Secretary Vilsack Asked to Balance Public's Interest with Corporate Involvement CORNUCOPIA, WI: In a move to protect the growing organic industry from undue corporate influence, a leading organic watchdog group released a letter, dated June 7, calling on the USDA to collaborate with the organic community on pending appointments to the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). The Cornucopia Institute, and other organic advocates, have long been concerned that representatives from corporate agribusiness have obtained a disproportionate influence on rulemaking at the USDA.

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Still Time for you to Act Cornucopia, the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, and other groups have sent out several alerts regarding the food safety bills in Congress. We are continuing to monitor the situation with S. 510, the Senate's version of the bill. As written, this bill would impose extremely burdensome and unnecessary requirements on the thousands of small farmers and food processors who are producing safe, nutrient-dense foods for their local communities. It's critical that the bill be amended or stopped! The bill's progress has been slowed by controversial proposed amendments. The first controversy is over Senator Tester's (D-MT) proposed amendment, that we strongly support, and that would exempt small-scale processors and direct-marketing farmers from the most onerous requirements.

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Industry Watchdog / Washington Post Investigation Brings Down Old Leadership Washington, DC: In a strong departure from Bush-era policy, the USDA's National Organic Program released a memo today banning synthetic "accessory nutrients" — ending a scandal that brought down its former organic leadership. At issue were some of the nation's leading manufacturers of infant formula that had been illegally adding synthetic forms of omega-3 and omega-6 oils to their organic products after a sweetheart deal between a powerful industry lobbyist and Dr. Barbara Robinson, the former head of the USDA's organic program—exposed by a 2009 investigative report in the Washington Post. Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), by The Cornucopia Institute and shared with the Washington Post, indicated that Robinson, after meeting with Jay Friedman, a lawyer and lobbyist with the powerful Washington law firm of Covington Burling, rescinded a ruling made by USDA career civil servants who found the inclusion of synthetic oils in organic infant formula to be illegal.

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Prominent Brands Using “Organic" in Their Name When Products Don't Qualify Cornucopia, WI—While the organic label is the gold standard of eco-labels on food packages, one major loophole in the federal organic standards remains—which an organic industry watchdog is asking the USDA to close. Companies are tightly regulated in terms of their use of the word "organic" on food packaging, but some businesses are deceiving customers by using the words "Organic" or "Organics" in their company name on food that does not legally qualify as organic. "Companies are getting away with using the word ‘organic’ in their company name, listed prominently on food packages, even if the product they’re selling isn’t certified organic," explains Charlotte Vallaeys, Farm and Food Policy Analyst with The Cornucopia Institute. "These companies are taking advantage of the good name and reputation of organics, without going the extra mile to actually source all organic ingredients in their products." Today, The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm policy research group, sent a formal legal complaint to the USDA’s National Organic Program, and

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Synthetic Oils in Infant Formula Could Be Making Babies Sick Cornucopia, WI – For years, the USDA'S National Organic Program has failed to enforce federal organic standards that prohibit the use of certain unapproved synthetic substances in organic infant formula and other organic foods. The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based food and farm policy research group, is taking action to rein in the practice with the re-filing of a formal legal complaint with the USDA calling for the removal of the additives from organic infant formula. The additives, DHA and ARA, are nutritional oils grown from fermented algae and soil fungus, and are being added to most conventional as well as organic formula brands. They have been linked to serious illness in some infants. "Consumers rightfully expect organic foods to be purer and safer than conventional foods -- in part because federal regulations require that they be free from potentially harmful synthetic additives," says Charlotte Vallaeys, Farm and Food Policy Analyst with The Cornucopia Institute, a non-profit farm and food research group. "But in the case of the synthetic, chemically extracted additives DHA and ARA, the system of federal regulations ensuring organic integrity was undermined by corporate lobbying and backroom deals during the Bush Administration."

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