A proposal to eliminate organic milk from Washington state’s WIC program has sparked anger and concern among organic advocates, organic dairy farmers, WIC recipients, and environmental groups.
A supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children, WIC provides coupons that participants can use to buy nutritious foods such as milk, cheese, cereal and produce. Organic milk has been on the state’s list of approved WIC foods since 2002.
But under a proposal from the state’s Health Department, it will not be included in the WIC program’s new food rules for 2009.
The proposed changes also include the qualifier “non-organic” on certain foods on the list, among them cheese, fruit juices and peanut butter.
However, based on competitive-cost considerations and availability, the department is proposing to approve organic fresh fruits and vegetables, a brand of organic bread, organic bulgur, organic brown rice, organic rolled oats and a brand of organic tofu.
Washington is the only state at this time that is approving any organic food other than fresh fruits and vegetables for WIC.
Comments
Although the comment period on this is is closed, the Department of Health accepts comments year round on the WIC program. It will also be gathering and considering comments on this issue even if they come in after the deadline.
A final list of approved foods will be released by the end of October.
Why organic milk? The overriding reason for the proposed changes comes down to cost. Cathy Franklin, nutrition coordinator for the state’s WIC Program, said that when organic milk was added to the list of approved foods in 2000, there wasn’t that much of a price difference between organic and conventional milk.
But now, she said, organic milk is almost twice the cost of non-organic milk.
Another consideration is that many clients choose organic milk as a way to avoid milk from cows treated with bovine growth hormone, or rBST.
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