When Stonyfield Farm introduced its newest yogurt line at the beginning of 2016, a new seal was stamped on the cups next to the familiar mark of USDA Organic certification. It showed two cows munching on bright green grass in front of a sunny blue sky and read, “PCO Certified 100% Grassfed.”
First introduced in December 2013, Pennsylvania Certified Organic’s (PCO) Grassfed certification was the first third-party verification created to certify grassfed dairy products in the United States. Now, with bigger companies getting into grassfed dairy, the certification is picking up steam and it’s at the center of a larger movement to develop industry standards that support transparency for consumers and farmers who are committed to raising cows on pasture.
“I think ultimately it comes down to what people were asking us for,” said Britt Lundgren, Stonyfield’s director of organic and sustainable agriculture. “We saw that a lot of people are becoming interested in products that are 100 percent grassfed.”
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