Got Organic Milk? The Natural Dairy Business is Going Mainstream

Milk, cheese, butter, ice cream...all Bessie's bounty, for sure. But if you want to go organic, it means a trip to the health food store, right? Wrong. If you've steered your shopping cart down a dairy aisle lately, you've noticed that certified-organic milk products are now as common as, well, cows.

Despite the fact that retail prices for organic dairy products are often significantly higher than those of their conventional counterparts, and that organic dairy was almost unheard of just five years ago, sales are on fire. According to a recent Data Monitor Information report on organics, in 1999 the U.S. organic dairy industry enjoyed $598 million in sales, enough to capture more than nine percent of the overall organic market. Sales are projected to hit $2 billion by 2003.

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