If you’re one of those lucky consumers who can buy eggs from a known source, like a local farmer or neighbor, you don’t have to worry about the label on the carton. You can easily verify if the hens producing your eggs roam free on pastures—or whether they spend most of their lives cooped up.

But consumers who buy their eggs at stores have to rely on labels—and on the honesty of the brands that apply those labels—for information on how various egg brands are produced.

When a company like Handsome Brook Farm goes out of its way to market all its eggs as “pasture-raised”—even though some of them aren’t—consumers end up paying a premium for a low-quality product.

When a company like Handsome Brook Farm goes out of its way to market all its eggs as “pasture-raised”—even though some of them aren’t—consumers end up paying a premium for a low-quality product. - See more at: http://action.organicconsumers.org/o/50865/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=20742#sthash.Nx1tYwO4.dpuf When a company like Handsome Brook Farm goes out of its way to market all its eggs as “pasture-raised”—even though some of them aren’t—consumers end up paying a premium for a low-quality product. - See more at: http://action.organicconsumers.org/o/50865/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=20742#sthash.Nx1tYwO4.dpuf

TAKE ACTION: Tell Handsome Brook Farm: Stop Labeling Your Eggs ‘Pasture-Raised’ When They Aren’t!

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Advertisements with slogans like “Incredible Edible Egg,” “Pork: The Other White Meat,” “Beef: It’s What’s for Dinner,” and “Got Milk?” promote industries (mostly Big Meat and Big Dairy), without ever mentioning a specific company or brand. Who pays for those ads?

The money comes from Research & Promotion (R&P) programs set up under the USDA, commonly referred to as checkoff programs. Now the USDA, with support from the Organic Trade Association (OTA), wants to establish a similar mandatory program specifically for organic producers.

Good idea? The Big Food corporations that are buying up organic brands (and calling a lot of the shots at OTA), say yes. But small organic producers and family farmers say that an organic checkoff program will be bad for them, and bad for consumers.

TAKE ACTION BY MIDNIGHT APRIL 19: Tell the USDA: Support organic farmers and consumers not Big Food. No ‘Organic Checkoff’ Program! Please sign our 'No Organic Checkoff' petition.

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The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) today endorsed the American Grassfed Association’s new standards for the certification of dairy products from cows raised entirely on pasture.

“As consumers become more conscious of the health, environmental and animal welfare benefits of milk and dairy products from cows raised exclusively on pasture, the market for these products is taking off,” said Ronnie Cummins, international director of the Organic Consumers Association.

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Consumers have wised up to the evils of GMO foods. But Monsanto’s GMOs aren’t just in our foods. Only about 20 percent of all GMO crops in the U.S. are used to make (junk) food for humans—the other 80 percent go into animal feed, ethanol and cotton. Globally, the overwhelming majority of all cotton, much of it used to make cheap clothes, is GMO.

By exercising our collective purchasing power, and using the power of boycotts, consumers can force corporations to transition from degenerative production methods that harm human health, degrade soils, pollute the environment, abuse animals

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