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What Brands of Organic Milk Are Actually Ethical?
Latest SOS News:
- 04/16/08 - Milk Shake-Up
- 04/05/08 - California Threatens to Outlaw Sales of Raw Milk
- 04/05/08 - Class Action Lawsuit Against Aurora Organic Dairy: Organic Industry's Watershed Moment
- 04/04/08 - Is it Organic? How Would You Know?
- 04/01/08 - Which Giant Corporation Owns Your Favorite Organic Food Brand?
- 03/31/08 - Grist Magazine On Organic Vs. Natural Foods
- 03/29/08 - "Organic" Milk Class-Action Lawsuit is Underway
- 03/27/08 - Does Corporate Takeover of Many Organic Brands Mean Loss of Organic Transparency & Integrity?
- 03/26/08 - The Whole Story About Whole Foods Market
- 03/23/08 - Outrage Hits 'Naturally Raised' USDA Meat Labeling Plan
- 03/13/08 - Organic Milk: Survival of the Biggest? Thoughts on the NODPA/Stonyfield Debate over Organic Dairy
- 03/13/08 - Conditions Sour for Organic Dairy Farms: Dairy Producers' Alliance Responds to Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm
- 03/10/08 - A Closer Look at Chinese Organics
- 03/09/08 - Stonyfield & HP Hood Refuse to Pay Organic Dairy Farmers a Fair Price for Their Milk
- 02/26/08 - Cracking Down on Organic Food Fraud
- 02/11/08 - Home Grown
- 02/08/08 - The Spirit of Organic: OCA & Cornucopia Expose Aurora Organic Dairy's Violations of Organic Standards
- 01/27/08 - Aurora Organic Dairy Under Scrutiny: OCA Inspired Boycott and Class-Action Lawsuits Shake Up the Industry
- 01/12/08 - Does the Current Organic Practice Standard Adequately Address GMO Contamination?
- 01/11/08 - Naturally Raised Meat Standard, but Without Pasture?
- 12/26/07 - Big Box Chain Target Sued for Selling Aurora's Factory Farm Milk as 'Organic'
- 12/17/07 - Why "Organic" Farmed Salmon is Causing a Nasty Smell
- 12/14/07 - Nation's Largest Retailers Accused of Organic Fraud
- 12/13/07 - Wal-Mart, Costco, Target, Safeway, and Wild Oats Sued for Defrauding Consumers with 'Organic' Milk from Factory Feedlots
- 12/07/07 - New Organic Dairy Fraud Lawsuit Filed - This Time Against Target Corporation
- 11/30/07 - USDA Gives Update on Organic Pasture Rule
- 11/29/07 - Certified Organic Skin Care: No Seal No Deal?
- 11/28/07 - Pennsylvania Dairy Label Rule Shelved
- 11/28/07 - USDA Proposes Standards for "Naturally Raised" Meat but Leaves Out All-Important Pasture Requirements
- 11/28/07 - Fish Farms Try To Hook 'Organic' Label
- 11/27/07 - Update on Raw Almond Controversy by Cornucopia Institute
- 11/27/07 - USDA 'One-Size-Fits-All' Regulations for Leafy Greens Would Harm Organic & Sustainable Farmers
- 11/26/07 - Can Consumers Trust the 'USDA Organic' Label on Food Products from China?
- 11/20/07 - USDA Orders Tyson Foods to Stop Using Antibiotic-Free Labels on Poultry
- 11/12/07 - Organic Labeling Confuses Farmers
- 11/12/07 - Ethical Consumerism: Erosion of Fair Trade & Organic Standards by Some Certifiers Including QAI, Rainforest Alliance & FSC
- 10/31/07 - Halloween Trick: USDA lets Dean Foods/Horizon "Organic" Factory Farms off the Hook
- 10/31/07 - USDA Should Demand Retroactive Payment From Faux Organic Milk Producers Like Aurora Organic
- 10/29/07 - Farmers & Rural Residents Call for Shutting Down Aurora's 4,000 Head Factory Dairy Farm Feedlot in Gill, Colorado
- 10/26/07 - Class Action Lawsuits Filed Against Aurora Organic Dairy; Deceptive Practices Alleged
- 10/25/07 - Important Change to Organic Standards in the UK
- 10/23/07 - The Organic Labeling Debate
- 10/22/07 - Aurora: Huge Dairy Doesn't Fit Organic Image
- 10/21/07 - Aurora Dairy Sued by Organic Advocates
- 10/19/07 - Dairies Unite to Set Safety Standards for Raw-Milk Cheese
- 10/18/07 - Public Interest Group Files Complaint against Mushroom Company for Organic Standards Violations
- 10/18/07 - Aurora Organic Dairy Corporation Hit by Class Action Lawsuits Over 'Organic' Milk Labels
- 10/17/07 - Organic Consumers Launch Nationwide Lawsuit in 27 States Against Aurora Organic Dairy for Violating Organic Standards
- 10/11/07 - Wal-Mart Dominant In Organic Market
- 10/08/07 - Letter to the Editor: Mark Kastel on Small Farms
- 10/03/07 - Something Fishy: Can You Trust Fish Certified as 'Sustainable' by the Marine Stewardship Council?
- 10/01/07 - Has Target's Cheap Brand Name Organic Milk, Archer Farms, Produced by Aurora Organic's Factory Feedlots, Been Falsely Labeled as 'Organic' ?
- 10/01/07 - Can a Dairy Be Big and Organic?
- 09/29/07 - Incompatible Standards May Keep African Organics Out of Europe
- 09/29/07 - From an Organic Dairy Farmer's Perspective: What Makes a Cow Organic?
After 35 years of hard work, the US organic community has built a multi-billion dollar alternative to industrial agriculture. Now large corporations, aided and abetted by the USDA and members of Congress, are moving to lower organic standardS and seize control. For the sake of the earth and our health we must stop them.
TAKE ACTION!
Tell USDA that products labeled as "Organic" must be Organic.
ALERT #2 - Organic Boycott Spreads--Stop Organic Outlaws Labeling Factory Farm Milk as "USDA Organic"
The Organic Consumers Association is expanding its boycott of Horizon and Aurora organic dairy products to include five national "private label" organic milk brands supplied by Aurora, as well as two leading organic soy products, Silk and White Wave, owned by Horizon's parent company, Dean Foods. Its time to turn up the heat on the "Shameless Seven. Learn more and take action....
SOS Materials to download
and distribute (PDF):
- OCA's Organic Integrity leaflet
- US Govt. Fact Sheet: Children's Pesticide Exposure via Food Products
SOS LINKS:
- Cornucopia Institute's Organic Dairy Scorecard
- Cornucopia Institute's "Maintaining the Integrity of Organic Milk" Report
- FYI on Organics - Basic info and statistics
- Corporate Takeover of Organics?
- Beyond Organics Weekly Radio Show
- Arthur
Harvey's website:
Restore Organic Law - Links to other great organic organizations
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Recent Events
In late 2005, despite receiving over 350,000 letters and phone calls from OCA members and the organic community, Republican leaders in Congress attached a rider to the 2006 Agricultural Appropriations Bill to weaken the nation's organic food standards in response to pressure from large-scale food manufacturers.
This rider was voted on in conference committee. Here is a list of the members of that committee who pushed this rider through:
- Sen Robert Bennett (R-UT)
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO)
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT)
Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID)
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS)
"Congress voted to weaken the national organic standards that consumers count on to preserve the integrity of the organic label," said Ronnie Cummins, National Director of the Organic Consumers Association. "The process was profoundly undemocratic and the end result is a serious setback for the multi billion dollar alternative food and farming system that the organic community has so painstakingly built up over the past 35 years.
As passed, the amendment sponsored by the Organic Trade Association allows: Numerous synthetic food additives and processing aids, including over 500 food contact substances, to be used in organic foods without public review. Young dairy cows to continue to be treated with antibiotics and fed genetically engineered feed prior to being converted to organic production. Loopholes under which non-organic ingredients could be substituted for organic ingredients without any notification of the public based on "emergency decrees." OCA will work to reverse this rider with an "Organic Restoration Act" in Congress in 2006.
WHAT'S AT STAKE
Organic Standards Under Fire:
Agribusiness front groups, such as the Farm Bureau, big food corporations like Kraft, biotech companies such as Monsanto, right-wing think tanks, such as the Hudson Institute, and industry-friendly government agencies have consistently tried to undermine organic standards and get the USDA to allow conventional chemical-intensive and factory farm practices on organic farms. Unless strict organic standards are maintained, consumers will lose faith in the organic label.
Federal Funding for Organics:
The current five year $220 billion US Farm Bill allocates less than $5 million annually for organic research, promotion and marketing...approximately one-hundredth of one percent. This means that Congress is using billions of our tax dollars to reward chemical-intensive, factory farm style operations, while penalizing non-chemical farmers. This, despite the fact that organic food has been the fasting growing segment in the food marketplace for over 13 years. To move beyond using pesticides, chemicals and genetically modified seeds, conventional farmers need government subsidies and conversion programs that prioritize local and regional organic production. These misguided priorities must be reversed in the upcoming 2007 Farm Bill.
Preserving Organic Farms and Consumer Choice:
Genetically Engineered (GE) crops pose a serious pollution threat to organic food and farms. Windblown pollen from GE crops and commingling of seeds in grain elevators or transport vehicles are contaminating organic farms and seed stocks of corn, soy, cotton and canola. The OCA is calling for strict legal liability on all GE crops utilizing the "polluter pays" principle, to protect the property rights of farmers growing organic or non-GE crops. The OCA is also calling for mandatory labeling on GE foods- similar to laws already in place in Europe and other countries- so that consumers have a choice whether or not to buy GE foods.
The OCA's Stance on the Arthur Harvey Lawsuit and 2007 Farm Bill
Arthur Harvey versus USDA Lawsuit
OCA and the other the plaintiffs in the Harvey lawsuit basically agree that:
Synthetics may be allowed in the “Made With” Organic ingredients category if there is no non-synthetic ingredient currently available, and if the synthetic ingredient is rigorously reviewed by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). Of course none of these synthetics can be derived from “excluded methods” such as genetic engineering or irradiation, as National Organic Program (NOP) regulations stipulate.
OCA is willing to consider the limited allowance of some synthetic substances for use in or on the non-organic portions of products labeled as “Organic” (those in the 95-100% Organic category). This will require a new rulemaking process by the USDA that improves and appropriately supports a thorough, carefully managed National Organic Standards Board process used to review and approve all synthetic substances proposed for use in organic food processing.
The synthetics originally approved by the NOSB were all supposed to be “sunsetted” after five years, and then re-reviewed. This never happened. OCA strongly believes that it is not a good idea to reopen the entire Organic Food Production Act (OFPA) for Congressional revisions at this time, but rather to use the USDA rulemaking process, whereby the organic community and the NOSB will propose rule changes to the USDA that are published in the Federal Register and then subjected to a full comment period of 90-180 days.
Additionally the OCA is committed to working with all interests to find clear, consensus language that will allow dairy farmers to continue conversion to organic production without suffering undue financial burdens, and which acknowledges the simultaneous conversion of land and dairy animals. Again, through the USDA rulemaking process, rather than Congressional action, OCA would support compromise measures that would allow dairy farmers to use 20% of non-organic feed for the first nine months of conversion for organic cows, as long as this less-expensive feed was coming from farms in a certified transition to organic program.
The OCA also strongly supports moving taxpayer subsidies away from non-green, pork-barrel, trade-distorting commodity and export programs to instead support farmers and ranchers making the transition to organic. If dairy farmers could get a temporary subsidy to cover part or most of the additional costs of purchasing organic feed during the transition period for their cows, strong organic standards could be maintained without undue economic hardship for these farmers.
Currently there is a 15% greater demand for organic milk than there is supply across the U.S. And while organic beef and meat supplies grew by 122% last year, there is a massive shortage of supply, especially for supermarkets who want to sell organic meat products. Meanwhile family farm dairies and beef, poultry, and pork producers are going out of business every day because they can’t afford the costs of converting over to organic. If we can help dairy, beef, pork, and poultry farmers in the U.S. make the conversion to organic, as well as help currently certified organic farmers increase their herd or flock sizes a bit, then these farmers won’t need subsidies on an ongoing basis.
On the 2007 Farm Bill:
OCA believes that conservation programs, food stamp allocations, WIC program allocations, and other community nutrition programs (which constitute over 1/2 of the Farm Bill) must not be cut, but rather increased, with funds coming from trade-distorting “pork barrel” subsidy programs such as cotton subsidies, which have recently been ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization.
The most important segment of America’s farmers (64%) in terms of nutrition and land stewardship (organic and transition to organic farmers and fruit and vegetable growers) get no subsidies at all, or very little, while huge chemical-intensive corporate farms (10% of America’s farms) get the lion’s share (80%) of the nation’s $20 billion in crop subsidies every year. Giant exporters, who also receive enormous additional subsidies, then “dump” these subsidized crops on the Global South at below the cost of production, exacerbating poverty and driving millions of small and indigenous farmers off the land.
We need to simultaneously stop “dumping” taxpayer subsidized crops on the developing world at prices below the cost of production, help U.S. family farmers, improve public health, and protect the environment, by starting to phase-out all “non-green” U.S. farm subsidies in favor of subsidies that help farmers farm more sustainably; make the transition to organic; develop local value-added markets for their products; and adopt renewable and sustainable energy practices on the farm. The worsening energy crisis underlines the need to move as soon as possible to reduce petroleum and energy inputs, and to increase renewable and energy conservation measures on the U.S.’s 1.8 million farms.
OCA will continue to work with other public interest organizations, conservation and environmental groups, and ant-hunger, nutrition, and human rights organizations to eliminate trade-distorting, pork barrel provisions in the Farm Bill and annual USDA appropriations and instead to work for a Sustainable & Fair Deal Farm Bill which benefits U.S. family farmers, consumers, low-income families and children, and farmers and rural villagers around the world.
August 2005: The Power of the Organic Community—USDA Yields to OCA's Demands
Following a June 14, 2005 lawsuit filed by the OCA and Dr.Bronner's, a leading organic body care and hemp food company, and a nationwide OCA grassroots pressure campaign, the USDA agreed to allow certification of qualifying organic body care products, pet foods, and nutritional supplements. Since the summer of 2004, the USDA National Organic Program had been telling certified organic companies to remove the "USDA Organic" seal from all non-food products. Taking advantage of the lack of regulatory oversight, some body care and supplement companies had been misleading consumers with fraudulent "organic" labeling claims on products with a host of synthetic ingredients. Thanks to thousands of consumers signing our petition, and over 400 businesses signing on to support our campaign, the USDA surrendered to the OCA's demands on August 23, saying they would accept certification and allow use of the "USDA Organic" seal on all organic non-food products that meet the national standards. The "USDA Organic" seal will help consumers find real organic products while substantially boosting the market for organic farmers. This was a major victory for consumers and the organic community!