Legal Complaints Filed against Natural Prairie, Massive Livestock Factories

Addressing what it calls the industrialization of the organic farming movement, OrganicEye announced the filing of a formal legal complaint against one of the country’s largest producers of certified organic milk, Natural Prairie. According to the organic industry watchdog, animal abuse and serious environmental degradation have been documented, demonstrating that Natural Prairie, with operations in Texas and a new facility under construction in Indiana, violated federal organic regulations.

In 2019, undercover video footage shot by the advocacy group, Animal Recovery Mission (ARM), implicated Natural Prairie, reportedly managing 25,000 head of cattle near Dalhart, Texas, with extreme “mistreatment and neglect” of animals in squalid conditions. A black eye for the industry, the episode prompted an investigation by USDA.

Natural Prairie is also facing a series of lawsuits filed by Indiana’s Hoosier Environmental Council, charging the factory dairy operator with illegally filling in ditches and wetlands during the construction of their 4350-cow facility in one of the state’s most fragile ecosystems, the Kankakee River basin.