Is organic milk becoming more important to the dairy industry here in Humboldt County?
For six years we’ve been developing an organic program for our dairymen. By the end of 2006, 60 percent of our milk that we get from our member-owners, the dairymen, is going to be certified organic milk. So in six years it’s gone from zero to 60 percent of our milk organic. It’s becoming a bigger and bigger part of the Humboldt/Del Norte County dairy industry. By the end of 2006, 30 of the families and their ranches around the area will be certified organic, and so will their livestock. How does a farm become organic? It really depends. To certify the land organically there’s two parts you have got to do. You have got to certify your land, then you have to certify your livestock, your animals. On the land, you can’t use pesticides or commercial fertilizers on the land for three years. So if somebody has done that, it is a three-year process. In the worst-case scenario you’d have to stop fertilizing today and your land could become organic in three years. But if, say, somebody hasn’t b
