Roy Beard, who has operated Roy's Natural Market in Dallas for 41 years, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in their November 8 coverage surrounding the Silk controversy, that he hadn't realized there was a product change until contacted by a reporter. He said retaining the same bar code ??was troubling. ? Most retailers were never informed of the Silk switch to conventional soybeans.
Dean/WhiteWave has also received heat in the organic food and agriculture community for choosing to convert some of their Horizon dairy products, the leading organic label in terms of sales volume, to cheaper ??natural ? (conventional) ingredients.
??This really hit a nerve because one of these new Horizon products, Little Blends yogurt, is aimed specifically at toddlers, at an early stage of development, where the nutritional superiority of organic food, and its benefit of avoiding chemical residues in our food, is so critically important, ? Kastel explained. ??This starkly undermines the propaganda on the Horizon website proclaiming how dedicated they are to the organic movement ?? this is all about profit, not values! ?
The media blow up on the Silk switcheroo included a front-page story in the Chicago Tribune in July that outlined a consumer survey indicating the public was unclear about the difference between natural and organic labels and that some corporations, particularly Dean Foods, were taking advantage of the confusion in the marketplace.
??Dean has only added to the marketplace confusion between ??natural' and ??organic,' as they definitely do not mean the same thing, and ??natural' requires no verification whatsoever, ? Urvashi Rangan, a senior scientist at Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, also told Barry Shlachter of the Star-Telegram.
The Cornucopia's Kastel likes to identify corporate giant Heinz as a company doing organics right. ??They helped fund California tomato growers who switched to organic production, and they brought in a highly reputable organic certifier, produced the product in their own plant, and finally put the Heinz name on the label, ? Kastel stated. ??I think their ethical approach to organic production is what consumers expect and is being rewarded in the marketplace by virtue of the success they're having with their organic ketchup. ?
Cornucopia also cites Stonyfield yogurt, which was acquired by group Danone of France, as another example of a large public corporation continuing to uphold organic values. Stonyfield remains committed to buying all of their milk from family-scale organic farmers, unlike Dean Foods that is increasingly relying on factory farms for its Horizon milk supply.
??The independently owned organizations, although they are fewer, have not totally gone away, ? observed Fantle. Eden Foods, Nature's Path and Organic Valley, among others, are still independently owned even though they each do as much as $500 million of business every year. ?
The new legal complaint filed against Dean Foods, for representing their conventional Silk soymilk as organic on one of their websites, was filed with the USDA's National Organic Program. ??We fully expect the NOP to send a cease and desist order to Dean Foods, ? said Kastel. If Dean, a $12 billion a year public corporation, is found to have willfully violated the federal law governing organic commerce, it could be subject to fines and other penalties.
Another website maintained by Dean/WhiteWave, http://www.silksoymilk.com, shows their new redesigned packaging. ??Since they changed to conventional soybeans in the first quarter of 2009 this package redesign is very, very late and in the meantime many consumers picked up Silk, thinking that was still organic, and were taken advantage of, ? said Kastel.
Many retailers complained, and have subsequently dropped Silk products believing they and their customers were intentionally deceived. Kastel responded by saying, ??I think Dean Foods should make a very generous contribution, using their ill-gotten gains, since they saved so much from switching from organic to conventional soybeans, to one of the feeding programs in this country that are facing incredible pressure right now from those who are facing ??food insecurity'. ?
A copy of the formal legal complaint, by The Cornucopia Institute, charging Dean Foods with allegedly violating of federal organic regulations, can be accessed at: www.cornucopia.org/Silk/WhiteWaveComplaint.pdf
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