Loony Bin Organic Milk Momma

So I'm avoiding Aurora Dairies "organic" milk like the plague, which I believe means no store brand organic milk from Target, WalMart and Costco. I had lumped Kroger's store-brand organic milk into that category as well, but something in particular made me rethink that a moment. It was the description written on the side of Kroger's Naturally Preferred Organic Milk container:

These herds of healthy cows get plenty of fresh air and exercise, freely grazing on green pastures and organic food. Wholesome, delicious and completely organic milk . . .

My, my, they are laying it on thick, I thought. If this milk is from Aurora, sign me up for the class action suit because talk about misleading!

So, as you probably guessed already, I was hot on the trail by this point. Call #1 went to Kroger Customer Service. As an aside, let me tell you that this was one of the nicest customer service experiences I've had. The guy who answered the phone could not have been more kind, helpful and patient.

I discovered that the Naturally Preferred organic milk I bought from my neighborhood Kroger has code 20-283 stamped on it, which means it came from Jackson Dairy in Hutchinson, Kansas, a dairy owned by Kroger. When I asked about how the cows are raised, however, this poor guy got in over his head.

"The organic cows get milked first, and then the conventional cows get milked," he said.

"So both herds live on the same farm?" I asked, surprised and smelling trouble.

"Yes, but they are kept separate," he answered.

"So the conventional cows are confined, shoulder to shoulder in a feed lot and the organic cows are frolicking happily in the green fields?" I asked, a bit facetiously, I suppose. "Aren't there some jealousy issues?" Okay, we were both laughing a little now.

To his credit, he sent me to someone at Jackson Dairy. Pat Baker.

"Is your name Pat Baker?" I asked when the man answered the phone.

"Yes."

"I'm Pattie Baker!" I squealed, thinking he'd be as thrilled as me at the serendipity of it all.

"Baker is a common name," he said, nonchalantly. Again, a clear example of how I need to get out more.

Anyway, poor Pat was in sales and marketing and quickly realized he had one of those loony bin organic milk mommas on the line and sent me to Becky, the quality assurance engineer for Jackson Dairy.

Bingo. Becky was my answer. A mom of two small kids who didn't feed her children organic milk until after she visited the dairy (which is 6 hours away from Hutchinson in Texas), she was not a salesy gal who gave me corporate-speak. We just chatted. She told me about her visit to the farm.

"In all honesty, it blew me away," she exclaimed. According to Becky, it was huge and beautiful and the cows were on pasture daily.

"If I were a cow," she said, "this would be cow heaven to me."

And then I asked the question that would give me the answer I needed.

"Becky, if you brought your children there, would they say that they saw happy cows?"

She didn't even pause. "Absolutely," she answered.

And there you go. I have a little trouble visualizing a farm with 23,000 organic cows (yep, that's how many are there) that's not like Aurora. Becky wasn't sure she could give me the name of the farm--I wanted to Google Earth it. But I did suggest that if these cows were truly living the organic life, in the true spirit of the standards, then the marketing folks ought to find a way to communicate that more believably. (Okay, I admit, I almost went back to Pat Baker.)

Now, I'm not even going to get into the ultra-pasteurization and the extended shelf life of this organic milk because that's going to send me straight back to raw milk and the upcoming public hearing on the grey dye (November 2, folks), but . . . at least I feel like perhaps this is a choice now. At least it's not Aurora. And Becky feels good about it. And that means a lot to me.