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OCA Boycott of Factory Farmed Horizon Organic Milk Having a Major ImpactAlthough management at Dean Foods has always discounted the concerns of organic consumers and farmers, who built this growing and successful industry, the numbers are in and their expensive greenwashing campaign has not succeeded in cleansing their reputation in the marketplace - you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear -organic consumers don't think that vertically-integrated, corporate-owned industrial dairies (factory-farms), managing as many as 8000 cows, can really be "organic."
A recent graphic from the Wall Street Journal's website, indicates that sales growth of Horizon products in supermarkets was at about 10-15% last year (a little hard to read the chart-the company reported to analysts that there sales growth was in the low teens). That is in stark contrast to the second-largest player in the organic market, Organic Valley, that saw dairy sales grow by 37%. We fact-checked this against a major regional West Coast organic milk bottler and their sales grew by 35% last year.
As the CEO from Organic Valley stated in the article below, the natural foods sector isn't just important because it makes up nearly half of the market; it's important because it shapes consumer opinion and is a harbinger for what will happen in the supermarket trade. And in the natural foods industry, according to the article below, Dean/Horizon actually saw sales go down by 9.5% in 2006.
We have met with the CEO and senior management at Dean Foods on a number of occasions over the past year and a half hoping to convince them that their continued dependence on factory-farms for some of their organic milk supply was seriously damaging the value of the Horizon brand and the reputation of organic dairy. We have never gained traction with this argument. On the contrary, the company has continued to invest millions in additional production on these giant farms, at a time when surpluses are eroding the price that is paid to family farmers. Are they heading down the road to disaster as more consumers learn about their practices?
Sent: 13/08/2007 18:19:58
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