| By

I liked Yeo Valley yoghurt, particularly their vanilla one. Big pots of the stuff didn’t last long.

They are organic, but this isn’t why I used to buy it. I just liked the rich, creamy taste.

Yes, I used to buy it.

On Twitter yesterday, @GhostOMichael, a follower of @RhysMorgan, tweeted a link to a page on Yeo Valley’s website (cached) that I found worrying: it told how Yeo Valley ‘treat’ their cows with homeopathy. (That page has disappeared and has been replaced with this one. Thanks to Jaxxson for pointing it out.)

The page is dated 9 November last year and their announcement was highlighted by UK Homeopathy News (cached) on 6 December and this ‘news’ has been tweeted by @UKHomNews and other homeopaths, including @KerryHomeopath.

Yeo Valley say:

Nov 9, 2010 Alternative treatments for our cows The health of our cows is the top priority on our farms. Organic systems – like those followed at Yeo Valley – include a proactive approach to animal welfare and are designed to minimise stress on livestock that might result in illness; the routine use of antibiotics as a preventative measure to treat our cows’ ailments is not permitted. As a result of this Steve, the Herd Manager on one of our farms began investigating alternative options to the use of antibiotics and began studying a course on homeopathic treatments. Since then, Steve has been implementing what he has learnt by using homeopathic treatments and remedies to treat his cows for a number of issues, including warding-off flies and easing the cows’ stress levels when having their feet clipped. The treatments have so far proved successful and, unlike with antibiotics, cows don’t build up immunity to these remedies. In fact, they encourage the cows’ immune systems to fight bugs themselves. The use of homeopathic treatments not only helps to develop a more robust immune system, it also means no withdrawal periods for milk and meat while the animal is being treated, as would be the case when antibiotics are used. However, this doesn’t mean we completely avoid more conventional treatments; if we need to treat an animal quickly and effectively we will always choose the treatment, either conventional or alternative, that will be most beneficial to the cow to aid its recovery and this may involve antibiotic use. Steve’s convinced that homeopathic treatments offer a viable, practical option so he continues to favour treating his herd homeopathically whenever appropriate. To find out more, contact us on our Facebook page, @yeovalley on Twitter or email Sally at [email protected]

There are, fortunately, regulations that aim to ensure that animals are treated well and that any risk to human health is minimised and it is gratifying to know that Yeo Valley don’t have complete faith in homeopathy: they do resort to proper medicines when they ‘need to treat an animal quickly and effectively’. Quite.

However, it is worrying that they believe in any of this nonsense.

I felt compelled to email ‘Sally’:

Hi I have been buying your products for many years and particularly like your vanilla yoghurt. However, I’ve just found out from your website that you use homeopathy to ‘treat’ your cows for a number of issues. I don’t doubt you believe that you are, indeed, treating your cows and that it does help them. However, as well as having no plausible mechanism of action, there are no robust studies that show that homeopathy has any effect over placebo in humans or any other animal and many robust studies that show that homeopathy has no effect over placebo. Please do not let yourselves be convinced that the animals are helped by homeopathy – there are far more credible and better researched mechanisms by which an unblinded observer can be misled into thinking that the homeopathic potion given has had the desired effect. It is clear from the evidence that giving them homeopathic potions does not have any effect over placebo. I note that you say you will use conventional medicines (ie those with evidence to back them up) when you need to treat an animal ‘quickly and effectively’. I am glad of that for the sake of the animals, but that still leaves you open to the charge that you will, under some circumstances, be relying on homeopathy for other conditions. I believe this is cruel and immoral and can only lead to unnecessary suffering and stress. Homeopathy is an unscientific belief system that has no place in human health or animal husbandry. It is with regret, therefore, that I will not be buying your otherwise tasty products again. Best regards. Alan

I’ll let you know if I get any response.

A reply from Yeo Valley:

Dear Alan Thank you for your recent email, we always appreciate hearing from our consumers. Yeo Valley is an independent, family owned British business and we value our reputation and the loyalty of every one of our customers who buy our products. We have built our reputation on a combination of quality and word of mouth and would never knowingly do anything to jeopardise this. Under the Soil Association’s organic rules, all aspects of animal health and welfare are tightly controlled, including rearing, shelter, feeding, transportation and slaughter. Ensuring good health is better than relying on drugs to treat disease, which is why the Soil Association put so much emphasis on practices that encourage healthy farm animals. Please be reassured that the health of our cows here at Yeo Valley is our utmost priority on all our farms and conventional treatments, such as antibiotics, will be administered to help return an animal to good health when required. Through the collective experiences of Soil Association affiliated farmers, we have found that many routine problems can be treated with homeopathic and herbal medicines without any compromise to animal welfare. This further benefits the herd as the underlying philosophy of homeopathy will support the farmer to be more a observant and empathetic stockman. As a result, we have been using homeopathic treatments on our Yeo Valley farms alongside conventional medicines for approximately 18 months and have seen some excellent results which has been a pleasant and surprising experience for us. As you have taken the time to write to us, we would love to write back to you in the future, please follow this link to register for our newsletter. We promise not to send you anything from any other companies or anything you wouldn’t like! Please click away on http://www.yeovalleyorganic.co.uk/newsNewslettersReg.php to keep up to date with us. Thanks again for writing to us, I do hope that you continue to enjoy Yeo Valley Organic. Kind Regards Sally Laurie – Marketing Team

Emmm…

I do hope that you continue to enjoy Yeo Valley Organic.

I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and assume this is a standard phrase, but you’d have thought…

Anyway, I replied: