MOFGA urges Danone to reverse its decision to drop Northeast dairy farms

File Photo A total of 89 organic dairy farms, including 14 in Maine, will lose their market for milk with the end of the Horizon contract.

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By Jessica Hall

The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association has joined with eight other organic organizations to urge Danone North America to reverse a contract decision leaving 89 organic dairy farms in the Northeast without a market for the milk they produce.

In recent years France’s Danone S.A., the owner of Horizon Organic, has transitioned milk procurement to large farms in the West and Midwest. In August, the company notified 89 organic dairy farm families, including 14 in Maine, that their contracts would end next year and as it pulled out of the northeastern U.S. market. That would leave the farms no outlet for their milk.

The organic groups sent two petitions, with 15,234 signatures, to Greg Wolf, director of producer relation management, and Shane Grant, executive vice president and CEO at Danone North America. Danone was not immediately available for comment.

“Dairy farming is the backbone of many rural communities, sustaining local veterinarians, feed and farm suppliers, schools, hospitals, the tax base and downtown businesses. This mass termination of organic dairy contracts in the Northeast will have a profound and negative impact on local economies, community resilience and the environment,” said MOFGA’s executive director, Sarah Alexander.

MOFGA, along with Maine’s congressional delegation, Gov. Janet Mills, the state Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, and other groups have also requested that Danone reconsider its decision.

MOFGA said it will continue to work on this issue. Currently there are no commercial organic milk processing facilities in the state. Maine milk is shipped to New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania and New York. Maine farms are the last on the trucking line.

Several Maine farms are coming together to assess the viability of creating commercial-scale organic milk processing in the state, and MOFGA is advocating for investments from the state and federal levels to support this effort.

“We know from previous studies around organic dairy feasibility that Maine consumers want to support Maine organic dairy farms, and want the option to purchase Maine organic milk from retailers,” MOFGA said in a statement.