Class Action Suits Seek Damages from Sale of Fraudulent Milk ST. LOUIS, MO / DENVER, CO Acting on behalf of organic food consumers in 27 states, class action lawsuits are being filed in U.S. federal courts, in St. Louis and Denver, against the nation's largest organic dairy. The suits charge Aurora Dairy Corporation, based in Boulder, Colorado, with allegations of consumer fraud, negligence, and unjust enrichment concerning the sale of organic milk by the company. This past April, Aurora officials received a notice from the USDA detailing multiple and "willful" violations of federal organic law that were found by federal investigators. "This is the largest scandal in the history of the organic industry," said Mark Kastel of The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm policy research group. Cornucopia's 2005 formal legal complaint first alerted USDA investigators to the improprieties occurring at Aurora. "Aurora was taking advantage of the consumer's good will in the marketplace toward organics, and the USDA has allowed this scofflaw-corporation to continue to operate," Kastel added. Law firms based in Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri have so far have filed one of the lawsuits in Missouri, with another suit, covering dozens of additional states where plaintiffs live, due to be filed in Denver tomorrow. The attorneys are seeking damages from Aurora to reimburse consumers harmed by the company's actions and are requesting that the U.S. District Courts put an injunction in place to halt the ongoing sale of Aurora's organic milk in the nation's grocery stores until it can be demonstrated that the company is complying with federal organic regulations.

Posted in Cornucopia News, Lawsuits & Legal Actions Involving Aurora

Boulder County Business Report by Barbara Hey BOULDER - Despite threats of legal action, the vitriol continues between Boulder-based Aurora Organic Dairy and the company's critics in the organic community - chief among them the Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based advocacy group. The current conflagration concerns a consent agreement between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Aurora released Aug. 29 following a "Notice of Proposed Revocation" in April, in which the USDA cited its intention to pull Aurora's organic certification unless the dairy filed a written appeal within 30 days.

Posted in Lawsuits & Legal Actions Involving Aurora, Media/News

Agency Accused of Refusing to Enforce Law CORNUCOPIA, WI: In a letter sent today, the Cornucopia Institute informed the USDA of their intention to file a complaint in federal district court accusing the agency of ignoring the organic regulations, and the intent of Congress, by their failure to enforce the law. The impending lawsuit is just the latest salvo in a seven-year-long dispute between organic family farmers and the USDA. "A wide cross section of the organic industry has repeatedly petitioned the USDA to crack down on an increasing number of industrial-scale factory-farms that are producing "organic" milk," said Mark Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst at the Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute.

Posted in Cornucopia News, Lawsuits & Legal Actions Involving Aurora