What happens when an organic cow becomes ill and needs treatment?
Many organic farmers use homeopathy as a preventative treatment and successfully reduce the risk of their animals becoming ill. This contrasts with a non-organic system where antibiotics are often used routinely to prevent illness. The organic system prohibits this practice. Should an animal fall ill on an organic farm, the farmer is permitted to use antibiotics for the treatment of that animal. However, the cow is not milked with the rest of the herd for the duration of any antibiotic treatment and the ‘withdrawal period (ie, the time that the milk is not allowed to be sold for human consumption) is at least double that recommended for non-organic milk.
