The Rural Voice, 2002-05, Page 24Safe & Professional
Dismantling of Barns & Wooden Structures
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20 THE RURAL VOICE
was consistently turned down in his
request until the mid -'90s when
permission was given for an
experimental pool• of six producers to
have their milk picked up specially
and taken to Pine River Cheese and
Butter Co-operative, south of
Kincardine, for processing into the
first organic cheese. At long last the
first cheese went on the market late
in 1994.
Andres praises the far-sightedness
of staff at what is now Dairy Farmers
of Ontario. "We have built that
market with the generous support of
the milk board, and especially the
staff," he says. Staff continue to be
very supportive, he says. "If it hadn't
been for them we would have lost
precious time."
Jn
fact DFO has formed a
committee to identify ways to
meet the growing demand for
organic dairy products. Peter Gould,
DFO marketing and production co-
ordinator pointed out in a recent issue
of Ontario Milk Producer.that the 5.4
million litres of organic milk
produced in the year ending
November 30, 2001 represents about
one-fifth of one per cent of the total
Ontario market for dairy products.
By comparison, Gould pointed out,
organic milk makes up three to four
per cent of the total market in the
U.S. and five to seven per cent in
Europe. "We don't know what that
translates to in Canada."
Meeting the booming demand will
be a problem because of the lengthy
procedure of meeting organic
standards. First of all, a farm must
have used no chemical inputs for
three years for the crops grown on it
to be certified organic by one of the
province's two certification bodie$,
the Organic Crop Producers and
Processors and the Organic Crop
Improvement Association. Even then
it takes several more months for the
milking herd to qualify.
When the initial group of six
producers came together to market
organic milk for cheese production
there was a difficult transition period
for some, Andres recalls. These
producers had been certified organic
for their crops but they were still
buying inputs to feed to their cattle.
To qualify for organic certification
they had to stop using feeds from
conventional sources and replace