Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Horizon Organics and Puppy Mills???

I was rather disappointed to find out that Horizon Organics has been linked to a puppy mill in Lancaster County, PA. B&R Puppies -- which was cited a year ago for keeping dogs in filthy cages and not vaccinating them -- has apparently been supplying milk to Horizon. Horizon sent an inspector to B&R and confirmed this, leading the company to suspend the farmer, who has since closed his dog-breeding business. Believe it or not, this has allowed him to continue supplying milk to Horizon. Due to the efforts of Bill Smith, who has dedicated his life to fighting puppy mills, Whole Foods has sent out a request to all its vendors saying that it will not accept any products that come from farms where dogs are mistreated.

I guess there's just no way for big companies to monitor every little detail in their business, but it does make you wonder about the quality and source of the food you eat from "trusted" brands.

1 comment:

  1. Horizon is terrible. Their cows might be "organic," but they still subsist off a diet of organic soybeans, which is an unnatural diet for ruminants, which creates an inferior food profile for their milk. (Lower omega 3's, lower natural vitamin D, lower CLA's). Their cows also "live" in more or less the same conditions as those on conventional milk "farms" a.k.a. milk factories, a.k.a. you would be repulsed if you saw it.

    Your best bet is to buy milk from a local farm where you can observe first-hand that the cows are grazing freely on clean pasture. Also note that many farms are essentially organic but do not bother paying the large expense for the certification. Whole Foods/ your natural foods store generally has one or two local milks, or you can buy straight from the farm if it is close by.

    If you're going to buy commercial, you are better off with Organic Valley or one of the other national chains that actually has ideals attached to its bottom line.

    See: http://www.cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html They give Horizon a 0/5 rating!

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