• Read the Full Report
• Use the Cereal Scorecard to support brands committed to organics

Federal law requires that organic food products be produced promoting ecological sustainability, without the toxic inputs and genetically engineered ingredients common in the conventional food system.

Increasingly, organic products are forced to compete with products that claim to be “natural.”

There are no restrictions for foods labeled “natural” (very basic standards exist only for meat products). The term often constitutes nothing more than meaningless marketing hype promoted by corporate interests seeking to cash in on the consumer desire for food produced in a genuinely sustainable manner.

Unlike the organic label, no government agency, certification group or other independent entity fully defines the term “natural” on processed food packages or ensures that the claim has merit.

This report explores the vast differences between organic cereal and granola products and so-called natural products, which contain ingredients grown on conventional farms where the use of toxic pesticides and genetically engineered organisms is widespread.

Our analysis reveals that “natural” products—using conventional ingredients—often are priced higher than equivalent organic products. This suggests that some companies are taking advantage of consumer confusion.

To find brands that are committed to sustainable agriculture, avoiding genetically engineered ingredients and supporting organic farmers, use the Cereal Scorecard.

Hexane Report PDF
View YouTube Video

Does your nutrition bar contain Hexane – view online guide.
Does your veggie burger contain Hexane – view online guide.

The prohibition of hexane in the processing of organic foods, contrasting with its widespread use in non-organic veggie burgers, meat alternatives, nutrition bars and other “natural” foods, is a perfect example of the importance of the organic label.

A “natural” nutrition bar and a certified organic nutrition bar may look nearly identical to a consumer, other than price, but a behind-the-scenes examination of how they were manufactured, focusing on the soy protein ingredients, reveals the importance of purchasing certified organic food.

Organic foods provide a government-regulated, third-party-certified refuge from foods produced and processed with toxins and potentially dangerous chemicals. Federal standards for organic foods are created and enforced by the United States Department of Agriculture, and prohibit the use of synthetic inputs that threaten the environment and/or human health, including hexane.

Hexane is a byproduct of gasoline refining. It is a neurotoxin and a hazardous air pollutant. Soybean processors use it as a solvent—a cheap and efficient way of extracting oil from soybeans, a necessary step to making most conventional soy oil and protein ingredients. Whole soybeans are literally bathed in hexane to separate the soybeans’ oil from protein.

To assist consumers, and wholesale buyers, in making informed purchasing decisions and supporting the companies that have committed to hexane-free soy ingredients, The Cornucopia Institute has developed the report “Banned in Organics” along with the “Guide to Choosing Non-Hexane Meat Alternatives” and the “Guide to Choosing Non-Hexane Nutrition Bars.”

View online guide – Does your brand contain Hexane? →

View online guide – Does your brand contain Hexane? →

Sustainable Food on Change.org, based on our report, started a petition to Get Neurotoxins Out of Clif Bars, read about it and sign it here.

The Cornucopia Institute’s report, Scrambled Eggs: Separating Factory Farm Egg Production from Authentic Organic Agriculture, 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 forced off the land by a landslide of eggs from factory farms.

The accompanying organic egg scorecard rates companies that market name-brand and private-label organic “shell” eggs based on 22 criteria that are important to organic consumers. The scorecard showcases ethical family farms, and their brands, and exposes factory farm producers and brands in grocery store coolers that threaten to take over organic livestock agriculture.

Some of the factory farm operators literally raise millions of birds (both conventional and organic) with as many as 85,000 “organic” hens in single buildings.

With this Web-based rating tool, you can see which brands of eggs found in your region are produced using the best organic farming practices and ethics. Based on more than a year’s research into the organic egg business, the scorecard rates almost 70 different name-brand eggs and additional private-label products.

Both the report and scorecard highlight the good news in the organic egg industry by showcasing the true heroes, including national and local producers that are supplying ethically-produced organic eggs and are worthy of consumer support.

Organic Egg Brand Scorecard
Full report
Executive Summary
Photo Gallery: Industrial-Scale Egg Production—Masquerading As Organic?
Photo Gallery: Small and Medium Scale Egg Production with Permanent Housing
Photo Gallery: The True Heroes in Organic Egg Production
Proxy Letter: Please Make Your Voice Heard!

Please mail back to Cornucopia — we will hand deliver to the USDA!
P.O. Box 126, Cornucopia, WI 54827

View Scrambled Eggs the Video Report

We invite you to join with the hundreds of family farmers and their consumer allies who support the work of The Cornucopia Institute.

To gain a deeper understanding of current practices in the organic beef industry, Cornucopia surveyed organic beef producers across the nation. Based on this research, Cornucopia proposed a three-tiered labeling system for organic meat from ruminants. The results of the survey, and proposed labeling system, are outlined in the 2010 position paper.

In May 2011, the USDA issued a notice that the exemption for ruminant slaughter stock would remain in the final rule. While organic producers are required to maintain their organic ruminants on pasture during the grazing season, they are not required to ensure that at least 30% of the animals’ feed is obtained from grazing.

The final rule can be accessed at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-05-10/pdf/2011-11013.pdf

View the Organic Soy Scorecard: Find your favorite organic soy food brands and see how they rate.

The Cornucopia Institute’s Organic Soy Report and accompanying Scorecard rates companies that market organic soy foods, such as soymilk, tofu and “veggie burgers,” based on ten criteria that are important to organic consumers’ showcasing companies that are truly committed to the spirit and letter of the organic law while exposing those that do not rate highly or were unwilling to share their sourcing and production practices in our survey.

The scorecard sheds light on questions such as:

- Do the soybeans come from American organic farmers, or are they imported from China, India or South America?

- Is the company devoted to supporting organic agriculture by sourcing only organic soybeans and marketing only organic products?

- Does the company use loopholes in the organic standards to source cheaper non-organic ingredients even when organic ones are available?

Part I of the comprehensive report explores the reasons for asking these questions, including why organic consumers should be wary of Chinese imports, given the lax oversight by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) over organic certifiers working in China.

Part II of the report exposes the “dirty little secret” of the “natural” soy foods industry: the widespread use of hexane in processing. Hexane is strictly prohibited in organic food processing, but is used to make “natural” soy foods and even some that are “made with organic ingredients,” such as Clif Bars®. Hexane is a neurotoxic petrochemical solvent that is listed as a hazardous air pollutant with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Both the report and scorecard highlight the good news in the organic soyfood industry: in every market and product category, there are true heroes, both national and local manufacturers, supplying ethically-produced organic food that are worthy of consumer support.

View the Organic Soy Scorecard: Find your favorite organic soy food brands and see how they rate.

Read the full report.

Read the executive summary.

View the ratings: Find out our criteria for rating organic soyfood companies in the Organic Soy Scorecard.

FAQs: Cornucopia’s response to corporate propaganda — Silk switches to cheap conventional soybeans and Pacific Foods phony baloney certification system for Chinese “organic” soybeans.

Obtain a hardcopy of the report for $12.  Pay in advance here, and please write in the note box “soy report copy” and a report will be mailed to you.

We invite you to join with the hundreds of family farmers and their consumer allies who support the work of The Cornucopia Institute.

Send a letter to non-contributing or unlisted soy brands encouraging them to participate in the project. Click here for a sample letter.

White Paper Link:

Wal-Mart: The Nation’s Largest Grocer Rolls-out Organic Products — Market Expansion or Market Delusion? (173KB PDF)

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 Photo Gallery

About the author

The Spring 2006 announcement by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., that it would dramatically expand its product offerings of organic food has left many organic industry officials and consumers questioning the corporation’s likely impact. This report is an initial analysis of Wal-Mart’s early organic marketing practices.

NEW: Photo Gallery of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. mislabeling of conventional food products as organic.

Related links:

• Update. New Forward to Maintaining the Integrity of Organic Milk containing the latest information on organic dairy product developments.

Maintaining the Integrity of Organic Milk (1.5 MB PDF)

Maintaining the Integrity of Organic Milk (Executive Summary)

Understanding the Brand Ratings (excerpted from the full report)

Find Your Favorite Organic Dairy Product: View the Organic Dairy Brand Ratings Scorecard Continually Updated

About the Author

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 approximately 110 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.

We invite you to join with the hundreds of family farmers and their consumer allies who support the work of The Cornucopia Institute.

Replacing Mother – Imitating Human Breast Milk in the Laboratory, details research questioning the alleged benefits of adding “novel” omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, produced in laboratories and extracted from algae and fungus, into infant formulas. The report presents disturbing research indicating that the new additives placed in infant formula are seriously endangering the health of some formula-fed newborns and toddlers. Aggressive marketing campaigns by some infant formula manufacturers appear to have encouraged new mothers to give up nursing and switch to use of the questionable infant formula products.

Take Action Now! Tell the National Organic Standards Board to remove DHA/ARA from organic infant formula and foods.

NEW – Watch our 4-minute video on Martek Biosciences Corporation’s DHA and ARA in infant formula.

What Scientists Have to Say about Safety Concerns and Questionable Benefits of Martek’s DHA

NEW – Avoid organic foods containing Martek’s DHA and ARA. Click here to see a list of products with these unapproved additives.

Update May 2010 – Contains updates to the original 2008 report, including personal stories of infant suffering, information on lack of post‐market surveillance and safety studies, and changes in the National Organic Program’s interpretation of the legality of these additives. Download the 2010 DHA Update Updated Report, coming soon

Important Information for Parents: DHA and ARA in infant formula have been linked to severe diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, and gastrointestinal pain in some infants. Since these additives are relatively new in infant formula, not all pediatricians are aware of their possible side effects.  If your baby experienced side effects from DHA and ARA in infant formula, please send an adverse reaction report to the FDA and to Cornucopia. For instructions,  read rest of update.

Report and Related Links:

• Read the Executive Summary.
  (Print quality high-definitiona version here.)

• Read the full report (8 MB pdf)

• Questions and Answers about infant forumla

• Read a sampling of “Adverse Reaction reports” obtained by The Cornucopia Institute’s Freedom of Information Act request to the FDA. The reports detail infant health problems related to DHA/ARA formula.

• Take Action and help end the suffering! Contact the FDA in support of a warning label on DHA/ARA infant formula products.

• Read the entire news release announcing the release of Replacing Mother – Imitating Human Breast Milk in the Laboratory

• The Cornucopia Institute and the National Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy petition the Food and Drug Administration for a warning label on infant forumlas containing DHA and ARA laboratory oils

• The Cornucopia Institute and the National Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy ask the Federal Trade Commission to investigate misleading advertising claims by formula manufacturers

• Click here to listen to a podcast about the report.

• In response to Cornucopia’s work, the National Organic Program corrects improprieties related to DHA/ARA in organic foods. Read the latest press release

• If you suspect that your infant has suffered an adverse reaction from DHA/ARA infant formula, report this to the FDA.