The Cornucopia Institute will be posting responses to questions concerning organic and sustainable farming and food issues. Please check back for updates to this page.
How do I become a member of The Cornucopia Institute?
At your option you can either go to our secure server, by clicking on the donate button on our website, and join by making a contribution with a credit card. Or you can print out that page and mail it to us with a check. Our address appears on the donation page. Thank you very sincerely for your support of our mission!
Can I have permission to post Cornucopia materials, from your website or press releases, on my site or reprint them in printed form?
All of the materials we create (not including news articles authored by others and posted on our site) are made available for any other nonprofit organizations to utilize as long as proper attribution is included. This includes what we have written in the photographs on our site. Although not required we always appreciate an e-mail to let us know where our materials are appearing.
Please note that the ‘Who Owns Organic?’ material originates from Phil Howard, https://www.msu.edu/~howardp/organicindustry.html, and his permission will be needed to reuse this data.
Contact us regarding the use of images on the site, as not all images are property of The Cornucopia Institute.
I read your report on DHA, what infant formula is safe for my baby to use?
The only organic formula without Martek’s DHA is Nature’s One’s product, Baby’s Only Organic.
Why Isn’t My Dairy Brand Listed on the Organic Dairy Scorecard?
Our research is limited to certified organic dairy brands.
If your supplier is organic and certified, and not among the over 110 brands we rate, we would be happy to send them a survey so we start them down the road on being evaluated and added to the scorecard. If they are certified organic, and not already on the scorecard, please send us their full contact information, including e-mail address, and we will contact them.
Why Isn’t My Soy Brand Listed on the Organic Soy Scorecard?
Our research is limited to certified organic soy brands.
If your supplier is organic and certified, and not among the brands we rate, we would be happy to send them a survey so we start them down the road on being evaluated and added to the scorecard. If they are certified organic, and not already on the scorecard, please send us their full contact information, including e-mail address, and we will contact them.
How do I know if my soy products are made with hexane-extracted ingredients?
If the ingredients list on the package includes soy protein isolate, soy protein concentrate, or texturized vegetable protein, and they’re not organic ingredients, then the product you’re looking at is very likely extracted with hexane. Soy lecithin is a byproduct of soy processing which almost always involves hexane – unless it says it’s “organic soy lecithin”, the chances are very high that it’s from hexane-extracted soy.
Also, tofu is very rarely processed with the use of hexane. Do watch out, however, for tofu with reduced fat content (“light” tofu) as this often contains soy protein that may have been extracted with hexane.
Amy’s Kitchen has committed to using only non-hexane extracted soy ingredients in its veggie burgers.
SOY Report FAQs: Cornucopia’s response to corporate propaganda
Click to read about: Silk switches to cheap conventional soybeans and Pacific Foods’ phony baloney certification system for Chinese “organic” soybeans.
What does the almond pasteurization mandate mean about the almonds I purchase?
California growers (essentially all who grow almonds in the U.S.) must pasteurize their almonds if they are going to be sold raw and sold to markets in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
There are two exceptions to the raw almond pasteurization mandate:
1. Exports of raw almonds to foreign countries (excluding Canada and Mexico) do not have to be pasteurized. (This says to us that other countries don’t want pasteurized nuts and/or we don’t care about any potential health impacts for those consumers eating nuts that haven’t been treated).
2. Farmers can sell untreated raw almonds, in maximum lot sizes of 100#, directly to consumers from their farmsteads or at a farmers market. In other words, you can buy direct if you visit the farmers.
Does the Cornucopia Institute promote a meat diet over vegetarian or vegan, and why?
The Cornucopia Institute is “neutral” in terms of people’s dietary choices. We have members who are omnivores, vegetarians who consume dairy and eggs, vegans and folks with a 100% raw diet. And we have farmers who are vegans themselves, and produce only food that conforms to their belief systems, and we have farmers that are involved in livestock production.
Since we have been on the forefront of defending raw food, and keeping it free from adulteration like irradiation and “pasteurization,” as our continual fight in court to overturn the almond pasteurization mandate represents, we are an important champion for people who want truly raw food in their diets.
Other vegetarians appreciate the work we have done rating all the organic soy products in the country so they can buy their favorite foods, in confidence, knowing which ones come from American family farmers in which ones are made from questionable soybeans and other ingredients imported from China.
We think everyone should have the choice to eat a diet that they have chosen. We think people should have access to the healthiest and most nutritious food and that the family farmers who produce it deserved to be fairly compensated. Corporate agribusiness partnering with government is endangering everyone’s ability to purchase truly authentic and nutrients superior food in the marketplace.
Raw Milk
Cornucopia is officially neutral on the risks and benefits of raw milk vs pasteurized milk. Cornucopia members produce milk that is marketed as pasteurized (HTST—high temperature short time, UHT—ultra high temperature/”ultra pasteurized,” vat pasteurization).
A fair number of our members produce and market raw milk and dairy products.
Although being neutral on the health attributes and/or risks of raw milk, we will aggressively defend the rights of dairy farmers to produce and market raw dairy products and the rights of consumers to make informed purchasing decisions in the marketplace.
Would Cornucopia consider a scorecard rating organic certifiers?
The USDA’s oversight of organic certifying agents, through its accreditation program, is a broken system. Congress designated the USDA with the responsibility to oversee an accreditation program to make sure that consumers and ethical organic farmers are protected, but the agency has failed in this regard. An analysis and audit done by the American National Standards Institute, a few years ago, was damning in their criticism of how the USDA was doing its job.
We’ve had many requests to come up with a comprehensive rating system for certifiers, and have recently taken a close look at organic certifiers in China, but our present funding and staffing levels have prevented a rating scorecard for certifiers from being higher on our ‘to-do’ list. It’s something that we are currently studying and continue to be interested in.
Letters and Communications with Public Officials:
Wouldn’t it be easier to have an online petition, including the ones that can be customized, rather than submitting our comments through the government website, when Cornucopia requests us to do so in action alerts, or when you send us proxy letters to mail back?
It’s certainly possible to create what is known as an “online petition.” These can be personalized.
Unfortunately, it’s our experience that elected officials and bureaucrats in Washington dramatically downplay citizen participation when they come in that way.
I know it is a hassle but when you go through the federal government website your thoughts become part of the public record and are posted where other citizens can also see them.
I know it takes a little bit more effort but we would recommend going through their very user-unfriendly system.
And when we send out proxy letters we know it takes a little bit more effort but from our experience something on a piece of paper, with a real signature, and especially when it has some extra hand written message, has a real impact.
