I recently received a comment (Hi Pawan!) asking if Dove is animal-testing-free.  I asked a few of my friends, and they all said they thought Dove was a highly ethical company and probably was cruelty-free.  Dove must have some really good PR, that’s all I can figure (I do like their Campaign for Real Beauty — that seems nice), because Dove is owned by Unilever, which is on PETA’s bad list.  PETA is targeting Unilever, hoping to convince it to go cruelty-free the way Pepsi and Coca-cola have — right now Unilever is torturing piglets and mice.  Do not buy products from Dove if you think piglets and mice should live pain-free lives.

(Unilever also owns Axe, Degree, Finesse, Lever 2000, Pears Transparent Soap, Pond’s, Q-Tips, Salon Selectives, Snuggle, Suave, Sunlight, Sunsilk, Sure, Vaseline, and Wisk.  If you care about animal suffering, please don’t buy those either — cut Unilever off until it stops torturing piglets.)

Tags : cruelty free, dove, peta, unilever

Suppose you’re a moral person who doesn’t like torturing animals but is not averse to killing them for food purposes, yet you want to buy fast food. (Quick disclaimer: I am not an omnivore, but I LIKE omnivorous people who want to switch to not eating factory farmed food. If you’re a humane omnivore, I think you’re a lovely, caring person who is taking a stand against the animal abuse that goes on at battery farms. Though I do think veganism+100%-animal-testing-freeism is the absolute least cruel way to live.)

So anyway, if you’re a humane omnivore, should you go to Jack in the Box, McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, etc? Absolutely not. Especially not Kentucky Fried Chicken (warning: highly disturbing website. Do NOT click there if you don’t like seeing those horrific videos).

So, where can you buy fast food? McDonalds is sort of a good choice because it limits its cage-bound egg-laying chickens to cages that must be at least the size of a laptop. Maybe a “good” choice is not the word I should be using. Not the most evil choice you could make? Anyway, I don’t buy anything egg or meat based from McDonalds because I don’t support animal abuse. Burger King or Carl’s Jr are better choices because they also have cage-free eggs. Not that any of the meats they sell are humanely-raised. Appallingly, abusively raised, more likely.

However — your best option by far is Chipotle. They have GREAT vegan options — you can customize any burrito, taco, or salad to be completely vegan — just get the (vegan) black beans instead of the (made with lard/bacon) pinto beans, peppers instead of meat, guacamole and lettuce instead of sour cream and cheese, and you still have a choice of three different kinds of salsa (the spicy one is really, really good. I am completely addicted to it). (I found this great blog that confirms that these Chipotle items are really vegan, — please click here.)

If you’re a vegetarian, while the cheese and sour cream do not come from certified nonfactory farms (Hello Chipotle? Why EVER not?), the cheese is 100% vegetarian — no newborn calves stomachs were chopped up to provide rennet to start this cheese, and the sour cream is from cows not treated with synthetic rGBH hormones. If you’re an ethical omnivore, the pork served at Chipotle is 100% humanely-raised, the chicken is 60%-humanely-raised, and the beef is 40% humanely raised. (I’m not really sure why the chicken and beef aren’t 100%-humanely raised. Hello, Chipotle? Please change this. Along with switching to buying only certified humane sour cream and cheese. Because right now I’m desperately trying to only eat vegan burritos — rice, black beans, peppers, corn, some of all three different salsas (yes!  you can get all three — just ask for them), guacamole and lettuce — and I really, really miss eating sour cream and cheese on those. But I am not going to until those are less inhumanely obtained.)

Chipotle Information on their humane farming practices:

Most pigs do not spend their lives on open pastures, but live in Concentrated Animal Feed Operations, or CAFOs. The conditions in a CAFO are bad, even horrendous. In many ways, they look more like factories than farms. Pigs are crowded so closely with other pigs that they must be given antibiotics from a young age to avoid the spread of infection. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, American pork producers use 10 million pounds of antibiotics per year to keep their confinement raised pigs from getting sick. That’s more than an estimated three times the amount used to treat all human illnesses.
Pigs raised in these “factory farm” conditions, about 95 percent of all of the pigs raised in this country, often don’t even have room to turn around in their crates, let alone experience the outdoors. It’s stressful and inhumane for them, and it’s surely not healthy for us either.
We think there’s a better way to do things.
It’s called old-fashioned animal husbandry, which means farmers rely on care, not chemicals, to tend their animals and their land. Pigs raised in this way are not given antibiotics, and their feed does not contain animal by-products. They are free to roam the pasture, to root in deeply bedded barns, and to socialize with other pigs.
We believe pigs that are cared for in this way enjoy happier, healthier lives and produce the best pork we’ve ever tasted. We call pork produced according to these standards naturally raised, and sourcing it for our restaurants is part of a larger mission we’ve dubbed Food With Integrity, an ongoing quest to source the highest quality food from farmers who care deeply about the welfare of their animals, their land, and their communities.
Since 2001, all of the pork served in our restaurants has been from pigs raised in this humane, ecologically sustainable way. In addition to all of our pork, nearly 60 percent of our chicken and more than 40 percent of our beef is naturally raised. And we’ll continue until all of our meats in all of our restaurants meet this standard.
Once again, naturally raised pork at Chipotle means:
· No antibiotics, ever.
· Letting pigs exhibit their natural behaviors in open pasture or
deeply-bedded pens.
· Vegetarian feed with no animal by-products.

Here are some of our suppliers for naturally raised pork: duBreton (certified raised humane and handled), Niman Ranch (animal welfare approved), Ozark Mountain, and Pioneer Pork (supposedly free farmed certified, though not listed on the American Humane website — I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming the American Humane association takes a while to update their website). (I’m also giving Ozark Mountain the benefit of the doubt — I didn’t find anything about Ozark Mountain on any humane farming labels — I assume (hope!) the Chipotle people went out and made sure Ozard Mountain does not do any factory farming.)

Tags : chipotle, cruelty free, fast food, humane farming

The Netherlands Toxicogenomics Centre has decided to devote 54 million euros ($78 million in U.S. dollars) to alternative-to-animal-testing-methods. A scientist at the NTC is quoted as saying:

“In vitro testing in combination with genomics will contribute to the development of valuable alternatives for the present testing methods, which are largely dependent on animal testing.”

Isn’t that fantastic? The article does not mention what brought this huge increase in funding to alternatives to animal testing — was it a general increase in popular sentiment against animal testing? Technological breakthroughs that make alternative methods seem more possible now than in the past? The imminent arrival of the animal-testing-for-cosmetic-purposes ban that will go into effect in 2013 in Europe? The news article does mention that the government will provide 25 million euros, and that the other 29 million will come from contributions from the NTC’s own research institutions and industry.

I looked up the NTC’s webpage, and I find it really fascinating that they’re attempting to combine in vitro testing methods with genomic technologies. They state that current toxicological research is bad for two reasons:

1. Because it uses animals as models for humans, which is just poor science, and,
2. Because it uses short-term (inhumane) laboratory experiments and extrapolates from them to theorize about how poisons will affect people over long periods of time, which is crazy because many poisons are only poisonous over long periods of time.

The NTC’s field is “toxicogenomics” — the “application of genomics-based technologies in toxicological research.” From what I can gather, it’s combining in vitro methods with those weird biotech biological-silicone chips. The NTC describes this as trying to “understand toxicological mechanisms towards developing new and better test methods that also provide alternatives to animal testing, by developing highly predictive screens based on gene expression or protein/metabolite fingerprints, to be used for in depth evaluation of chemical safety for human health, thereby replacing/reducing/refining animal experiments, and thereby, for improving the scientific basis of chemical risk assessment.”

I think this means that the NTC’s main focus is on how toxic chemicals react with genetic diseases — its current research projects focus on trying to figure out how carcinogenicity, immunotoxicity, and reproduction toxicity work (and eventually stop them, I hope!), anyway.

The NTC focuses on combining various genomics-based-techniques such as microarray-based technologies (I didn’t know what those were, so I looked them up — there’s actually a whole blog devoted to microarray-based technologies — it looks like it’s a “sequence of dots of DNA, protein, or tissue arranged on an array for easy simultaneous analysis,” usually in a silicon chip) along with other “-omics technologies” such as proteomics (the large-scale study of proteins) and metabonomics (study of the unique chemical fingerprints that specific cellular processes leave behind).

I could not be more pleased that scientists in the Netherlands are combining cool biotechnology with in vitro methods. Isn’t it amazing? I hope we’ll eventually see a complete elimination of animal testing in the fields of carcinogenicity, immunotoxicity, and reproduction toxicity.

Tags : , alternatives to animal testing, cruelty free, netherlands toxicogenomics centre, toxicogenomics

I meant to write about this long ago — Deni, a commenter on my Clover Milk post (Hi Deni!), pointed out that Cornucopia.org has a lot of information on the details of various organic and faux-organic dairy farms — so if you’re concerned about buying milk, you can read up on the details at Cornucopia.org (Pearl — you’ve used Cornucopia.org, right? Has it been useful?). Cornucopia’s goal is to “fight for economic justice for the family-scale farming community. Through research, advocacy, and economic development,” its “goal is to empower farmers both politically and through marketplace initiatives.” It runs the Organic Integrity Project, which acts as a “corporate watchdog assuring that no compromises to the credibility of organic farming methods and the food it produces are made in the pursuit of profit.” Cornucopia.org also “actively resists regulatory rollbacks and the weakening of organic standards to protect and maintain consumer confidence in the organic food label.” Cornucopia has some really fascinating information on how certain “bad” organic farms have managed to obey the letter of the law but not the spirit by producing goods that conform to the restrictions the USDA organic labeling requires, but have found loopholes that make any real organic-devotee horrified. One thing these so-called organic farms do is sell their calves after they are first born to normal “bad” farms that over-antibioticize, use reproductive hormones, feed the cattle non-vegetarian-probably- containing-ground-up- cattle-bits-that- will-give-you- mad-cow-disease food for the first two years of their lives, and then buy the calves back when they are two years old and start producing milk. So Cornucopia really provides a valuable service by bringing these practices to light. (Disclaimer: I do think being a vegan is the absolutely best way to be cruelty-free — no dairy farm I’ve heard of is perfectly cruelty-free — read the comments in the Clover post to learn about various complaints people make about dairy farms — but if you’d like to buy milk from cows that lead better, more humane lives than most commercially farmed cows, Cornucopia.org and the American Humane Association will point you in the right direction.)

I think this is very useful if used in conjunction with the American Humane Association’s “free-farmed” list — you can look up dairy farms on the free-farmed list to make sure you’re buying products that are nicer to the farm animals than most farms, and then you can look up the details on Cornucopia.org. For example, Cornucopia.org has given Clover-Stornetta, the AHA certified free farmed farm that’s stocked at my local grocery stores, a rating of 4/5 — and a detailed scorecard:

Clover-Stornetta Scorecard:

Farm Name: Clover Stornetta

Rating: 4/5

Products: Fluid milk products

Market Area: California

Web site: http://www.cloverstornetta.com

Four family-operated farms, ranging in size from 150 to 380 cows, modest in scale by California standards, ship to Clover Stornetta Farms. Half of this milk is supplied by members of the Humboldt Cooperative Creamery in Northern California, a farmer-owned cooperative that has been a leader in defending organic integrity. Clover Stornetta writes

“Clover Stornetta Farms and its mascot Clo the Cow have been prominent figures in Sonoma County for over three decades. In 2000, Clover Stornetta Farms became the first dairy in the United States awarded with the American Humane Association’s Free Farmed label for humanely produced dairy products. This means that Clover cows are free from unnecessary distress, fear, pain, injury, discomfort, hunger, or thirst. Clover is the only dairy in California to be awarded with this certification.”

Ownership structure: 80/100 points, “Partnership-farmer ties”

Milk Supply : 90/100 points, “50% Own patrons/Humboldt”

Disclosure of Information for Verification: 100 /100 points, “Extensive disclosure”

Certifier farms : 80/100 points, “CCOF and QAI”

Certifier processing: 90/100 points, “QCS”

Cows on pasture time/acreage provided : 80/100 points, “Legitimate pasture in challenging climate”

Health and longevity of cows : 100 /100 points, “Low cull rate”

Replacement animals only from organic farms : 100 /100 points, “Closed herds”

Antibiotics used on young cattle : 100 /100 points, “Never”

Reproductive hormones used : 50/100 points, “Not to our knowledge”

Farm support oversight : 90/100 points, “All dairies and visited regularly by staff”

Outside dairy ingredients purchased : 80/100 points, “Humboldt preferred powder vendor”

TOTAL SCORE: 1040 /1200 points, Overall ranking: 4/5 — “excellent”

As you can see, Clover missed one star (and scored 1040 out of 1200 possible points), which bumped it down from “outstanding” to “excellent,” because it lost a few points in several categories — it is a family business with close ties/partnerships with farmers, but not a farmer-owned-cooperative or owned-and-operated by a resident farm family, its milk supply is only 50% from its own dairies, not 100% from a single family farm, it is certified by CCOF and QAI, which Cornucopia only ranks as 80/100 possible points, its certifier processing is QCS, which Cornucopia only ranks as 90/100 possible points, its cows aren’t in pastures all the time — Cornucopia has some complicated algorithm so it gives Clover 80/100 possible points for pasturage — it scored 50/100 points for hormone usage (I’m a little confused by this — “not to our knowledge” must not be adequately keeping reproductive hormones out?), it has a staff that visits the dairies regularly, but the staff does not live on the dairy farm, and Clover does purchase outside ingredients from Humboldt dairies (though Humboldt is highly rated by Cornucopia standards). However, Clover scored full 100/100 points in several categories — extensive disclosure of information for verification to Cornucopia, a low cull rate (yes! I care about this one a lot), closed herds (I like this one too!), and never using antibiotics in young cattle (probably good).

While I like the organic information Cornucopia provides, I’m really concerned with animal welfare. This means that I’m especially happy that Clover has a low cull rate, which means the herds are pretty healthy, closed herds, which means Clover doesn’t sell the cows at birth to “bad” farms and buy them back when they are two years old and ready to produce milk, and I’m mildly pleased that Clover doesn’t use reproductive hormones and overuse antibiotics because reproductive hormones sound unpleasant and overusing antibiotics leads to staph infections. However, I’m not so pleased that Clover only scored 80/100 points on the pasture. I’d prefer to buy from a dairy that scores 100 points for pasture. (Though that’s really problematic because I haven’t seen any other milk products around here that are both on the AHA free farmed list and scores 100/100 points. If you live in the Bay Area — are any of the five or four star dairy products available at a store near you? If so, which ones?)

Here’s the exact scale Cornucopia uses to determine the scores:

1. Market Area

• public
• private

2. Ownership Structure

• 100 Farmstead dairy (owned and operated by resident farm family)
• 90 Farmer-owned cooperative
• 80 Family-owned business with close ties/partnership with farmers
• 70 Corporate/investor owned with deep roots/ties with farmers
• 65 Stonyfield: unique governance policy with Hirshberg family
• 60 Investor-owned corporation
• 50 Investor-owned corporation with questionable track record
• 25 Any ownership with history as a “bad actor”
• 0 No answer

3. Milk Supply

• 100 Farmstead dairy
• 95 Farmstead dairy, buys additional milk from neighbors
• 90 Cooperative/small corporation/multiple farms (from own patrons)
• 85 50% or more from own patrons plus a highly rated supplier
• 70 Purchases some outside milk from highly rated suppliers
• 60 Purchases subcontracted out without direct control
• 50 Purchases some percentage of milk from “open market”
• 0–30 Purchases some percentage of milk from confinement dairies (points depend on percentage)
• 0 No answer

4. Disclosure/Farm Contact Information for Verification

• 100 Full disclosure
• 0–90 Partial disclosure (points depend on number of questions fully answered)

5/6. Farm Certifier
Ratings (0–100) for certifiers are based on the history and integrity of the certifying organization and its history
of approving certification of farms that are suspected of creating/exploiting loopholes in the current regulations.

• CCOF California Certified Organic Farmers
• COFA California Organic Farmers Association
• GOA Global Organic Alliance
• ICO Indiana Certified Organic
• IDALS Iowa Dept of Agriculture and Land Stewardship
• Integrity Integrity Certified International
• MOSA Midwest Organic Service Association
• NOFA-VT Northeast Organic Farming Association–Vermont
• OC One Cert
• OEFFA Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association
• OTCO Oregon Tilth
• PCO Pennsylvania Certified Organic
• QAI Quality Assurance International
• Stellar Stellar Certification Services (Demeter)
• VOF Vermont Organic Farmers

7. Pasture Provided
Rating 0–100 is based on the following criteria:

• Policies requiring pasture in addition to USDA regulations
• Enforcement/oversight
• Amount of acreage available per cow on the firm’s largest farms
• Average days cows are on pasture per year
• Permissible exemptions

8. Cull rate
Rating is based on the health and longevity of a farm’s cattle, taking into account the farm’s slaughter rate/cull rate.

• 100 Annual cull rate under 10%
• 90 Annual cull rate under 30%
• 50 Limited information supplied

9. Management History of Replacement Animals (Calves and Heifers)

• 100 Closed herd (no purchases of outside animals)
• 95 Organic cows purchased for growth only—not replacement
• 90 All replacement animals managed organically from last third of gestation
• 75 Organic cows purchased based on commercial availability
• 50 Conventional animals purchased
• 10 Calves sold at birth, conventional cattle bought for replacements
• 5 Calves shifted off to contractors who raise them with conventional feed/drugs for first year of life,then shift them back to organic production
• 0 No answer

10.Antibiotic Use on Young Cattle

• 100 All antibiotic use prohibited
• 75 Not regulated by firm (default to USDA standards)
• 50 Antibiotic use allowed during first year of life
• 25 Commercial replacement cattle purchased (antibiotic use unknown)
• 5 Calves are sold, to take advantage of loophole, and managed conventionally for first year of life
• 0 No answer

11. Hormone Usage
It should be noted that hormones for increasing milk production (genetically engineered bovine growth hormone—BGH or rBST—are prohibited in organic dairy production. Some farms choose to use therapeutic ormones during reproduction (oxytocin).

• 100 No hormones used on farm
• 50 Hormones used therapeutically
• 0 No answer

12. Farm Support/Oversight/Supervision
Characteristically, farmstead producers are with their cows every day and personally supervise the production of he dairy products. In the words of one such farmer, “We live here.” Some organizations have a dedicated field staff, or the owner visits with the organic farmers regularly.

• 100 Farmstead dairies (owner farms/lives on-site)
• 90 Cooperative/corporation that sets standards and has a staff that visits farms regularly
• 75 Depends on third party for supervision
• 5 No direct supervision/no personal relationship with farm
• 0 No answer

13. Procurement of Outside Ingredients

• 100 100% of dairy products come from within the organization (full control)
• 90 Outside purchases are from other highly rated dairy organizations
• 50 Dairy ingredients purchased from a number of different vendors, with less direct control
• 25 Purchases from anonymous suppliers (“open market”)
• 0–25 Purchases ingredients from confinement factory farms(points depend on percentage) or imports
• 0 No answer

Cornucopia describes its rankings as:

• • Five-cow-rated dairy marketers. These “outstanding” farmstead dairies are the top-rated dairy brands in our study. The top seven farms in this category had perfect scores of 1200. Their intimate relationship with their cowsand complete control over their milk and other dairy ingredients, not to mention that 100% of profits go back to the farm family, are what distinguish this group. Farms rated just under 1200 might have less than 100% controlof their milk supply (they might buy from a few neighbors) or the products they manufacture might require other off-farm dairy products, like milk powder. However, they are still very much hands-on manufacturers in comparison to larger commercial entities, and a wonderful way for consumers to directly connect with their food.
  • Four-cow-rated dairy marketers are generally larger commercial manufacturers or marketers of dairy products. They tend to buy milk from many different farmers or wholesale from a milk supplier who manages the relationship with individual farmers. All the “excellent” brands in this category are highly respected and sourcetheir milk from family-scale farms.
  • Three-cow-rated dairy marketers. The two “very good” companies in this segment both deserve specialrecognition and encouragement. Ben & Jerry’s found it impossible, as they desired, to find enough organic milin Vermont to meet their needs. Committed to start offering organic ice cream, they currently buy milk on the open market. HP Hood markets milk under the Stonyfield name and buys all their milk from a wide number ofsources of family-farm milk. The nature of their procurement practices give them much less control over the supervision of their farms. They are working hard to upgrade their direct control over their milk supply and, boththese companies could potentially rise in future rankings..
  • Two-cow-rated dairy marketers. These “good” private-label brands have what appear to be a questionable long-term commitment to organics. Note that this information is based on industry sources and governmentalrecords. No private-label supplier participated in the study.
  • One-cow-rated dairy marketers (PRIVATE-LABEL). These are “substandard” with some or all factory-farm milk or milk from unknown sources. (However, even though rated lower, we consider this milk to be superior to conventional milk). Note that this information is based on industry sources and governmental records. No private-label supplier participated in the study.
  • One-cow-rated dairy marketers (BRAND-NAMES). These are also “substandard” and appear with a one cow ranking either because some or all of their milk come from factory farms and/or because they refused to be open with their customers as to where their milk comes from.

Deni also mentioned that Switzerland and France may only allow pasture-raised cows (I shall have to look into this — I mean, I know Switzerland banned veal crates, pig gestation crates, and chicken battery cages, so it seems likely), so you can eat Swiss and French cheese with less cruelty, and that if you buy cheese with “suggestions of lavender” the cows that ate it probably were in pastures eating lavender, which they probably enjoyed. I actually don’t eat much cheese, but I’m fully determined to only eat cheese from Switzerland and France in the future. (Since I love French cheeses, I don’t think this will be too difficult.) I shall also look for the “suggestions of lavender” because I like to support feeding cows lavender.

Here’s the list of all Cornucopia’s organic farm rankings:

Cornucopia Rankings of Organic Dairies:

5 Cow Rating (Outstanding)

• Animal Farm Orwell, VT Butter Vermont (total score: 1200)
• Evans Farmhouse Creamery Norwich, NY Fluid milk products New York/New Jersey (total score: 1200 )
• Green Hills Harvest Purdin, MO Fluid milk products Iowa, Kansas, Missouri (total score: 1200 )
• Kimberton Hills Phoenixville, PA Fluid milk products (raw) Pennsylvania (total score: 1200 )
• Oak Grove Organics Carthage, IL Fluid milk products (Cheese and butter) Chicago/W. Illinois (total score: 1200 )
• Organic Pastures Dairy Company Fresno, CA Fluid milk products (raw) California or sold as pet food (total score: 1200 )
• Radiance Dairy Fairfield, IA Fluid milk products Fairfield, Iowa (total score: 1200 )
• Butterworks Farm Westfield, VT Yogurt East Coast (total score: 1190 )
• Crystal Ball Farms Osceola, WI Fluid milk products Minnesota/Wisconsin (total score: 1190 )
• Seven Stars Phoenixville, PA Yogurt East Coast / Midwest (total score: 1190 )
• Hails Family Farm Wyalusing, PA Cow and goat milk, cheese, yogurt, kefir East Coast (total score: 1185 )
• Cedar Summit Dairy New Prague, MN Fluid milk/yogurt/ice cream Minnesota (total score: 1180 )
• Hawthorne Valley Farm Ghent, NY Yogurt, cheese, raw milk sales on the farm East Coast (total score: 1180 )
• PastureLand Dodge Center, MN Cheese, butter (seasonal production) Midwest (total score: 1170 )
• Traders Point Farms Zionsville, IN Fluid milk/yogurt Indiana/Illinois (total score: 1170 )
• Strafford Organic Creamery Strafford , VT Fluid milk products E. New Hampshire (total score: 1165 )
• Butternut Farms Gilbersville, NY Cheese Nationwide (total score: 1155 )
• Castle Rock Farms Osseo, WI Fluid milk products Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois (total score: 1150 )
• St. John’s Organic Farm Emmett, ID Fluid milk products (not homogenized) Idaho (total score: 1150)

4 Cow Rating (Excellent)

• Organic Choice Prescott, WI Wholesale milk, cheese Nationwide (total score: 1135 )
• Organic Valley (CROPP) La Farge, WI Full line dairy Nationwide (total score: 1135 )
• This Land is Your Land Wilmington, DE Fluid Milk Products,goat cheese and yogurt Nationwide (total score: 1130 )
• Wisconsin Organics Thorp, WI Fluid, cheese, butter Midwest, plus (total score: 1130 )
• Cedar Grove Cheese Plain, WI Cheese Nationwide (total score: 1125 )
• Amish Country Farms Totowa, NJ Fluid milk products Nationwide (total score: 1100 )
• Julie’s (Oregon Ice Cream) Eugene, OR Ice cream Nationwide (total score: 1100 )
• Nancy’s (Springfield Creamery) Eugene, OR Yogurt/sour cream, cream & cottage cheese Nationwide (total score: 1095 )
• Sibby Farm Westby, WI Ice cream Midwest (total score: 1095 )
• Natural by Nature West Grove, PA Fluid, whip cream East Coast, whipped cream nationwide (total score: 1085 )
• Humboldt Creamery Fortuna, CA Ice cream, powder Nationwide (total score: 1075 )
• Organic Creamery (DCI Cheese) Sun Prairie, WI Cheese Nationwide (total score: 1075 )
• Whole Foods Markets (365 organic) Austin, TX Fluid milk products Nationwide (total score: 1070 )
• Farmers All Natural Creamery Wellman, IA Fluid milk products, cheese Midwest, Atlanta (total score: 1045 )
• Helios Sauk Centre, MN Kefir Nationwide (total score: 1045 )
• Lifeway Morton Grove, IL Kiefir Nationwide (total score: 1045)
• Clover Storenetta Petaluma, CA Fluid milk products California (total score: 1040)
• Naturally Iowa Clarinda, IA Milk, ice cream Midwest (total score: 1035)
• Stonyfield (yogurt) Londonderry, NH Yogurt Nationwide (total score: 1035)
• Wallaby Yogurt Napa, CA Yogurt, ice cream Nationwide (total score: 1025)
• Straus Family Creamery Marshall, CA Full line dairy, ice cream, yogurt California (total score: 1010)
• Scenic Central Milk Prod. Co-op Prairie Du Sac, WI Wholesale milk Nationwide (total score: 1005)
• Natural Choice Oxnard, CA Ice cream Nationwide (total score: 965)

3 Cow Rating (Very Good)

• Stonyfield (milk) HOOD Boston, MA Fluid milk products Eastern half US (total score: 845)
• Ben and Jerry’s South Burlingon, VT Ice cream Nationwide (total score: 560)

2 Cow Rating PRIVATE-LABEL (good, but questionable long-term commitment to organics) Note: information based on ”industry sources” no private-label supplier participated in the study

• Harris Teeter Fluid milk products (Unknown region) (total score: 0)
• Heavenly Organics, Inc Sweetened condensed milk Nationwide (total score: 0)
• HyVee Fluid milk products (Unknown region) (total score: 0)
• Kroger (Naturally Prefered) Fluid milk products (Unknown region) (total score: 0)
• Stop & Shop (Natures Promise) Fluid milk products (Unknown region) (total score: 0)
• Wakefern/Shoprite Fluid milk products (Unknown region) (total score: 0)

1 Cow Rating PRIVATE-LABEL (some or all factory-farm milk or unknown source, but better than conventional) Note: information based on ”industry sources” no private-label supplier participated in the study

• Costco (High Meadows-Aurora) Butter Nationwide (total score: 0)
• Costco (Kirkland Signature) Fluid milk products Nationwide (total score: 0)
• Giant (Natures Promise) Fluid milk products (Unknown region) (total score: 0)
• Haggens (Full Circle) Fluid milk products (Unknown region) (total score: 0)
• Ingles Markets Fluid milk products (Unknown region) (total score: 0)
• Safeway ( O - Organics) Fluid milk products (Unknown region) (total score: 0)
• Topco (Full Circle) Fluid milk products (Unknown region) (total score: 0)
• Tops (Natures Promise) Fluid milk products (Unknown region) (total score: 0)
• Trader Joe’s Fluid milk products Nationwide (total score: 0)
• UNFI (Woodstock) Fluid milk products Nationwide (total score: 0)
• Wild Oats Fluid milk products Nationwide (total score: 0)

1 Cow Rating BRAND-NAME (Ethically Challenged) Most produce or purchase factory-farm milk, none were open enough to participate in this study

• Alta Dena (Dean Foods) City of Industry, CA Purchased by Dean Foods. Alta Dena is a brand managed by Dean. West Coast (total score: 0)
• Aurora Organic Dairy Boulder, CO Largest conventional/organic factory-farm operator. Largest Private label manufacturer. Nationwide (total score: 0)
• Back to Nature (Kraft) Glenview, IL Cheese Nationwide (total score: 0)
• Good Heart Organics (Rockview) Downey, CA Fluid milk products California (total score: 0)
• Horizon (Dean Foods) Dallas, TX $11 billion–the nation’s largest conventional & organic milk marketer. Owns 4000 cow “farm”. Nationwide (total score: 0)
• Organic Cow (Dean Foods) Dallas, TX (Northeast) Purchased by Horizon, then Dean Foods. Organic Cow is a brand managed by Dean. East Coast (total score: 0)
• Stremicks (Heritage-Foods) Santa Ana, CA Supplied by factory farm under investigation. Farm paid $300,000 settlement for abusing workers. West Coast (total score: 0)
• Wholesome Valley (Galaxy Foods) Orlando, FL Cheese/processed cheese Nationwide (total score: 0)

Tags : american humane association, clover, cornucopia.org, cruelty free, humane farming, organic

This is an interesting toner — I kind of like it, though it seems like your basic toner to me, and I don’t much care for the scent, which is very strong and very herbal, though it fades pretty quickly. It does seem to help clean my face a little — I’ve been using it with the Dermalogica Dermal Clay Facial Cleanser and I think it helps remove all traces of the clay. It is nice that it doesn’t sting. (It’s 100%-animal-testing free, but it is not vegan or organic, and it’s pretty expensive.)

Dermalogica claims that it provides “critical hydration with a refreshing blend of skin-repairing Aloe, moisture-binding humectants plus soothing Lavender, Balm Mint and Arnica. Contains no artificial fragrance or color. ”

MakeupAlley gives it 3.7/5 stars.

Dermalogica Multi-Active Toner (8.4 oz) is available for $24.25 plus free shipping from Amazon.com.

You can also buy it as part of the Dermalogica sample kit for dry/normal skin for $30 plus free shipping or the Dermalogica sample kit for oily skin for $28.53 plus free shipping from Amazon.

Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Butylene Glycol, Extracts of: Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender), Melissa Officinalis Leaf, Malva Sylvestris (Mallow), Hedera Helix (Ivy), Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit, Sambucus Nigra Flower, Arnica Montana Flower, Parietaria Officinalis, Essential Oils of: Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender), Melissa Officinalis Leaf, Sodium Lactate, Sodium PCA, Sorbitol, Proline, Propylene Glycol, Ricinoleth-40, Methyl Gluceth-20, Polysorbate 20, PEG-12 Dimethicone, Polyquaternium-4, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Chlorpenesin, Methylparaben, Linalool.

Tags : 4/5 stars, cruelty free, Dermalogica, face, skin care, toner