Mother Jones perpetuates one side’s myths while exposing others

Milk is Milk blog by Alex Avery

Mother Jones Magazine, not known for its editorial integrity, has published a flawed-but-interesting commentary profiling the current battle of the organic dairy behemoths, fighting amongst themselves for the hearts, minds and wallets of American consumers. $1.2 billion organic milk market. Why are they bad? Apparently because they are big and more efficient than their competitors - competitors which include Mr. Kastel’s former employer and current “non-profit” funding source, Organic Valley. Oddly, Ms. Scott fails to mention Mr. Kastel’s close ties with - and payments from - Organic Valley and only briefly references them at the end of her article. Not only does Scott fail to even hint at Organic Valley’s size or role in this nasty fight, she lets them be characterized as having only “small farmers.”

Readers of this blog know about my feelings towards the $160 million Organic Valley - second only to Horizon in their size and market share - and their black marketing tactics. The organic dairy industry is controlled by a very small group of mega-producers who control nearly 90 percent of all the organic milk sold in America - and each wants more control than the other. To achieve their goals we’ve seen such tactics as creating false “non-profit” front groups to sue competitors and regulators, targeting children with false, fear-laden comic book marketing materials to scare them and their parents away from less-expensive (and perfectly healthy) competing products, and blatantly false and illegal labeling, marketing and advertising of their products.

The results? Well, the profits are growing and cash is lining the pockets of these few fat cats while organic producers make less profit than their conventional counterparts, and they’ve helped denigrate the overall market place for milk in general. You heard that correctly - organic marketing falsely promoting supposedly healthier products and production methods drives people away from buying milk. How could that be you ask? Simple, market basket research by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows a 14 percent per-capita decline in fluid milk consumption that coincides with the growth and industrialization of organic dairy producers. Independent academic research shows that consumer pocketbooks (willingness to spend) is inelastic when it comes to milk and other staple food purchases - this means that, when prices go up, the vast majority of consumers simply won’t buy the product. Other academic research has linked organic and similar absence (e.g., “pesticide free”) marketing claims on dairy products to cause people to buy less healthy alternatives.

Here’s what happens: Mom shopping at the grocery store stops by the dairy case and is confronted (affronted) by many choices through in-store placards and labels on milk cartons. Choice number one: the local, traditionally produced affordable gallon of milk at $2.69 (this will vary depending on where you live in the country, but not by much). But as mom reaches for the milk she knows and her kids love, she sees choice number two next to it on the shelf - also conventionally-produced but “premium labeled” brand often with some “organic-light” claims such as “humanely-raised” or “hormone/rbGH-free” for $3.69 a gallon. Mom thinks “If this milk is free from hormones then the milk with hormones must be bad so I guess I should pay a $1.00 more to buy the safer milk.” And if Mom can afford it, she starts to reach for choice number two, but she stops as she then sees choice number three - the uber-milk, organic. At anywhere from $4 - $6 per gallon this milk proclaims to be “free from toxic and persistent chemicals,” “hormone-free” and “antibiotic-free.” But “free” it ain’t. If Mom can swing the 100-plus percent increased cost, she buys the organic brand. But most moms are forced to make a choice based on this completely false and misleading information promulgated by the militant organic industrial complex and the “non-profit” activist groups they fund. And, as I mentioned before, these misleading claims don’t only give an unfair advantage to the dishonest organic companies that are making them, they help the junk food industry as well. After all, for every wealthy customer the organic black marketing fear profiteers hoodwinks into buying their high-priced snake oil, one or more moms simply turn away from the falsely perceived dangerous milk they can afford and buy alternative, less nutritious beverages like sodas and sugared juice drinks for their children.

Hey Morgan Spurlock and Eric Schlosser — stop bashing McDonalds and Kraft. The multi-billion dollar organic industry which scares moms away from buying safe, healthy, affordable foods is probably more responsible for childhood obesity than the corner burger and malt shop. Although that may not be needed as the activists are already turning on the organic industry they helped build. Why? Because groups like Organic Consumers Association, Greenpeace, etc… aren’t really about the environment or the fuzzy things they spout in public. These groups are simply anti-capitalism, anti-corporate, anti-everything successful. They have a very twisted view of how the world should be and it’s a scary, scary place to most normal people so they simply don’t share those real goals of moving us all to a pre-industrial, 100 percent vegan, socialist/Marxist society. They use issues like milk, because we can all relate to it. Milk because it affects children who are vulnerable. Milk because it’s representative of something, like Mom and apple pie. Do they care about the same things we do? Of course not. If they did they’d stop scaring moms and kids away from affordable, safe and nutritious milk.