is raw versus pasteurized.
Secondary issues would be the food source that is given to the cow. Ideally, they should be fed exclusively on grass. When you start giving cows grains, even organic ones, their milk will have lower levels of important nutrients such as conjugated linoleic acid.
Your best bet for your good health is to find a local source for raw milk, which I believe is one of the best foods for most people. If you find this statement unusual then please read my article on the reasons why raw milk is becoming more popular.
Related Articles:
Major Confusion Between Organic and Healthy More Confusing, Deceptive Milk Marketing Organic Food Becoming Big Business
Major Confusion Between Organic and Healthy
More Confusing, Deceptive Milk Marketing
Organic Food Becoming Big Business
That's why humans are humans! Don't ever compare humans to anything else, we are unique! Cows get their calcium from milk, evidently enough from their early formative months until they stop and wean from their mothers udder. The constant standing must stimulate their own bone strength and their muscles must use their bone calcium for muscle contraction/relaxation.Humans are not creatures, yet a thriving organism. Raw milk has been proven to do a body good. Drink up!
A previous topic had conversation about dietary influence of acid-base balance. Cathy said it's not scientific - mostly refuted - and the body has elaborate mechanisms to stay in balance. I did some research, and learned the primary mechanism the body uses is through glutamine metabolism. DigitalNaturopath.com: "The body has an exquisite mechanism for maintaining pH homeostasis. If the pH of the blood is too acidic, more glutamine is directed to the kidneys, where a certain type of glutamine results in the release of bicarbonate ions to correct acidosis. If the pH is too alkaline, more glutamine is sent to the liver, where a different kind of metabolism releases hydrogen ions to correct alkalosis." Also: "Glutamine is the most abundant free amino acid in the serum". It would seem a meat eater and dairy drinker has the advantage here, in having a better store of glutamine to draw on as a buffer against acid or base swings. A vegetarian may have less glutamine stores to draw on, which may explain their greater interest in dietary effect on acid - base balance. So, quite contrary to what some have claimed, the main influence appears to be glutamine intake, which is found in milk, which provides the body with the its best buffering mechanism. Just my opinion. Duane
Dr Mercola would disagree with Dr David Spitz.
Articles: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2006/09/07/the-expert-are-wrong-about-raw-milk.aspxhttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/04/24/raw-milk.aspxhttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2003/05/24/milk-pregnancy.aspxhttp://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/Time-Magazine-Cites-Mercola-com-as-a-Leader-in-the-Raw-Milk-Movement-7422.aspxhttp://www.mercola.com/2005/nov/26/is_there_any_difference_between_organic_pasteurized_milk.htm
How can your profession be so limited? Ever read Biochemical Individuality by Roger Williams 1956? I wonder how so many of you can be so smart, yet so ungrounded in the basics of your chosen profession. Its an individual level. We are all diverse biologically. So most of the research done by the health industry is limited by the fact that you don't control the most important independent variable in your research! The type of person being studied. Ever hear of Eskimos? 90% fats and proteins. Go tell a cardiologist your eating a similar diet watch him/her blow their top. What about the Quechua Indians? Mostly plants. Both very health in their indigenous lifestyle. Two very distinct diets. Seriously what is so hard to understand about that?
What Bob2 says is depressingly true; but also I would offer that, in 1913, Congressman Lafferty defined a "corporation" as a "quasi-public" entity.
Public entities come under the control of Congress; laws made in the "public interest" or to protect the "public interest" are then, by definition, to protect corporations, not flesh and blood men and women.
Child labor laws are an example of laws that were promulgated in the public interest; let children be idle and not learn the value of work alongside their parents. Dairy laws were and are to protect and/or create the large corporations we have today at the expense of the many "private" dairy farms that once existed.
There were many local dairies here in this relatively small community where I live (approximately 150,000) that sold raw milk to the public from cows that ate grass; they are now all gone. One dairy somewhere in northeast La. comes to a local market twice a week here, and delivers raw milk and real butter in limited quantities. The milk supplies are usually gone by the second day on the shelf.
We are no longer in control of our country and the powers that be are using the food supply as another way to control the masses.
We are, according to some who claim their God-given rights, an occupied country. Laws will become even more restrictive before the end.