Organic Food Facts

by mona_moolah   |   20 Comments

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Organic Cattle Should Be Pasture Fed— Not Raised in Intensive Feedlots

Two of the largest organic dairy companies in the nation, Horizon Organic (a subsidiary of Dean Foods), a supplier to Wal-Mart and many health food stores; and Aurora Organic, a supplier of private brand name organic milk to Costco, Safeway, Giant, Wild Oats and others, are purchasing the majority of their milk from feedlot dairies where the cows have little or no access to pasture.Together, these corporations control up to 65% of the organic dairy market.

(Additionally, its been revealed that much of the soy for Dean Food's White Wave tofu and Silk soymilk products are sourced abroad, primarily from Brazil and China. Environmental standards and workers' rights are routinely violated in these two countries.)

The watchdog group Cornucopia Institute recently published a long-awaited report on organic dairy practices in the USA, and the facts are rather sobering. The good news is that most organic dairies in the U.S. are following strict organic standards, including giving animals regular access to pasture. The bad news is that several major players in the organic dairy sector are blatantly violating organic standards.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/action.htm

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Organic Agriculture is...

See this at: saveorganicfood.org| Added on 10/06/06

Genetically engineered crops are contaminating organic crops and the U.S. Department of Agriculture is doing nothing to stop it.

Highlights: Do we sit back and let this contamination continue, damaging what so many good people in the organic movement have created through years of hard work? Or do we take action, and ensure a prosperous future for organic farmers and a continuing supply of nutritious, organic foods for the...

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Dairy Report and...

See this at: cornucopia.org| Added on 10/07/06

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The Cornucopia Institute’s national survey of organic products in the dairy case showcases ethical family farm producers and exposes factory farm producers and brands that threaten to take over organic dairying. With this Web-based rating tool, you can see which brands and dairy products found in your region are produced using the best organic farming practices and ethics. Based on a year’s research into the organic dairy business, the scorecard rates 68 different organic dairy brands and private-label products.

Maintaining the Integrity of Organic Milk will empower consumers and wholesale buyers who want to invest their food dollars to protect hard-working family farmers that are in danger of being washed off the land by a tidal wave of organic milk from the rise of factory mega-farms.

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The Eat Well Guide:...

See this at: eatwellguide.org| Added on 10/23/06

Farms · Stores · Restaurants · Online Shopping Inns and Hotels · Organizations

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The Eat Well Guide is a free, online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy and eggs from farms, stores, restaurants, inns and hotels, and online outlets in the US and Canada. Consumers simply enter their zip or postal code to find local products that were raised sustainably, including no antibiotics, no added hormones, pasture-raised, grass-fed and organic. Scores of new listings are being added on a continual basis.

The Eat Well Guide is more than just a search engine. The creators have collaborated with numerous organizations on a local and national level to connect consumers with groups that promote sustainable food and farming.

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*Smart Meat and Dairy...

Created by mona_moolah on 10/23/06

A useful guide in pdf file format: http://www.environmentalobservatory.org/library.cfm?refID=72848

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Eat Wild

See this at: eatwild.com| Added on 10/07/06

Eat Wild - The #1 Site for Grass-fed Food & Facts with a state-by-state listing of farmers who sell grass-fed meat, eggs and dairy products.

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60 Second Savings: Buying...

See this at: thestreet.com| Added on 02/21/07

In love with your organic pretzels? You're not alone. In 2004, the country spent about $15 billion on organic food. By 2009, that figure is expected to double to $30 billion. But buying organic, like anything else that's considered a luxury, carries... See more more

Highlights: Here are some tips to get the most value from organic shopping next time you're at the grocer. First, know that just because a package says "organic," it doesn't necessarily mean it's completely organic. Items labeled "natural" or "all natural" can also be misleading. Only foods cited as...

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Be It Ever So Homespun,...

See this at: nytimes.com| Added on 01/05/07

If the package does its work, then the food inside doesn’t actually have to be organic, only organic-ish. The right cues on a package free mass-market consumers from doing any homework, said Elizabeth Talerman, a branding analyst. They can assume... See more more

Highlights: Greenwashing, it seems to me, can also describe a pervasive genre of food packaging designed to make sure that manufacturers grab their slice of the $25 billion that American shoppers spend each year on natural or organic food. As a design shorthand, it makes subtle use of specific colors,...

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The cows on Horizon’s milk cartons dance a bovine jig, despite challenges by organic purists that some Horizon cows see precious little pasture.

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Voting Beyond Our Forks

See this at: wholelifetimes.com| Added on 02/24/07

Bacterial scares aside, these are propitious days for good food. Burgeoning interest in organic, nontransfatty, local, slow, GMO-free foods suggests a ripening of consciousness that could transform today’s corporate industrial food system into... See more more

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Consider what we are up against: today just four or five corporations control nearly every aspect of food, from seeds to commodity crops like grains, food processing, meat production and supermarkets. These firms’ intrinsic need to leverage massive volumes of seemingly cheap food propels a chain of exploitation: farmers pressured into unsustainable monocropping using pesticides; farm workers and meatpackers abused and underpaid to keep food “cheap”; and consumers (and taxpayers) footing the bill — in excess of $100 billion a year — for health ailments stemming from this food, which is not so cheap after all.

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The True Food Shopping...

See this at: truefoodnow.org| Added on 10/20/06

The True Food Network is a consumer network campaigning to ban genetically engineered foods by providing educational, activist and informational resources to concerned consumers.

Highlights: *This guide was compiled in 2003, and some brands may have changed since then. We are in the process of updating it. Help us keep the Shopping Guide up-to-date! Email us at info@truefoodnow.org and let us know what products you've found that are not on our list.

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GENETICALLY ENGINEERED INGREDIENTS

Baby Food

Nabisco
(Phillip Morris) Arrowroot Teething Biscuits

Infant formula Carnation Infant Formulas
(Nestle) AlSoy Good Start Follow-Up Follow-Up Soy

Enfamil Infant Formulas
(Mead Johnson) Enfamil with Iron Enfamil Low Iron Enfamil A.R. Enfamil Nutramigen Enfamil Lacto Free Enfamil 22 Enfamil Next step (soy and milk-based varieties) Enfamil Pro-Soybee

Isomil Infant Formulas
(Abbot Labs) Isomil Soy Isomil Soy for Diarrhea

Similac
(Abbot Labs) Similac Lactose Free Similac with Iron Similac Low Iron Similac Alimentum

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BOYCOTT THE SHAMELESS...

See this at: democracyinaction.or...| Added on 10/06/06

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While USDA bureaucrats drag their feet on closing key loopholes in national organic organic standards, retailers, wholesalers and major “organic” brands are continuing to sell milk and dairy products labeled as "USDA Organic, even though most or all of their milk is coming from factory farm feedlots where the animals have been brought in from conventional farms and are kept in intensive confinement, with little or no access to pasture.
*
Aurora Organic supplies milk for several private label organic milk brands, including Costco's "Kirkland Signature," Safeway’s "O" organics brand, Publix’s “High Meadows,”Giant's "Natures Promise," and Wild Oats’ organic milk. Aurora Organic received a failing grade from the Cornucopia Institute's survey of organic dairies for its practice of intensive confinement of dairy cows. For pictures of Aurora Organic's operations, follow this link.
http://cornucopia.org/index.php/horizon-factory-farm-photo-gallery/ The Cornucopia Institute recently blew the whistle on Aurora Organic's greenwashing and its bogus certification of animal welfare.

Additionally, its been revealed that much of the soy for Dean Food's White Wave tofu and Silk soymilk products are sourced abroad, primarily from Brazil and China. Environmental standards and workers' rights are routinely violated in these two countries.

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True Food Now!

See this at: truefoodnow.org| Added on 10/20/06

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We are very excited to announce that the True Food Network is now the grassroots network of the Center for Food Safety. Established in 2000 as a means to engage non-farmers in the struggle against genetically engineered crops, the True Food Network is now a 40,000 member network dedicated to stopping the genetic engineering of our food, farms and future, and working with others to create a socially just, democratic and sustainable food system. By joining forces, we will be able to have a bigger impact on the food safety issues we all care so much about.

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Supermarkets and GE...

See this at: truefoodnow.org| Added on 10/20/06

Supermarket activism was extremely important and effective in forcing genetically engineered (GE) food off the shelves throughout Europe. In the U.S., we are starting to see some of those same results. Whole Foods and Wild Oats, two national... See more more

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Start a Supermarket Campaign in Your Area!

Choose your state on the interactive map for contact information for supermarkets in your state.

Download the Supermarket Activist Kit (pdf)

Download a sample letter to supermarket managers

Download our GE food petition to use at your local supermarket (pdf)

Download our fact sheet "Genetic Engineering: the Secret Ingredient. What the Supermarkets don't Want You to Know" (pdf)

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A Milk War Over More Than...

See this at: nytimes.com| Added on 10/14/06

Many organic foods have been popping up on the shelves of Wal-Mart in recent years, but none have been as popular as organic milk. For many shoppers, particularly mothers with small children, it is the first organic product they try.

Highlights: Activist groups, as well as some organic food retailers and dairies, contend that the company where Wal-Mart and the other big retailers get their milk operates large factory farms that are diluting the principles of organic agriculture and delivering customers a substandard product. They...

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September 16, 2006

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Labels often misleading

See this at: azcentral.com| Added on 10/07/06

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Here are a few of the most confusing label categories:

Grass fed: This label implies that the animal was raised roaming fields and hills eating grass and hay, but grass fed does not necessarily mean pasture raised. They can be fed harvested grasses.

The USDA recently issued a proposed standard for what grass fed must mean on meat, but not poultry, products: The animals' diets must consist of at least 99 percent grass over their lifetimes. The labeling is voluntary and requires no verification, however. For more information, see Eatwild.com, which lists about 800 grass-fed beef ranches.

Natural beef: This label means various things, depending on the producer. It can mean beef without food coloring or artificial additives. Or it can mean that cattle were raised without being fed antibiotics, hormones or animal proteins.

Free-range poultry or eggs: Birds raised for meat, mainly chickens and turkeys, may be sold as free range if they have access to the outdoors. No other criteria - environmental quality, size of pen or population density - apply.

Cage-free eggs: These birds are not raised in traditional cages, but that does not mean the birds are raised outside or allowed to run free. They can be raised on the floor of a poultry house or barn, and not be allowed to roam in outdoor pens.

Farmed fish: Also called ocean raised, farm-raised fish are raised in pens in the ocean or freshwater ponds and fed antibiotics.

Scientific studies report trace amounts of chemical contaminants in both farmed and wild fish. Environmentalists claim the amounts in farmed-raised fish are harmful, but some food safety experts claim the amounts are within acceptable limits and similar to the amounts found throughout our food supply.

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Organics Inc.

Created by mona_moolah on 10/6/06

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See who owns your favorite brand name 'organic' products:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/Organic/OrganicChartAug06.pdf

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Scary Chocolate

See this at: organicconsumers.org| Added on 10/11/06

IT'S SCARY -- HALLOWEEN CHOCOLATE MADE WITH FORCED CHILD LABOR The scariest thing about Halloween this year won't be the costumes... it's the chocolate.

Highlights: Almost half of the world's cocoa is being produced on West African plantations where, according to the UN's International Labor Organization, 284,000 child laborers "are either involved in hazardous work, unprotected, or have been trafficked." Say no to the chocolate industry's ghoulish...

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IT'S SCARY: HALLOWEEN CHOCOLATE MADE WITH FORCED CHILD LABOR

The scariest thing about Halloween this year won't be the costumes... it's the chocolate. Almost half of the world's cocoa is being produced on West African plantations where, according to the UN's International Labor Organization, 284,000 child laborers "are either involved in hazardous work, unprotected, or have been trafficked." Say no to the chocolate industry's ghoulish links to child slavery by buying Fair Trade and organic chocolate.

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Mainstream success a...

See this at: contracostatimes.com| Added on 10/11/06

When Wal-Mart Stores promised to boost the number of organic foods it stocks, the announcement sent shock waves rolling among producers and distributors of organic products. Large corporations have been quietly snapping up organics' marquee names for... See more more

Highlights: The need to increase supply to satisfy a customer such as Wal-Mart has led some to worry about weakened organic standards and stress on a fragile supply pipeline. The mega-chain already has gone to China for some of its organic goods. "I truly believe that Wal-Mart's promise to deliver...

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Critics charge that such "industrial scale" farms fool consumers, who only see the bucolic images on the milk cartons of a handful of cows lolling in grass.

And they see that as among the more troubling aspects of the "corporatization" of organics, in part because the cows have less time to graze on grass.

09/19/2006

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The Organic Myth

See this at: businessweek.com| Added on 10/06/06

Pastoral ideals are getting trampled as organic food goes mass market

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As food companies scramble to find enough organically grown ingredients, they are inevitably forsaking the pastoral ethos that has defined the organic lifestyle. For some companies, it means keeping thousands of organic cows on industrial-scale feedlots. For others, the scarcity of organic ingredients means looking as far afield as China, Sierra Leone, and Brazil -- places where standards may be hard to enforce, workers' wages and living conditions are a worry, and, say critics, increased farmland sometimes comes at a cost to the environment.

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Big business accused of...

See this at: nwanews.com| Added on 10/06/06

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Once the symbol of foods produced by environmentally friendly means, the organic label in the United States has with time cheapened into a gimmicky marketing tool, some organic farmers and activists say.

And as mainstream supermarket chains increase their clutch on the lucrative organic industry, the same critics contend that big business is developing a stranglehold on efforts to tighten national organic standards and regulations. Many big businesses entering the growing market counter that simply by doing so, they are benefiting both the environment and consumers.

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Investors Challenge Dean...

See this at: socialfunds.com| Added on 10/06/06

Investment in Factory Farms Questioned

Highlights: March 2, 2006

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Socially concerned investors have filed a shareholder proposal asking Dean Foods to report to shareholders how it is responding to widespread concern that industrial-scale organic dairies, supplying milk for its Horizon brand, violate consumer trust, seriously jeopardizing share value.

The shareholder proposal is a by-product of a five-year debate in the organic industry over the introduction of large-scale factory-style dairy farms, milking as many as 5,000 cows each. It is the contention of a growing number of public interest, environmental, and farming groups that some of these farms are violating current USDA regulations by labeling their products as organic.

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Wal-Mart White Paper

See this at: cornucopia.org| Added on 10/08/06

Wal-Mart: The Nation’s Largest Grocer Rolls-out Organic Products — Market Expansion or Market Delusion?

Highlights: Related Links: Letter to the CEO of Wal-Mart from The Cornucopia Institute (101KB PDF) News Release on the Wal-Mart Organics White Paper (134KD PDF) Wal-Mart Organic Food

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Responsible Shopper...

See this at: coopamerica.org| Added on 10/06/06

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This dairy conglomerate is acquiring dairy farms all over the country to grow its market share. Dean Foods competes with companies such as ConAgra, Danone, and Parmalat to offer quality milk, yogurt, cheese, and other dairy products. The company keeps a relatively low profile, but concerns have been raised in the areas of shareholder compensation, executive excess, violating SEC rules to cover inflated profits for Fleming Companies, and failing to enforce a non-discrimination policy. Dean Foods owns Horizon Organic, but the company has made no indication of guaranteeing company-wide hormone and antibiotic-free products. Bottom line: support the Organic Consumers Association campaign to make sure Dean upholds high organic dairy standards. Let the Green Shift guide you to local and organic dairy products.