Straus Family Creamery
Putting a Face on Organic
An interview with Albert Straus, Straus Family Creamery
The Straus Family Creamery is a small, family-owned dairy nestled in the beautiful rolling hills of western Marin County, just north of San Francisco, CA. Albert Straus now runs the dairy that his father began 63 years ago, and the whole family considers themselves both farmers and stewards of the land. They are deeply committed to producing milk and dairy products that are organic and healthful for the general public, and developing sustainable, environmentally sound practices in farming.
They raise their cows without the use of any synthetic substances and all of their products are certified organic. The milk is so rich and fresh-tasting that it is a surprise for most folks to taste, says Albert. The butter, cream and cheeses have won gold ribbons at the Los Angeles County Fair, the American Cheese Society and the California State Fair. Their butter was named the “best butter in America” by House and Garden. In addition to a full line of organic dairy products ranging from egg nog to yogurt, Straus manufactures rich Dutch chocolate, raspberries and cream and vanilla bean ice creams and bulk ingredients such as butter, jack and cheddar cheeses and ice cream mix for other food manufacturers.
The family farm was established when Bill Straus began farming in 1941 on the beautiful shores of Tamales Bay, 60 miles north of San Francisco, with 23 cows. His wife, Ellen, read the book Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson in the early 1960s, and thus began the family’s strong commitment to environmental sustainability. These efforts still guide the Straus family today. When Albert, Bill and Ellen’s oldest son, converted the dairy to organic in 1993, the farm became the first certified organic dairy west of the Mississippi. Albert next forged ahead and opened Straus Family Creamery to bottle milk and produce other dairy products under the family name.
Albert keeps the herd small to maintain the health of both the cows and the land. Recently, the nearby Tresch Family Dairy and the Mattos Family Dairy transitioned to organic, and became an extended part of Straus Family Creamery. The family continues to be active in farmland protection and environmental issues and Albert persists in his drive to remind consumers of the wholesome beauty of simple organic foods. His experience in converting to organic and launching the creamery has taught him many lessons about surviving and thriving in the organic industry.
Albert spent some time with Organic Processing Magazine to share his thoughts about where the organic industry is going and his dream of making organic family farming a sustainable and viable profession.
Organic Processing: What are the most significant developments or initiatives in the organic industry since you converted the dairy farm to organic and launched the creamery?
Albert Straus: I think the biggest thing that has happened in the organic industry is the National Organic Program (NOP)—though for reasons both good and bad. It is good because there are now uniform organic regulations for everyone, and it sets a standard for the entire nation. It also clarifies a lot of organic language. On the other hand, it takes organic issues that are contentious and weakens them. With regard to dairy, the new herd entry rule is convoluted and confusing, especially for farmers trying to convert their herds to organic, and every certifier interprets it differently. In the rule, a calf that is raised organically must be fed only organic feed from birth and cannot receive any antibiotics, yet the entry clause allows farmers to buy a grown cow and convert it to organic after one year—whether or not it has had antibiotics previous to becoming organic.
I’d like to see one rule that makes sense for farmers that maintains the integrity of the organic industry. I’d like calves to be able to receive documented antibiotics in the first six months of life and still be organic. As it now stands, the law encourages the loss of 20% to 40% of the calf crop, which is not sustainable. It’s better to have a closed herd, yet the rule doesn’t support that.
OP: What are the biggest challenges that organic dairy producers face in the organic industry? How can these challenges be successfully met?
Straus: The biggest challenge for us is competition from start-up brands and from traditional companies that are either coming up with organic brands or consolidating existing organic processors, like Horizon, which was bought by Dean Foods. The big corporate entities have more money and more clout, which helps them win market share.
We address this issue by making consumers aware that we are a small family farm producing high-quality products. We are not a large corporate entity. Our company has a face. My mother founded the first agricultural land trust in the nation and we continue to be a family farm practicing sustainable agriculture on a small scale. Our products have no additives or stabilizers. They are simple products that taste good. Organic consumers want high-quality food and they want to know they are supporting a family-run organization. We get that message out through our pack-aging and the media whenever we can.
The other big challenge for us is maintaining the balance between supply and demand for organic milk and making sure that dairy farmers who want to become organic have a market for their milk. The consolidation of companies drives the price of organic milk down making it a constant struggle for dairymen to maintain the price. It’s difficult to balance having the right amount of milk at the right price. We manage that to some extent by marketing products under our own label.
OP: Was the transition to organic difficult? What lessons did you learn during that process?
AS: It took three years to transition the farm to organic. We transitioned the whole herd at once. It took us four or five years to become profitable because it was so expensive. It was a difficult learning curve. We lost 12% of our milk production during that process while we figured out how to take care of the cows and where to find organic feed. Now, our herd health is better than it has ever been.
We helped two other dairies transition to organic and we’ve found a way to make them profitable in one year. Today, the organic feed market is more stable and instead of transitioning the whole herd, we begin with heifers so they come into the herd as “fresh.”
OP: In your company’s experience, what are some of the ways you’ve been able to successfully marry your organic farm operations with organic processing operations? Is it difficult to be both producer and processor, or is this a synergistic relationship?
AS: I love being a farmer and I love making great dairy products. I received a degree from Cal Poly Tech Institute in dairy science in 1977 and took a minor in manufacturing with courses in ice cream and butter making. For my senior thesis I set up a dairy processing plant, but I didn’t get into organics until 1990 when someone asked me about making organic ice cream.
We finished transitioning the dairy to organic in 1993, before we launched the creamery. We converted a commercial kitchen into a processing plant, which opened on Feb. 7, 1994—four days after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of bovine growth hormone (rBGH) in dairy cows, which causes them to produce 15% to 25% more milk, without labeling the products. We got a lot media attention for that because it was the first processing plant to come out with organic milk products (not using rBGH) after that FDA rule came out.
We started with organic glass bottle milk, butter and cheese. It took nine years before we had the capital investment to manufacture ice cream and since then the processing plant has grown dramatically. We’ve had double-digit growth every year and are considering building another plant on the farm.I run the dairy and the creamery but I see them as two separate entities. I have a very good management staff who handle the day-to-day running of the businesses and I do more deskwork than I ever did in the past. It works well.
OP: What’s the next big trend in the evolution of the organic industry?
AS: I think the next big trend is simple foods. Most organic producers try to mimic conventional processors to make their foods like everyone else’s. They try to make organic milk look the same and taste the same as non-organic milk, but it’s not the same. We don’t homogenize our milk so the fat separates and rises to the top. We don’t add vitamin D. There is nothing added to our ice cream or our butter.
Why would you add anything to food? To make it last longer? You shouldn’t want your food to last forever. That’s just a gimmick to keep products on shelves longer but it doesn’t make it better food. It doesn’t make it taste better or make it better for you. Food is supposed to go bad. And it’s supposed to have some level of bacteria in it. When you sterilize food it doesn’t taste like anything and I believe people get sick more often because they don’t have any bacteria in their gut.
I think organic producers should focus on producing simple foods that taste great and are good for you.
OP: What are the next steps that organic producers and processors can take to move the industry forward?
AS: We need to work together to expand the organic industry. There’s been so much fragmentation, but we need to come together to promote the industry as a whole. For example, we should work together to come up with federal requirements that work for everyone—farmers, processors and consumers.
We also need to put a face on organics again. People don’t see the farmer anymore but we need to remind them of who we are and what we are doing. Our mission is to make family farming a viable sustainable profession again. We are organic dairy farmers who make products with our own milk. We are committed to taking care of the land and our animals, and to reducing waste. We are dedicated to making the highest quality dairy products on the market using the purest ingredients available. Consumers want simple, high-quality foods and that’s what we are giving them.
