WASHINGTON, DC: The Cornucopia Institute, an organic industry
research and watchdog organization, announced it has formally requested
the USDA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) to investigate corruption
at its National Organic Program resulting in the use of illegal
synthetics in organic food and then allowing powerful corporations to “game the system” for approval “after the fact.”

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Tell the NOSB to Reject Martek’s DHA and ARA!

The controversy surrounds products developed by Martek Biosciences
Corporation. Martek, part of a $12 billion Dutch-based conglomerate,
recently petitioned for approval of its genetically modified soil fungus
and algae as nutritional supplements in organic food.

Martek’s formulated oils are processed with synthetic petrochemical
solvents in a blend containing a myriad of other synthetic chemicals.
Supplements derived from these oils, commonly marketed as DHA and ARA,
are being added to milk, infant formula and other organic foods by such
companies as Dean Foods (Horizon), Abbott Laboratories (Similac) and
Nurture, Inc. (Happy Baby).

“This is a long-standing controversy that the USDA seems to think is
just going to go away,” said Mark A. Kastel, Codirector of the
Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute.

After a formal legal complaint by Cornucopia, and an investigative story by the

Washington Post, the USDA announced in April 2010 that it had “inappropriately” allowed Martek oils to be included in organic foods.

The scandal contributed to the removal of the previous director of
the National Organic Program (NOP), who overruled her staff’s decision
finding Martek supplements were illegal in organics – after she met with a
prominent Washington lobbyist, William J. Friedman.

The former NOP director’s decision was reversed in April 2010. But
instead of immediately ordering the removal of these unapproved
synthetics from organic food, the Obama/Vilsack administration at the
USDA delayed enforcement by 18 months in an apparent effort to permit
corporate lobbyists to properly petition for review and possibly legal
inclusion in organic food.

“It’s unacceptable that these materials are still in organic food and
that corporations think they can manipulate the system and get away
with it,” said Kastel. “It’s even worse because, according to our
research and reports at the FDA, some babies have become ill after
consuming Martek supplements in infant formula.”

In December, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), the expert
panel set up by Congress to advise the USDA Secretary on organic
matters, narrowly approved the Martek petitions for their patented
versions of DHA and ARA. “All hell broke loose at the meeting in
Savannah as the controversy grew extremely heated,” Kastel noted.

In their complaint to the OIG, Cornucopia alleges that Martek misrepresented their novel, synthetic product and manipulated the vote by the NOSB.

“Martek oils, marketed under the Life’sDHA brand and included in
organic infant formula, milk and baby food, are processed with
petrochemical solvents like hexane or isopropyl alcohol, both of which
are explicitly banned in organic production,” stated Charlotte Vallaeys,
Director of Farm and Food Policy at Cornucopia.

Although Martek told the board that they would discontinue the use of
the controversial neurotoxic solvent n-hexane for DHA/ARA processing,
they did not disclose what other synthetic solvents would be
substituted. Federal organic standards prohibit the use of all
synthetic/petrochemical solvents, including isopropyl alcohol, which is
currently used to extract DHA algal oil for use in products such as
Horizon milk.

Martek again brought in William “Jay” Friedman, with the powerful
Washington law firm of Covington and Burling, to lead their approval
process. Friedman appeared to deliberately mislead NOSB members into
believing that the powdered form of Martek’s DHA oil was not covered in
the petition. This particular product formulation uses
microencapsulation (banned in organics) and includes a number of
additional synthetic materials that have never been reviewed or approved
for use in organics.

When asked by NOSB Board chairperson, Tracy Miedema, “Are we
approving dried powder or just oil?” Friedman stated on the record, “I
can answer that. That’s not the petitioned material.”

Friedman’s statement was inconsistent with Martek’s formal petition
to the NOSB, which states that “the petitioned material is unchanged
from that which was authorized previously,” referring to the USDA’s
earlier corrupted authorization of all Martek’s products, including the
powdered form.

“Mr. Friedman’s statement thus appears patently false in an apparent
attempt to intentionally mislead the NOSB. This apparent subterfuge led,
in turn, to the NOSB’s failure to review other aspects of these
materials which would have disqualified them, under law, for inclusion
in organic food,” Cornucopia’s Kastel said.

In addition to the letter to the OIG, Cornucopia has requested the
D.C. Bar conduct a formal ethics investigation of Mr. Friedman’s
conduct.

“The dog and pony show put on by Martek and their largest customer,
Dean Foods, was without precedent in the organic industry,” said Alexis
Baden-Mayer, Political Director of the Organic Consumers Association,
who was present in Savannah.

The only scientists who testified at the meeting on the DHA issue
were all on Martek’s payroll, and focused on research showing benefits
of consuming naturally occurring omega-3 fatty acids (such as those
found in fish and breast milk), while ignoring the preponderance of
published peer-reviewed research that shows that these health benefits
are not gained from consuming Martek’s novel, manufactured DHA additive.

The written statements of leading scientists in this field, who did
not attend the meeting but whose findings were presented to the Board
members, including assertions that this field of research is “driven to a
large extent by enthusiasm and vested interest,” were overpowered by
the handful of corporate-sponsored scientists with a blatant financial
interest in the outcome of the vote.

Dean Foods, Martek’s largest customer, brought in a well-known
web-pediatrician, Dr. Alan Greene, who has acted as a public relations
agent endorsing Horizon brand organic milk with the added Martek DHA
oils.

Although Dr. Greene represented himself as a “consultant,” simply
answering questions for Dean Foods, and stated he had previously worked
for two other organic companies, but failed to disclose his multiple
conflicts of interest in commenting on the benefits of Martek’s
manufactured DHA supplements.

Greene has also accepted compensation from Mead Johnson, the largest
conventional infant formula manufacturer, to promote Martek’s DHA oil in
their products, and even has his own product line of nutritional
supplements that include Martek DHA, marketed by Twinlabs with his name
and photograph on the product package.

“It
is unconscionable that a physician, who accepted money from a big drug
company to promote synthetic DHA – which many believes promotes the use of
baby formula at the expense of the nutrients in breast feeding – failed
to disclose such a gross conflict of interest when he testified before
the governmental body on certified ‘organic’ standards,” said Lisa
Graves, Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy/PRWatch, which helps expose corporate PR tactics.

Greene’s role on behalf of Dean Foods and Martek was to directly
dispute the preponderance of scientific literature, including two
meta-analyses, that discredits Martek’s claims that their supplements
promote cognitive development in infants and children.

Cornucopia’s complaint to the OIG also included evidence documenting
that three corporate-backed members of the NOSB, who voted in favor of
this petition, had undeclared conflicts of interest.

Two of the board members work for Earthbound Farms, a giant produce
distributor that also compensated Dr. Greene during 2011. A third member
of the NOSB board works for General Mills which partnered with Martek,
starting in 2009, on the technology to microencapsulate their DHA and
ARA oils.

Cornucopia said that these board members should have considered
recusing themselves from voting on this issue because of the apparent
conflicts of interest. One of the members was the prime champion of the
Martek petition during board deliberations.