"cornucopia institute" news and stories

Organic Valley, the nation's largest name-brand marketer of organic eggs, is being accused of misleading consumers about the living conditions of its California hens, and for violating federal organic standards, according to a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The bombshell was dropped by the California-based organic watchdog group Cornucopia Institute, which says the hens at the Petaluma Egg Farm were confined in screened "porches" and not allowed to forage naturally in pastures with direct sunlight.

"The federal organic standards clearly state that 'year-round access for all animals to the outdoors' is a requirement," says Mark Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst with the group in a release on their website.

The Cornucopia Institute has filed a legal complaint with the USDA over the matter. The current dust-up may be prompted by the USDA's National Organic Standards Board meeting scheduled for the end of April, where the board is expected to address whether "porches" meet the definition of access to the outdoors.

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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The Cornucopia Institute (CI) has recently completed a survey of organic milks, evaluating the methods of production and "rating the integrity" of various producers of organic milk and dairy products. Predictably, the companies which received the lowest scores are the largest ones. Their study is designed to reveal the "best" organically produced dairy and the worst - which it deems to be no better than conventionally produced dairy. Fortunately for consumers, CI says that the vast majority of all branded organic dairy products are produced at farms that follow legal and ethical standards.

The rating system had categories which ranged from "outstanding" down to "brand name", which in and of itself should tell you something about the bias inherent in the survey. Just like the article over at the Slate, there seems to be no distinction made between organic and small farm, family owned, self sustaining agriculture. CI says "organic consumers tend to want to know where their food is coming from and how it is produced," but the reality is that for most organic consumers it is sufficient to know that the product has been certified organic; consumers wishing to avoid GMO products and hormones in their milk do not necessarily care what farm the cows came from. It is possible that the CI is correct and that people should care, but at the moment that is not always the case.

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