Organic Processing Vo1.5 #3

Profit sharing. Organic Valley also shows their respect and gratefulness to their farmers and employees by sharing the profits with them.

Profits earned over operating costs are split 45 percent to farmers, 45 percent to employees and 10 percent to the community fund. Last year, farmers alone were rewarded $7.1 million in profit sharing, production bonuses, dividends and retained earnings.

Supporting the Growth of
Organic

Before getting involved with biodiesel or domestic fair trade—the foundation of all Organic Valley’s environmental and social efforts was, and always will be, organic farming. Organic Valley has many programs set up to further the organic movement—and, once again, everyone from farmers and employees to management, is involved.

Farmers Advocating for Organic (FAFO). Through this program, farmers have a chance to direct funding toward issues that matter to them including everything from scientific research on organic to outreach programs to recruit and support new organic farmers.

What makes this program really extraordinary is the fact that these efforts are voluntarily funded by the farmers themselves. The funding for FASO comes from the money that used to be allocated for something called the “promotion board,” a national program which funds national conventional dairy programs such as the “Got Milk” campaign and research on hormones which are not even used in organic. This program required all dairy farmers to contribute 15 cents per hundred pounds of milk. “We thought about this and said wait a second, this isn’t promoting organic. This is promoting a lot of things that we don’t necessarily agree with. Can we get our 15 cents back?” said Marquez.

Organic Valley finally got them to give back 5 of the 15 cents. Rather than just pocketing this nickel, the Organic Valley farmers decided to put in a fund that they could use to safeguard the organic marketplace. That fund now totals close to $300,000 a year.

“FAFO is truly the farmers’ voice,” said Dan Pearson, Organic Valley farmer-owner and chair of the all-farmer FAFO committee. “It has been an exciting process for the committee to think about how we can use the funds to support the organic movement.”

Growing the next generation of farmers. One of the biggest issues that
Organic Valley and other companies may face in the future is lack of organic
family farmers. To help support budding farmers, FAFO helped fund “Farm

ALL ORGANIC • ALL NON-GMO GRAINS AND OIL SEEDS FOR FOOD PROCESSORS

Organic Lecithin

for your truly organic products

• Emulsifier

• Release agent

• Fat replacer / extender

• Antioxidant

• Dispersing, wetting and instantizing agent

Commercially available in
8-pound buckets, 50-pound pails,
450-pound drums

800-252-1638 (US and Canada) 217-763-2861 Curtis.Bennett@clarksongrain.com Cerro Gordo, IL 61818-0080 www.clarksongrain.com

Indigo Blue Corn –
whole corn and ingredients
Excellent blue color, flavor,
and antioxidant levels.
Great in chips, snacks,
and cereals.
Soybeans and Corns
Specific hybrids/varieties to optimize
your products.