Drought: North Bay organic dairies desperate [View all]

[KamaAina]

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/California-drought-North-Bay-organic-dairies-5229822.php

Far from the cameras that will be trained on President Obama when he stops in Fresno on Friday to see the havoc wreaked on farms by California's drought, barren pastures and empty ponds threaten the organic dairies of the North Bay.

Organic cows must forage on organic pasture, pasture that by definition must be within a cow's walking distance from the milking barn. Thanks to the drought, there is virtually no pasture in Marin and Sonoma counties - and without locally grown pasture, a farm can't keep its organic certification....

Marin and Sonoma counties are the cradle of the organic dairy industry. The Straus Family Creamery on Tomales Bay became the nation's first fully organic creamery in 1994. Most North Bay dairies are now organic, meeting the rules of the Department of Agriculture's National Organic Program.

Under those rules, cows must forage at least four months on organic pasture, but the North Bay pastures are barren after 13 months with nearly no rain. Local officials have asked the USDA for temporary variance to allow cows to eat organic feed purchased from outside the area until their pastures recover. A decision is due Thursday, said a spokesman for the agency's Agricultural Marketing Service.