Wal-Mart Stores Inc. may be getting a little overzealous in its push to include more organic products on its shelves, according to the Cornucopia Institute. The group, which represents small farmers recently filed a complaint with the USDA alleging that the megadiscounter had falsely labeled some products as organic.Cornucopia alleges that several Wal-Mart stores mislabeled Stonyfield Farm all-natural yogurt as organic. It also claims that nonorganic items like tofu and juice in a cooler used for organic produce. Wal-mart has countered these claims by noting that one of Cornucopia's founders, Mark Kastel, used to work for Organic Valley, a national farming cooperative that competes with several of the discounter's suppliers.
I'm not really a big buyer of organics and I'm not sure what to make of this case. I am pretty certain that I'd never buy anything labeled organic at Wal-Mart.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-16-2006 @ 2:39PM
Vesna said...
Well, invoking past employment with Organic Valley, as if that signaled some conflict of interest, is just silly. Organic Valley is the supplier of milk for Stonyfield Farms organic yogurt! (They have an organic line and an "all-natural" line.)
In fact, that's the reason Organic Valley does not have its own yogurt label. How do I know? The CEO of Organic Valley told me that in a 2003 interview.
Here is the URL of the article that resulted from the interview. The article doesn't mention the yogurt thing, though.
http://ulysses.blogware.com/blog/Vesnaspublishedwork/_archives/2003/10/1/2373008.html
I suppose that relationship might have changed in the last few years, but all indications that I'm aware of is that the two companies share a friendly relationship of mutal respect.
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11-16-2006 @ 2:43PM
Bogdana said...
I purchase organics, but sure as heck not at walmart. Its kind of an oxymoron, really. Oh, and if anyone out there thinks "all natural" food is good for you... well, you might as well just eat whatever you want. High fructose corn syrup is allowed in "all natural" labeling and I can tell you folks, HFCS is NOT all natural. Why doesn't cornucopia talk to the FDA about that?
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11-16-2006 @ 3:23PM
JD said...
I do purchase some organic items at Wal-Mart. They carry some produce items from the "Newman's Own" organic line, such as raisins and romaine hearts. The only organic things I won't buy at Wal-Mart are the organic store brand items. Shoppers have to practice due diligence when purchasing store brand organics, as not all of them can be trusted.
The best thing to do is to buy organic produce from a local farmers' market.
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11-16-2006 @ 5:24PM
ABORING1 said...
You shouldn't buy anything from Wal-Mart PERIOD.
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11-17-2006 @ 10:32AM
DG said...
Why can't you trust Wal-Mart's Organics? I would trust them more than the farmer's market locals (even though I find those gusy more quaint and friendly) b/c of the scrutiny that WM is subject to. A bogus organic product would have to pass through a cabal of QA managers, brand managers, VPs, etc... before being launched. That's quite a conspiracy...
Organics isn't a designator of sincerity or kindness...It's a USDA certification. It's regulated. And if Oregon Tilth or the other certifying bodies can't be trusted at Walmart, what makes you thin they can be trusted with other retailers or producers?
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