To start off our morning the group was given a tour of the Kruse’s farm which was a second take for Luke and me, but still good to get another recap. After the tour and breakfast, we crossed state lines made our way to Cashton, Wisconsin to visit Jim Wedeberg at the Organic Valley Cooperative headquarters. Our host family’s farm works in conjunction with the cooperative. Organic Valley is not a corporation; it’s a cooperative of over 2000 farmers from across the country. Their goal is to provide organic food throughout the country. Organic is a method of food production where is food produced without any human made (synthetic) fertilizers, pesticides or preservatives.

At the beginning of the tour, we were shown where all the dairy products are kept, where products are processed, where it gets shipped out, and where the magic happens behind the marketing ideas. After the product tour, we had a discussion about the background of Organic Valley, which started with a handful of Midwest family farmers. It all began in 1988 with the mission to change the way people think about food. They started with organic vegetables and pooled their crops, which they sold in local communities, and then more and more farmers became interested in joining the cooperative. Organic Valley evolved into the nations’ leading producer of organic dairy. Food Politics discussed that most individual farms in the organic sector are still small and “highly specialized” but only make up 7% of all organic sales, which may be why farmers were interested in joining the Organic Valley cooperative.

We also covered the different sustainable practices they incorporated into their building in their pursuit to use 100% renewable energy to become carbon neutral. Their commitment to protect the environment also includes hosting a solar farm, wind turbines, and their administration building, which was certified LEED Gold.. This was interesting to learn about, since Furman has a solar farm that is used to power different parts of campus and also has the first gold LEED efficient building in South Carolina–Hipp Hall. We also were able to see solar panels yesterday at the Welsh organic farm, which are used to power their hen operation and provide shade while the hens are outside.  This is similar to the Furman solar farm where they have sheep that camp under the solar panels and also eat the grass underneath the panels.

Organic Valley’s label is recognizable nationwide. Whenever I see the Organic Valley label, I’ll be reminded of the people behind the brand.