What exactly does organic milk mean?

Hey I was wondering does organic milk mean the animals are being treated well? Instead of in cruel conditions? I really would appreciate it if anyone knew.

No, it doesn't. it means the cows are fed on a diet of organically grown cereals.

I live in the farming community and can confirm that organic dairies kill half thier population at 5 days old ( dairy bulls are no good for meat ). Most live indoors, they are still pumped full of hormones to make them yield more milk, they are still slaughted at 5 years old ( instead of a natural death at 15 ). They are still forced to calf every year to increase yield.

Organic milk is to make people feel better about the cruelty they pay for, thats all.

don't get me wrong, its NOT the farmers fault. In fact, all my farmer friends would rather do things far more naturally. Its people driving down the price of milk so that farming has to resort to these methods to stay in business.

animal cruetly is the fault of people who buy milk. People need to get honest with themselves and admit it.

Milk really needs to be about 75p /pint whereas in the UK its 25p

Not necessarily well-treated animals. Some farms have unfortunately jumped on the "organic" bandwagon and are producing milk with no hormones etc, but without treating the animals any better.
The simple fact is that to produce milk, a dairy cow has to be kept pregnant pretty much all the time. As soon as she gives birth, the calf is taken away and the cow is impregnated again. Those calves may be taken for the veal industry and all that that entails. The cows are generally recognised to be distraught at having their calves ripped away from them.
You might find organic milk from a free-range farm where at least the cows can roam in fields, but the forced pregnancy issue will still be valid, and once the dairy potential is exhausted, the animal may still be slaughtered for cheap meat.

it means the cow have organs

it means the cow eat oganic food and has not been give steriods or anthing unnatural has been add other than pasturization

The cows that the milk came from were not given any steroids, fed any inorganic feed, or any of that other stuff that is previlant in the dairy industry.

no, it means it came from a cow that was not given hormones to make it produce more meat/milk

Not much! Below are links to the legal definition of organic and the 'plain english' version. Note that there is nothing that precludes cruel treatment of the animals and that antibiotics and other drugs *are* allowed with the approval of a veterinarian (which isn't hard to get).

I've got family members that produce both 'traditional' and 'organic' dairy and they consider the organic standard a joke! It's just not that hard to get organically certified anymore.

Organic milk, produced without synthetic chemicals, hormones or antibiotics

It does not have antibiotic and hormones

There are no preservitives or added chemicals in it at all.
Its the healthiest option available
.

The following is an excerpt from the Organic Valley website:

Organic milk is produced without using antibiotics, synthetic hormones, or pesticides. The independent family farmers who cooperatively own Organic Valley raise their cows with 100%-certified organic feed and allow them to graze regularly on certified organic pastures. The result is nutritious and wholesome milk.

In my opinion, the animals used to produce organic products are in fact treated more humanely because of the fact they are not being pumped full of all that artificial stuff and their diet has nothing artificial in it. To me, that's a lot more humane than the animals who do get pumped full of the artificial stuff just to produce more product.

Yes, it generally does. The cows are not fed all the horrible things factory-farmed animals are, kept in miserable feed lots, and their health is looked after much better because they can't just stuff them with antibiotics and keep on milking them.