Halifax – Nova Scotians may be pouring their first glasses of local organic milk this coming June. It’s a big moment for organic dairy farmers, who have finally found a way to market their milk locally. Even though Nova Scotian farmers have been producing organic milk for six years, industry and political barriers have meant that it has all been getting dumped into the same big tanker truck as conventionally-produced milk.
“The main differences between organic and non-organic dairy,” according to Theresa Richards, who heads the Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network (ACORN), “are how the animals are raised — what they eat and how they live– and how the milk is processed for the final product.”
For milk, this means that a certification agency checks to make sure that the animals eat chemical, GMO, and antibiotic-free food, and that the animals’ healthcare complies with organic standards. Organic standards must also be met at the processing level, where inspectors assure “that no harmful chemical cleaners have been used to clean the lines, and therefore that no chemical residues would be present in the milk,” says Richards.
But the regulatory framework that governs Nova Scotia's milk supply management system has made it difficult for local, organic, milk to find its way to consumers.
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