Street Roots • July 21-27, 2017
Special Report
Page 11
PH O TOS BY A R K A D Y BROW N
Jon Bansen is the owner o f Double J Jerseys, part o f the Organic Valley cooperative.
C o o tm o e d fro m page 10
“We were on a faster rotation, fed them a
lot more grain. We pushed a lot more
production out of our cows,” he said. “That
was the old days where conventional
agriculture was push push push, produce
maximum amounts at really small margins -
and that model is a little broken.”
But that was until 20 years ago, when
George Siemen, the founder of Organic
Valley showed up on his doorstop and asked
Bansen if he wanted to join the organic
cooperative. He became one of Oregon’s
early adopters of the organic milk
movement after that.
In the years since, Bansen said, he’s
watched his soil become healthier and his
pastures lusher, sequestering more carbon.
He’s also watched how bigger dairies’
moving in has coincided with smaller
dairies’ going out of business. But being in
an organic cooperative, he said, he doesn’t
face the same market pressures.
“There were two other dairy farms on our
road,” he said as we walked the perimeter of
his pasture, “this one and another one that
have all closed shop in the last five years.”
Troy Downing, a dairy specialist at
Oregon State University, pointed out that
U.S. milk production is so efficient, with
cows bred for production and advances in
$
M M
Verdant Hills Farm's Rich and Michael Butler say protecting their watershed is a priority.
said. “But the cow doesn’t live nearly as
livestock technologies, that the impact has
long. It’s definitely a shortened lifecycle
been greatly reduced.
because you are pushing that cow really
“Fifty years ago, we had twice the
hard.”
number of dairy cows in the U.S.,”
While beef consumption in the
Downing said, “and we produced
U.S. is trending down,
half the milk. So what we’ve
consumption of U.S. beef in
done by improving that
other parts of the world is
efficiency is we’re feeding
increasing. In June, U.S.
more people on less
1
beef was sold in China
impact - and using grain
[in4@d COW
again for the first time in
has been a big part of
by a
~
14 years, reopening a
that.”
gigantic market for export.
He said most U.S.
gràss-fed
cow
“The appetite for
dairies feed cows a mix of
American beef has grown
grain and forage, which also
tremendously
in Asia in recent
cuts down significantly on
years, with Japan, South Korea and
methane emissions.
Hong Kong rapidly becoming three of the
But the Butlers and Bansen both noted
world’s top five importers of American-
that grain-fed cows produce products
produced beef,” according to a recent
containing harmful Omega 6 fats, rather
press release from the National
than the beneficial Omega 3 fats found in
Cattlemen’s Beef Association. “NCBA said
grass-fed animal products. They said
it will continue to fight for greater and
grass, not grain, is what a cow is
fairer access to foreign markets for
supposed to eat.
American producers.”
“I consider giving them grain cruel. It’s
On the small scale, raising beef and dairy
like giving someone who is lactose
cows doesn’t necessarily have an enormous
intolerant milk,” Rich Butler said.
impact, but what happens when your state
“The disconnect for modern agriculture
is home to 1.3 million cattle?
has been to bring the animals in off the
“We have far too many animals out there,
pasture, put them on concrete, bring the
and there’s too much area being grazed at
food to them, feed them high diet of grains
this moment right now to truly sustain
and you get much more production,” Bansen
Oregon’s biological diversity, particularly in
the face of climate change,” said Boone
Kauffman, senior researcher for the
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at
Oregon State University.
What happens when your country is home
to 93.6 million cattle, like the U.S. was at
the start of the year?
To some cattle industry adversaries, such
as Wuerthner, there is no such thing as
sustainable beef or dairy, no matter where
the animals graze.
The sheer amount of resources needed to
raise cattle and produce dairy heavily
outweighs the sustenance the animal
provides, but federal subsidies and low-cost
public-lands grazing continue to mask the
true cost of beef.
“People are looking for this happy
coincidence where they can say, ‘It’s OK to
eat grass-fed beef,”’ Wuerthner said. “There
are reasons why grass-fed beef is better than
factory-produced stuff, but there are also
reasons why factory-produced beef is better
than grass-fed. In other words, neither is
good.”
Even as a dairy farmer, Bansen said
people should eat mostly plants.
“Truthfully, some Americans probably
consume too many animal products,” he
said. “I say, consume less and consume
really high quality.”
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