LOCAL MOO-TION Rhody Fresh poses a question for organic purists BY BETH SCHWARTZAPFEL

Oliver and June Cottrell’s Holstein, Rhoda, didn’t intend to be the mascot of the Rhode Island Dairy Farms Cooperative. She just happens to have a spot on her side that looks like Rhode Island. And since the big idea behind Rhody Fresh Milk is that it’s produced by local farmers, Rhoda’s Ocean State-shaped spot seemed like, well, providence. For those conscientious shoppers who like to buy locally via farmers’ markets, farm stands, and local stores, Rhody Fresh is a welcome addition to the growing range of available options. For those committed to buying organic or hormone-free, though, Rhody Fresh may be another story.

The Cottrells own and operate the Cottrell Homestead farm in West Kingston, one of five dairy farms that are part of the Rhode Island Dairy Farms Cooperative. With a $125,000 loan from the state Economic Development Corporation, the coop starting marketing Rhody Fresh Milk in July. The product has since hit the shelves of local Stop & Shop and Shaw’s stores, Brown University’s Campus Market, Eastside Market, and other locally owned and operated stores statewide.

Whole Foods Market, the natural foods supermarket chain with two Providence stores, will not be carrying Rhody Fresh, although its Web site says, "We support our communities and encourage local involvement. Our business is intimately tied to the neighborhood and larger community that we serve and in which we live." So why not carry Rhody Fresh?

Jim Hines, executive director of the Rhode Island Dairy Farm Coop, says federal restrictions make it "very, very difficult" for a dairy farm to operate as a "producer-dealer" — a farm that produces, bottles, and sells its own milk (the only two successful producer-dealers in Rhode Island are Wright’s Dairy Farm in North Smithfield and Arruda’s Dairy Farms in Tiverton). As a result, dairy farmers such as the coop members must rely on other facilities to pasteurize, homogenize, and package their products. The cooperative sells its milk to Guida Dairy, a processing facility in New Britain, Connecticut, and then buys it back, packaged in blue and green cartons with a picture of Rhoda and her spot. Because the five-farm coop does not yet produce enough milk to meet demand, Hines acknowledges that "other milk from other local farms" is added to those cartons. Hines declined to specify the other farms.

More to the point, says a Whole Foods dairy buyer who asked not to be named, is that the other milk is not certified organic or free of the controversial recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, or rBGH, a genetically engineered version of the growth hormone that stimulates milk production in cows.

Hines says that none of the cooperative’s farmers use rBGH, but since they cannot speak for the other farms whose milk may be included in Rhody Fresh cartons, they cannot certify that the product is rBGH-free. "We will be making certification when we can," he says. As for the organic dairy designation, Hines says that whether a farmer takes good care of his animals is much more important. "Our local farms," he says, "take excellent care of their cattle . . . I’d rather have my product come from a small family farm than from a 1000-cow organic farm."

For the time being at least, Rhode Island shoppers must make that choice for themselves.