I'm not buying Horizon products anymore.

How disturbing to learn that the Horizon brand is actively undercutting the trust necessary to further grow the market for organic products. I'm glad there are people like Julie Guthman (I read her book 3 years ago, and it is as fascinating as it is disturbing), and organizations like the Cornucopia Institute!

No more Horizon for me!

This article reminded me of the importance of staying vigilant and not taking anything for granted.  I avoid dairy products in general anyways for environmental and humane reasons, but it is still sad to realize the truth about Horizon as it is so popular in my area.  

Buy your milk directly from the farmer.  You can see for yourself how well the cows are cared for.  Your farmer gets 100% of the profit (which helps him and your local economy).  You get a superior product for the price.  Some farmers will even bring the milk to you -- at the Farmer's Market or a convenient "pick up point".

Sadly, we've seen over and over again that big corporations put profit ahead of ethics.  Horizon is just the latest example.

Does anyone realize we're the only mammals to still drink milk after weening?

Not to mention "Organic" is used so loosely now it's almost a joke.

Soy me up.

    I suggest you get the real facts on Horizon before you judge them. Cornicopia is a bunch of crackpots that have Horizon in their sights. Don't let any of the processors kid you they are all buying milk from factory farms somewhere.
   

I was once a heavy milk drinker, mmmm, but have weaned myself off of milk and now drink an organic rice drink.  I agree that the best way to go is to buy your milk directly from your farmers, cutting out the supply chain and unfair profits made from large corporations.  I live in Italy (Emilia-Romagna) and have noted that local milk producers have begun installing automatic milk dispensers in our area, which seem to be having success.  Almost as good as having delivered to your doorstep.

Monsanto can certainly find enough scientists to back any evidence they need, i not how can we explain the alarmingly high amount of genetically modified crops in the US.  Do we really want to drink rBST or better allow our children to???????

Here, people, is a wonderful example of why it's great to be vegan. I don't have a problem spending a little extra money for soy milk, when 1. it's not that much more expensive than dairy milk now, and 2. i'm not supporting the abuse and torture of milk cows and their poor babies the are inbred to make more milk cows and their baby boys torn away from them before they are old enough to be without their mother's milk to be turned into veal for all the selfish people who don't realize they are eating baby cow with atrophied muscles-they can not even walk. Anyway, there is my rant, hope I can influence some people.

I'm with you. Soy isn't even that much more expensive than dairy now...and dairy makes you fat anyway.

Yes you can be sure it's organic. But you aren't getting most of the vitamins and minerals added into it since they don't mix well into the soy milk. And then there are host of issues with over consumption of soy in the US as well.

I visited several Clover dairies in Sonoma County and was very impressed with the cows' working conditions. Clover 1 percent is my milk of choice. Oddly enough, after a taste test, it turns out we prefer Clover standard to Clover organic, for milk anyway. And Clover unsalted butter makes the best pastry.

Soy is a problem, given that so much of it is transgenic (mostly engineered with Roundup resistance or Bt - mmmm... pesticide in every bite). Same with canola and corn (not sweet corn, fortunately, but the industrial stream has serious contamination issues). Still, one's best bet for avoiding GMOs is staying away from those processed foods that contain corn byproducts. FYI, if you read a product label and can't figure out what a polysyllabic ingredient is, it's probably corn.

I think that there might be a bit of a misleading argument here about organic milk. I don't think many people inclined to spend the money on organic milk are likely to be so foolish as to think organic milk production is more efficient. Rather I think they are concerned with the "fun" of growth hormones and feed additives present in conventional(?) milk.

I've looked into soy as an alternative and I have to say that I was surprised at the studies and concerns being raised concerning the nutritional values of soy. I've been lead to believe that it was just about the "perfect food substitute."

So if soy and milk are both out, what does that leave me with when I desire a creamy sauce or a handful of oreos?

My grandmother, born in England in the Victorian Age, used to say "all things in moderation."  She died with all but one of her own teeth and all of her internal organs at the ripe old age of ninety something (a benign, slow growing brain tumor did her in because she opted out of surgery). From the age of 18 until her death she weighed within 5 pounds one way or the other of 125lbs except during pregnancy.  She walked every day, read every day, and played some every day.  Dip your organic oreos in organic milk, fresh from the farmer milk, or soy milk, coffee, or tea -- and enjoy.  Milk and soy need not be "out" -- just in moderate balance with the rest of your diet.  

I know because I agreed to be a plaintiff, since I bought Horizon "organic" milk at the local Wal-Mart, my only local source of organic anything. I think soy has its virtues, and you can avoid GM soy by choosing organic. GM is forbidden by the organic label. I use soymilk in everything except coffee--for which I buy whole organic milk, the Wal-Mart is now stocking Stonyfield brand--and yogurt, for which I buy the fatfree milk and make the yogurt myself. I am highly suspicious of those studies that supposedly showed environmental harms from organic dairy production and increased efficiency from the artificially pumped-up cows. It's good they're going to replicate the study--IF the scientists doing the new studies are free of conflicting interest!

If you look into the origin of many of the studies on soy and soy milk, the dairy industry is behind them. Conflict of interest?

 Doesn't soy cause thyroid problems? I dont think any food is without its problems, but does anyone know which brands of organic are honestly organic? how can i find out?

If Soy milk is also getting a bad rap, have there been any studies on the benefits/cons of rice or almond milk?

thinkagain,

could you provide some sources to back up your claim or is this an assumption? vandana shiva is not a fan of soy from both an environmental and human health standpoint, and she is certainly not funded by the dairy industry.

doctors will tell you that the jury's out about how much soy is good for you if you're a woman--the phytoestrogens may be a contributing factor to estrogen-receptive breast cancer in postmenopausal women.

most soy is grown in an extractive and environmentally damaging way. of course, most of that soy is used for animal feed--if it was eaten by humans there would be a lot more to go around for vegans.

also, some soy milks, such as silk, are made with palm oil. in fact there's more palm oil being used in food products than in any biofuel. so do your part to stop the destruction of ourang-outang habitat by boycotting both palm oil biodiesel AND palm oil food products.

but given conventionally grown soy and grass fed dairy, for all the reasons listed above, i'll take the grass fed dairy any day. we've got a great company in the midwest that sells grass fed cow milk in glass bottles to all the co-ops, and you can return the glass bottles to the dairy for a credit.

was what i meant above. :)

I just wanted to make some comments on the article quoted by otocco.  While rBST may cause cows to give more milk, thereby making them more "efficient", its use has a significant downside.  Cows treated with this hormone may experience a number of health issues, including fertility problems, an increased incidence of mastitis, and open sores at the injection site.  This is likely to lead to an increased use of antibiotics and other drugs, pain and suffering for the cows, and, possibly, a shortening of their productive life-which is the only kind of life permitted to most cows these days.    Efficiency is all well and good, but when it comes comes to meddling with living, sentient beings, we need to have some limits, for the sake of decency.  After all, it was the push to make livestock raising more "efficient"  that created our appalling "factory farms" in the first place.
      Besides, I'd rather drink milk from a healthy cow than a sick one.

Relating to that Weston Price link, here's my experience to relate:  Last summer I was all gung-ho to switch to raw milk for breakfast cereal & coffee.  I bought raw milk at my local Whole Foods (PCC never seemed to carry it) and found it pleasing, never had any problems relating to sanitary issues.  About the same time I began tracking my menstrual cycles on a calendar.  My cycles have always been up to 30 days long (no complaints!) but I found my cycles were getting shorter - as little as 23 days!  I took my case to my naturopath who informed me that this was still technically 'normal' so she wasn't going to pursue the matter.  (Not normal for me dammit!)  Somewhat randomly, I went nearly a month without buying raw milk and switched back to the almond milk we always keep around.  Poof!  My cycles went back to 28-30 days long and have held like that for a few months now.  My theory is that just as pasteurization destroys nutrients in the milk, it also destroys estrogens that are present because cows are milked at inappropriate times in their reproductive cycle.  Such is the way of modern, industrial farming - even small scale, raw milk producers, sadly.  I won't do soy milk for a variety of reasons and rice milk has too much sugar.  Almond milk it is for me.  

I'll give the almond milk a try for my morning cereal.  I totally agree that rice milk has far too much sugar and most of the soy milk has lots of sugar too.  At the end of my soy milk days I had at least found the no added sugar variety.  Thanks for the post.