So, what organic milk products do you buy? Have you

[MJN]

found any organic milk in gallon jugs? How much was it?

[StaceyinLA]

I buy organic valley products. From all I've read, they are the ones with the most honesty and integrity, and treat their animals the most humanely. We do have a local farm that does drug/hormone free and they don't homogenize so I try to buy their milk mostly, but buy OV when I can't. I buy all of OV's other products (sour cream, cream cheese, whipping cream, butter, etc.), and their milk on occasion.

[Jenny in Atl]

Here's a cool link that rates brands or organic dairy products. We too use OV. But we also get organic milk from Costco and other smaller brands from Harry's (whole foods) like my greek yogurt (The Greek Gods) from WA state.


http://cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html

[BarbaraL in OK]

I buy Organic Valley organic raw-milk cheese as a treat for my husband and Other Brand organic whole-milk yogurt for me (best I can do). My priority is local and small-producer first, and then grass-fed or organic, but I can't seem to find local raw-milk cheese or whole-milk yogurt.

I buy local grass-fed cream, butter, and cheeses through our statewide food co-op and a local-foods store in our town. The rest is hormone-free milk and dairy products (milk, butter, cheeses, cream cheese, cream, ice cream) from a regional dairy store chain; their cows are about 40 miles from us.

[Mamagistra]

I try to purchase milk from HEB, which is a Texas chain. Their Central Market Organics brand is about $6 per gallon. If I have to purchase at Kroger, their Private Selection is available in half gallon cartons for $2.99 to $3.29 each. I avoid Horizons at all cost (except during pregnancy when I craved their cottage cheese). :o

For everything else, we try for the Central Market Organics brand but often purchase conventional self-proclaimed non-rBGH (Borden, e.g.) because (A) we use a lot of dairy :D, and (B) at some stores, the only organic choice is Horizon. :mad:

Oh, and for yogurt, we like Stonyfield.

[Gigi]

Organic Valley here too. It is between $5.50-$6.00 a gallon. What I like about it is the plastic is white so the milk is not affected by light as much and doesn't develop the metalic taste. I also buy a local brand in glass bottles to support the local farms.

I also buy organic yogurt & cheese but the brand varies.

[sdWTMer]

Kirkland brand (Costco) organic milk 3 half-gallons; but I don't remember the cost off hand.

Horizon does have gallon size containers. I just don't get them because I don't like the plastic. I'd rather have paper (?) containers.

I buy heavy whipping cream and half & half; but those are usually Organic Valley

I'm bad because I don't know the prices of them all. Sorry. :rolleyes:

[shanmar]

Fred Meyers carries it in the gallon jugs here, but the Safeway stores only have 1/2 gallons. With a house full of milk drinkers, a gallon is the only way to go.

[melissel]

I just found out that the supplier (Aurora (http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/oca/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=4756)) for Costco's in-house organic milk is accused of poor organic practices--worse than Horizon, it seems. Of course, this is after I bought a big three-pack at Costco on Monday :(

Organic Valley sells in gallons here for $5.49 (on sale, maybe), but we never finish a gallon in time, so we stick to half gallons. Stonyfield is a good brand for milk as well (and we eat their yogurt by the ton, I think!).

I do buy Horizon American cheese, because it's the only brand that we think tastes good :o I wish there were more options for that one.

[GreenKitty]

Horizons (http://www.horizonorganic.com/) It only comes in a 1/2 carton, I think it is about $3 something?? The only other choices I have seen around here is 'store' brand names.

[Marie in Oh]

or I buy OV. It really does taste different. I also buy OV sour cream when I can. I can't afford butter or cheese becasue of the quanity we use, but I feel like I am doing my best to provide what we can. I actually like OV better than even the fresh milk I get, but the fresh milk is cheaper. WIth 8 in the family we go through a lot of milk.

[KH_]

We buy Organic Valley milk in a gallon jug ($4.99 here), and OV eggs. Dh is the only one that drinks milk as a beverage occasionally, so we don't go through a whole lot of it. I do use it in cooking and making ice cream :)

We haven't switched to organic cheese and butter because of the cost, but I do buy Tillamook cheese and butter (I've read that their cows are grass fed, which is better than grain fed).

[Colleen]

Organic Valley.:D

As others mentioned, OV is sold in gallon jugs as well as in half-gallon cartons. My husband and boys all drink our milk raw, but I buy a gallon of OV for myself each week because I am just too used to pasteurized, lower fat milk. It costs $5.99 at my organic food co-op; I believe it's slightly less expensive at Fred Meyer but have not priced it there myself.

[Sue G in PA]

What is the problem with the company? We've always purchased Horizon b/c it was the cheapest where we are. Sometimes Stoneyfield, but mostly Horizon. Perhaps now I'll drive the extra miles for OV! So, what's up with Horizon?

[AnneD]

gallon jugs $5.99 here

Why not buy Horizon?

Anne

[lynn]

What ever brand is cheapest at the moment. I purchase gallon jugs mostly at Target @$5.99. They have been on sale for $4.00 on occassion.

[BarbaraL in OK]

Here's the link Jenny posted re. Horizon and many other organic dairies: Cornucopia Institute Dairy Survey (http://cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html). Go to the bottom; you'll find Horizon, Kraft's Back to Nature, Alta Dena, etc. there. Click on a dairy's name to get the full info. The next level up includes Costco's High Meadows and Kirkland brands, and Trader Joe's & Wild Oats' organic milk. Go up another level and you'll find Stonyfield's milk; their yogurt is up another level (?!?).

Back down at the very bottom there are links to the survey assumptions, questions, and full report.

Here's Organic Valley's rating, with the survey's criteria:

Criteria / Points / Comments
Ownership Structure / 90 / Cooperative
Milk Supply / 90 / Co-op members
Disclosure of Information for Verification / 100 / Full and open disclosure
Certifier farms / 100 / Most OTCO
Certifier processing / 100 / OTCO
Cows on pasture time/acreage provided / 100 / Strong/enforced cooperative policy
Health and longevity of cows / 100 / Very low cull rate!
Replacement animals only from organic farms / 75 / Organic animals purchased/minority conventional
Antibiotics used on young cattle / 100 / Never
Reproductive hormones used / 100 / Never
Farm support oversight / 90 / All dairies and visited regularly by staff
Outside dairy ingredients purchased / 90 / Almost all from co-op + Humboldt
TOTAL SCORE / 1135 / FOUR COWS (excellent)

[Mrs. Readsalot]

Sams club has the best price on this in our area.

[GreenKitty]

OK...I just read that link...

Why is Horizons at the bottom!!!???

What happened? I thought that was supposed to be one of the better brands!

I do not recognize any of the names in the first to sections besides Organic Valley.

So...I am wondering who makes the 'store' brand ones then...Meijer brand, Wal brand, etc...

[tess in the burbs]

My Kroger sells gallon Horizon Organic for 5.69. This was last fall though. We made the decision to switch to a local dairy instead. They are hormone free but not 'organic' certified, but we felt that local was better (and costs the same!)

We used to buy all dairy organic but with rising food costs we had to make choices. We used to do milk, butter, cheese, yogurt....but now we only do the local milk/juice.

I wish we could afford to do more organic, but it's not feasible. We don't eat a lot of cheaper food, so I find our food costs for fresh meat, veggies, fruits eats up our budget fast.

but when I bought organic butter....it was $7.39. :eek:

[Robin in Tx]

We really can't afford the increase in our food budget either. We haven't been impressed with organic milk... too strong of a flavor for us... but I would buy organic cheese in a heartbeat if it were more affordable. Sorry I can't remember brand names... we used to buy in bulk from a natural food coop and it would come in unlabeled.

Robin

[Kiva, SouthernGirlMusings]

Our BJ's has a nice organic milk and the carton is $2.99 which is cheaper than the other organic milks in the grocery store. The only gallon jug available in our area is Horizons and it is only at one store as it doesn't sell fast enough in the other stores and it usually ranges from $5.99 up. When Organic Valley is on sale, I buy that and we do Stonyfield Farm yougurt.

[melissel]

Companies offering organic products, that are owned by major conventional corporations are notorious for cutting corners both large and small in their organic practices and quality control. Horizon is owned by dairy conglomerate Dean Foods, and has been cited by watchdog groups repeatedly for its practices. They're accused of things like purchasing cows that spent their lives in conventionally run dairies (with all the hormones and antibiotics, etc.) and putting them immediately into service providing "organic milk"; claiming their cows are grassfed for a significant portion of the year--yet when the farms are visited, there's no grass in sight, and all cows are indoors eating grain, and more. I'll see if I can find the articles. There's also a link to a food matrix that shows organic companies' links to conventional chains. I'll dig them up if I can.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_8105.cfm
http://pawpawspureproducts.com/?p=146
Chart (http://www.organicconsumers.org/Organic/orgChart.pdf) -- this is a PDF

[Robin in Tx]

Molly, I tried to go back and find the brand of the cheese we used to buy through the coop, but they've dropped perishable items from their website, and they were never labeled when we received them.

Sorry I couldn't help more. I just know that cheese stands out to me in quality... maybe brand doesn't matter as much with the cheese. Never could tell a difference in things like butter, and like I said before we don't care for the milk... but it is available in both half gallons and gallons at our stores and I want to say it's about twice as much as regular milk. Don't know if that helps or not... but definitely try cheese if you can find it!

Good luck!

[z2_mom]

Does anyone know anything about the 360 or 365 brand of milk that Whole Foods sells. We have just started to purchase this brand. We are slowly trying to switch over all our eating and foods to healthier choices, whole grains etc. I really don't want to pay the extra money if all it is going to get me is a pretty label.

lynda

[melissel]

Does anyone know anything about the 360 or 365 brand of milk that Whole Foods sells. We have just started to purchase this brand. We are slowly trying to switch over all our eating and foods to healthier choices, whole grains etc. I really don't want to pay the extra money if all it is going to get me is a pretty label.

lynda

It gets a 4-cow (excellent) rating on the Cornucopia Institute's chart:

http://www.cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html

I had no idea, actually. I thought I remembered hearing that Horizon was actually their supplier, but that was unconfirmed and obviously erroneous. Cool!

[Robin in Tx]

Hey, Molly... I just got back from the grocery store and thought of you while I was there... Borden now apparently has an organic label, and a gallon was $4.50. Not bad!!

Hope this helps!

Robin

[Colleen]

For those interested in the name behind the name, Borden is owned by Dean Foods.