NATREL/NEILSON
Gone are the bucolic days when even conventional dairy farmers let their cows roam free on green pastures. Most Canadian dairies keep cows indoors tied in stalls to make it easier to feed ’em rations high in GMO corn and soy. And while growth hormones are outlawed in Canadian dairies, other hormones are not. Two of the biggest brands on the market are Natrel and Neilson. Neilson is owned by Saputo, which was nailed for buying milk from Canada’s largest dairy, outed last summer for horrific animal cruelty. Saputo says it only resumed buying from the mega-dairy (with 3,500 cows) when animal welfare improvements were documented. Natrel gets its milk via Agropur, Canada’s largest dairy cooperative, which also supplies Sealtest. Both offer better certified organic options. All are ultra-high-heat-pasteurized to last oddly long times.
SCORE: N
HEWITT’S/Liberté GOAT MILK
Goat milk hasn’t taken off in North America the way goat cheese has. But it’s got the advantage of being lower in lactose. Hewitt says the goats on its conventional farms are mostly kept in group pens indoors, despite the grazing goat on the label. And like with Hewitt’s and Liberté’s conventional cow products, the goats can be given antibiotics and GMO feed. However, Hewitt’s certified organic goat milk in returnable glass bottles come from goats that get 120 to 150 days of pasturing a year, depending on the weather, and are hand-milked on Amish farms in Ontario.
SCORE: NN
ROLLING MEADOW
This new kid on the block is making a splash with its grassy branding. The “100% grass-fed” claims are a bit of a stretch since about half its farmers are mid-transition, still supplementing with oats, barley and non-GMO soy. The other half have shifted to 100 per cent grass-fed (or hay, depending on the season). RM doesn’t follow organic standards to a T, but it does outlaw the administering of any antibiotics and hormones to its cows, and their pasture grazing period is half the year, weather permitting. Great, since grass-fed cows are said to emit less methane, though there’s heated debate about this. Since it lacks the third-party monitoring of certified organics (helps keep costs down, says the ceo), it would be nice to see it at least get SPCA- or Local Food Plus-certified.
SCORE: NNNN
ORGANIC MEADOW
This national brand that once supplied PC Organics is actually a co-op of 66 small family-run, certified-organic Ontario farms, producing 80 per cent of all the organic milk in this province. It doesn’t make a big deal about it, but like all organic dairies, its cows get to pasture (up to 22 hours a day) half the year, and get plenty of outdoor time in winter, too. They do get some grains, but nearly all its farmers grow their own certified organic, GMO-free winter feed (oats, peas, barley, soy and whole plant corn silage, as well as hay). The company also offers yogurt, kefir, cheese and lactose-free options.
SCORE: NNNNN
HARMONY ORGANIC
A pioneer of the local, certified-organic movement, Harmony has chosen to stay small and close to home. It buys from 14 Ontario family farms with average herds of 50 cows that get to graze roughly 180 days a year on pasture and go outside daily year round. Any grains fed are certified organic and GMO-free, and mostly grown on the farms. What’s nice about Harmony is that all the milk with its name on the label actually comes from its own farms, whereas most organic milk, like regular milk, is pooled, then divided for sale on the market. Harmony offers milk in cartons, bags and old-fashioned glass bottles that get sanitized and reused a good dozen times.
SCORE: NNNNN
