Tuesday, January 20, 2015 - Mark Kastel, Cornucopia Institute senior farm policy analyst, has blown the whistle on what it calls abuses to organic milk, meat and egg production standards.

Aerial photographs of mega-organic production sites in nine states highlight their failure to meet federal organic grazing and outdoor access requirements.

The federal organic regulations require that all organic livestock must have access to the outdoors and that ruminants, like dairy cows, must have access to pasture.

Said Kastel, “The vast majority of these massive, industrial-scale facilities, some managing 10,000-20,000 head of cattle, and upwards of 1 million laying hens, had 100% of their animals confined in giant buildings or feedlots. The organic standards are scale-neutral; however, if properly enforced, the standards are scale-limiting. At some point the magnitude of these operations becomes preposterous — because their practical ability to meet minimum organic and humane livestock standards becomes impossible.”

Cornucopia has filed formal legal complaints against 14 livestock operations the group alleges are producing and marketing milk, meat and eggs that aren't meeting federal organic standards and charged the USDA with failing to enforce the federal standards.

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