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.

NEW important information for parents — 2/09: 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. Click here to 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)

• NEW - 2-09: Standards deliberately misinterpreted to allow DHA in organics. Click here to see more.

• 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.

• NEW — Read about The Cornucopia Institute’s legal complaint to the National Organic Program concerning DHA/ARA in organic infant formula and dairy products.

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