Breaking news this week is that Aurora's Platteville facility was put on a health recovery plan. To remain an organic dairy, the USDA is requiring a bit of health remediation. In the meantime, Aurora agreed to operate its facility in Woodward as a conventional dairy.
Unlike the Vander Eyk Dairy, then, it did not actually lose its certification. But the organic dairy facility, in fact, no longer exists. The Bessys are still milking but the dairy managers have probably placed a large order for regular feed corn to replace their certified organic feed.
Kicking the industrial dairies out of the organic program has some implications for us here at the Rebuild website. Your milk will be higher in nutrients if cows are allowed to graze on rapidly growing grass. Note that the yellow color of your butter is due to a higher content of beta carotene. The yellow color is also an indicator of higher levels of other fat soluble vitamins. When cows are out grazing, their skin soaks up the rays of the sun and makes vitamin D for your milk. Cows will also make more of the beneficial conjugated linoleic acid (CLA and dairy foods).
Keep in mind in your shopping, however, that these benefits of cows consuming grass are going to be most pronounced in the peak of the growing season. Here in California, pastures tend to be rapidly growing from late winter through late spring. Some farms irrigate their pastures the rest of the year, but it is difficult to replace the effectiveness of winter and spring rains to grow a pasture.
Something I've discovered is that I can buy New Zealand butter in the fall here and it is pretty yellow. (I have also found an exceptional deal on it that I should mention in the next newsletter.) In the winter and spring, I buy local.
But back to current events. I did not know the Aurora facility in Woodward but I am sure it leaves behind many friends and family. I expect it will be missed for its ability to turn organic feed into milk and then turn that milk into a lot of Greenbacks. Rest in peace.
For further reading on Aurora, see
Aurora press release
Cornucopia press release
And, of course, if you have somehow missed the Vander Eyk Eulogy video, you must go to YouTube now, spend three minutes watching, leave a vote and a comment: Eulogy to an Organic Dairy. Read the back story here on this site: Rest in Peace Vander Eyk Organic Dairy.
