1800s

Cows, one-by-one, or two-by-two, accompany thousands of westward-migrating human families, providing them with nutrition and companionship needed to establish the agrarian backbone of American society. Lush, pristine organic pastures abound.

It is estimated that by 1890 in the U.S., 37.7 million human hands (of varying warmth and ability) daily milk the world’s largest and proudest single-continent sisterhood, one wholesome squirt at a time.

The larger world is, needless to say, impressed. Vast numbers immigrate to take part in this bucolic and fulfilling lifestyle bursting with potential of every sort.

In October of 1871, cow sisters speak out when one of their own, belonging to hard-working Irish immigrant Mrs. Catherine O’Leary, is wrongly accused of causing the Great Chicago Fire. The cow is later exonerated, but sisters suffer from the defamation for decades hence, leading to mob acts of "cow tipping" and other injustices.

1910s

After years tinkering, one Dr. De Laval (sic), of Poughkeepsie, NY, markets a machine to replace inconsistent human hands, and thereby milk cows more rapidly. Herds grow. The notion of industry creeps into barnyard chatter. Cows are concerned.

Cows are startled by the sound of the gasoline-powered internal combustion engine, as hundreds of mechanized farm implements roll thunderously onto the farm.

For the first time in recorded history, cows are pushed off the land into pens, as machines and crops from hybrid seeds replace pasture.

Cows lament a noticeable decline in farmers, as machines began to take over the countryside.

1920s

A tickle of hope spreads through cow communities, as immigrant bovines arrive with news of backlash against the new mechanized and chemicalized agricultural trends in Europe and India.

1930s

The term "organic farming" was coined by Lord Walter James Northbourne, an Oxford University agriculturalist. Northbourne described a holistic, ecologically-balanced approach to farming based on the concept of "the farm as organism." Enough good news for an entire decade, but largely unnoticed by humans. Cows are puzzled...

1940s

Rural electric cooperatives make electricity available to farmers even in the most remote reaches of the heartland. Electric fencing makes its first appearance on the American farm. Light bulbs go on in the barn yard.

Sisters discover the communication tool hidden in electric fencing. Long-distance knowledge is finally available to cows coast-to-coast. Cows witness and hear through the wire of further technological advances that will continue to crowd their space on the farm, including large-scale irrigation, synthetic fertilization, and organophosphate pesticides.

Ammonium nitrate and DDT, two chemicals that had been produced in quantity for warfare, are repurposed for widespread peace-time agricultural uses. Fields grow larger, as do pens. Pastures shrink and shrink.

First known meeting occurs between Bossie and Mopsy on their central Vermont pasture, where a discussion of recent mastitis cases turns to talk of the health concerns of their bovine sisters.

In 1944, an international campaign called (ironically, in hindsight) the Green Revolution was launched. It encouraged the development of hybrid plants, chemical controls, large-scale irrigation, and heavy mechanization in agriculture around the world.

1950s

Sustainable agriculture grows as a topic of scientific interest, but research tends toward developing the new chemical approaches. In the U.S., J.I. Rodale popularizes the term and methods of organic growing—particularly to consumers—through promotion of organic gardening.

1960s

Cows in milking parlors across the country tune in to hear radio messages from Rachel Carson, a prominent human scientist and naturalist, chronicling the frightening effects on the environment of DDT and other pesticides. The wire fairly hums over the next thirty-six hours, as cows are eager to discuss the new evidence that humans might actually be able to understand a few of life’s basic truths.

All reasonable bovine sisters now understand an effort must be made to communicate with these gifted humans. First call for solidarity among cows begins with the coded message, "COWS UNITE!" lending the infant movement its name that remains to this day.

1970s

After the advent of groundbreaking environmental legislation, movements concerned with pollution and the environment increase their focus on organic farming, in the United States and worldwide. In 1972, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) is founded in Versailles, France, and dedicated to the diffusion and exchange of information on the principles and practices of organic agriculture.

A 22-state cow consensus nominates wild food enthusiast Euell Gibbons as the human most likely to lend a sympathetic ear to Cows Unite. Bovine efforts to contact Gibbons via Extra Sensory Communication fall short upon his untimely death in December of 1975.

1980s

Around the world, various bovine, farming, and consumer groups begin seriously pressuring for government regulation of organic production.

Experiments in cow-to-human telekinesis continue with little progress, but one significant psychic breakthrough seems to have been the direct result of a concentrated hundred-cow mind event that took place in the Driftless region of southwestern Wisconsin in the summer of 1988. A handful of struggling Wisconsin dairy farmers buck the trends and in October of 1988 form a cooperative to market organic produce, milk, cheese, and butter. They are soundly rebuked by their neighbors, but persevere.

1990s

The FDA allows the use of synthetic growth hormones in dairy cows in the U.S. Since 1993, all European Union countries have maintained a moratorium on synthetic growth hormone use in dairy animals.

The FDA is criticized for permitting the routine use of antibiotics in healthy domestic animals to promote their growth. This practice is widely believed to contribute to the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.

U.S. Congress passes the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) to develop legislation and certification standards for organic agriculture.

Second great bovine-to-human ESP experiment goes slightly awry, inciting Chicago Mayor Richard M Daley to commission the placement of hundreds of gaudily decorated ceramic cow mannequins in “Parade” formation on the streets of the city. Cows Unite sisters take note and work on process refinements, but are encouraged by the general direction nonetheless.

Enlightened humans concerned about the quality and safety of food, and the potential for environmental damage from conventional agriculture, increasingly demand organically produced foods and other goods. This causes the market for products from organic farmers and cows to grow about 20% annually. Cows rejoice, though many hurdles to cow welfare remain.

2000s

The focus of agricultural research is largely driven by agribusiness, which, through research funding and government lobbying, continues to have a predominating effect on agriculture-related science and policy.

The USDA creates the National Organic Program (NOP) in 2002, providing strict regulation on the use of the "USDA organic" seal and the use of the word "organic" to represent only products produced without antibiotics, synthetic hormones and pesticides, and genetically modified organisms. Access to pasture, while in the rule language, is indeterminately defined.

Major breakthrough on an organic farm in Oregon. Organic farmer Jon Bansen responds to third great cow/human communication experiment, marking the single most important day in bovine history since the invention of electric handwarmers. Cows Unite is now in touch with humans.

After a period of initially shaky translation, Bansen and the bovine sisters manage to agree upon a system and method to spread the cows’ messages to humans everywhere. A website (which, Jon explains, works much like electric fencing wire—who knew?!) is constructed with a remarkable level of hoofs-on contribution from two herd members previously thought too geeky to work such wonders, Desdemona and Rosie.

The rest is, as they say, history. And future.

Organic milk is the future. The work of Cows Unite is only just begun.

Every day, more humans choose to drink milk that supports the bovine sisters on pasture.

Join us.