The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) has sued Happy Egg Co. for false, deceptive and misleading advertising claims related to the use of the term “pasture raised.”
“Surveys confirm that animal welfare practices rank high on the list of consumer concerns,” said Ronnie Cummins, OCA’s co-founder and director. “By falsely claiming that the eggs it sells are ‘pasture raised,’ Happy Egg deceives consumers and diverts consumers’ spending dollars from competitors whose eggs come from farms that meet a true pasture-raised standard. Consumers who purchase Happy Eggs believing that they are supporting a certain animal-welfare standard are being cheated.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Attorneys for Organic Consumers Association (OCA) filed a limited motion for summary judgment, with the D.C. Superior Court, in the nonprofit’s false advertising lawsuit, filed in July 2018, against Unilever-owned Ben & Jerry’s.
The motion asks the court to find that Ben & Jerry’s falsely claimed that its “Caring Dairy” animal husbandry standards were “required for all farmers” who supplied the dairy used in its products. The motion states that Ben & Jerry’s admitted that it uses milk from “conventional dairy sources” that do not adhere to “Caring Dairy” standards.
“Consumer protection laws are intended to protect consumers from advertising, marketing and packaging claims that are patently false,” said Ronnie Cummins, OCA’s international director. “This goal will be achieved only if companies like Unilever are challenged when they make false claims about their brands, and held accountable by the courts. OCA’s mission includes working on behalf of consumers to make sure our legal system defends consumer rights.”
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About a year ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made it official: Consumers can no longer buy paint removers containing methylene chloride, a chemical linked to cancer, cognitive impairment and other health issues. (In a controversial move, the agency stopped short of banning the chemical for commercial/industrial use).
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, in a statement issued November 22, 2019, said the “EPA’s action keeps paint and coating removers that contain the chemical methylene chloride out of consumers’ hands” in a “step that will provide important public health protections for consumers.”
Methylene chloride must be pretty bad for the EPA to ban it. After all, the agency refuses to ban chlorpyrifos, a known neurotoxin especially harmful to children, and glyphosate, the chemical in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller deemed a “probable human carcinogen” by the World Health Organization.
So how is it that Walmart and Amazon won't sell you any paint remover containing methylene chloride. But both retailers will sell you decaffeinated coffee that tests positive for methylene chloride?
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One of Ben & Jerry’s largest “Caring Dairy” farms was recently caught fudging its cow numbers to avoid state regulations, according to records obtained by Regeneration Vermont.
For more than 18 months, the Gosliga Farm in Addison misled state officials about its cow numbers, which kept them from being classified as a “large farm operation (LFO)” by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, a classification that triggers significantly more regulation and oversight.
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Ben & Jerry’s will no longer state on its packaging that the milk and cream used in its ice cream comes from “happy cows.”
That’s (a little) good news for consumers who have been misled for years into thinking that all of the milk and cream in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream comes from dairy farms where cows contentedly frolic outdoors. It doesn’t. In fact, Ben & Jerry's uses milk from conventional, industrial factory farm-style farms.
Ben & Jerry’s ice cream packaging will continue to use the brand’s cartoon image of a cow—depicted outdoors, on a green pasture, under a big blue sky. According to the lawyers representing Ben & Jerry’s parent company, Unilever, the cows “did not look happy to begin with.”
We’ll let you be the judge of whether or not Ben & Jerry’s cartoon cows look “happy.” But to be clear—no matter how much fun the media is having with this happy cow narrative—Ben & Jerry’s deceptive marketing tactics are serious business.
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Consumer alert: Before you pay $200 an ounce for what you think is a premium, phytocannabinoid-rich hemp extract, be aware that Amazon.com doesn’t actually sell CBD.
Ever search for “CBD” on Amazon.com? If you’ve bought any of the products that come up, including the site’s “Best Seller,” it’s likely you’ve been fleeced.
According to Amazon.com’s drug and paraphernalia policy, “Items containing CBD/cannabinoid or full spectrum hemp oil, including topical products, are prohibited from listing or sale on Amazon.”
And yet, when you search “CBD” on Amazon.com, this policy doesn’t come up—but dozens of products do.
TAKE ACTION! Tell Amazon to stop selling fake CBD!
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Consumer alert: Before you pay $200 an ounce for what you think is a premium, phytocannabinoid-rich hemp extract, be aware that Amazon.com doesn’t actually sell CBD.
Ever search for “CBD” on Amazon.com? If you’ve bought any of the products that come up, including the site’s “Best Seller,” it’s likely you’ve been fleeced.
According to Amazon.com’s drug and paraphernalia policy, “Items containing CBD/cannabinoid or full spectrum hemp oil, including topical products, are prohibited from listing or sale on Amazon.”
And yet, when you search “CBD” on Amazon.com, this policy doesn’t come up—but dozens of products do.
TAKE ACTION! Tell Amazon to stop selling fake CBD!
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Most grass-fed beef labeled “Product of U.S.A.” is actually imported from overseas.
But you wouldn't know that, thanks to a U.S. Department of Agriculture labeling policy.
It’s time to change that policy—for the sake of both consumers and U.S. producers of grass-fed and grass-finished beef.
TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Stop the Labeling Fraud! Support the U.S. Beef Integrity Act!
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When you see a “Product of U.S.A.” label on a package of meat you should be able to assume that the meat you’re looking at came from an animal raised and processed here in the U.S.
But chances are, the meat or some portion of it was actually imported from another country.
TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to stop the labeling fraud! Support the U.S. Beef Integrity Act!
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Is Ben & Jerry's misleading its customers about the type of milk and cream used in its ice cream? Environmental advocate and former gubernatorial candidate James Ehlers says yes, and that its parent company, Unilever, is profiting because of the false advertising, according to a recent lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Burlington.
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