Aerial photo of factory farm with four large buildings
September 2022

Don’t Let Factory Farms Undermine the Organic Label

Your voice is needed by midnight ET on November 10, 2022 (Please note the deadline extension. While this allows more time for consumer and retailer support, industry will take full advantage of this opportunity. Your comment is more important than ever! ) USDA has published the long-awaited Organic Livestock...

We need improvements at the National Organic Program.
March 2022

Tell USDA You Care About Organic Integrity!

Comment before Midnight ET on March 30, 2022 Industrial “organic” operators are able to keep prices low by cutting corners on animal welfare, biodiversity, care for natural resources, and soil health. Their cheap products undercut authentic organic food in the marketplace. A process exists to counter this threat. The...

Image contrasting vegetables grown in soil on the left and vegetables grown hydroponically with a worker in the background on the right
March 2022

Are You Eating Factory Farmed Tomatoes?

When most of us think about organic fruits and vegetables, we picture healthy produce springing from soil teeming with life. But your certified organic tomatoes and cucumbers (along with berries, summer squash, and more) may have originated in a sterile, indoor, hydroponic system — fed inputs purchased from organic...

Cartons of Horizon milk
February 2022

What You Won’t Find on Horizon’s Packaging

The carton may look the same. But Danone NA devalued all of the Horizon milk on grocery store shelves by dropping contracts with small dairies throughout the Northeast. At a time when authentic organic dairies are disappearing, the brand is doubling down on factory “organic” milk. Despite the happy...

October 2021

Help Remove Carrageenan From Organic

At its fall 2021 meeting, the NOSB decided to keep carrageenan on the list of substances allowed in organic food for another five years. This vote came despite the additive’s known health impacts and the inability of consumers to reliably identify or avoid it in organic food (since it...

September 2021

Tell Danone You Stand with Farm Families

Danone (owner of Horizon Organic Milk) is the global leader in fresh dairy products, owns over 20 brands, and is a 10.3 billion-dollar company, but they claim they cannot afford to continue to support family organic dairy farms that have helped build the Horizon Organic brand for decades. Instead,...

Explainer
September 2021

Avoiding Carrageenan? Strengthen our Case to the NOSB

The USDA National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) will soon review (once again!) the use of carrageenan in organic foods. On the table: whether to remove this controversial ingredient from organic food. With your help, we can ensure that decision is based on the full spectrum of organic stakeholder input—not...

April 2021

Calling All Consumer Advocates (That’s You!)

Cornucopia is at it again, and we need you to be our eyes and ears in the aisles in a grocery store near you! The certified organic blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries at your local store may be grown on hydroponic and other soilless “farms.” By law, organic crop producers...

Chicken_barn
February 2021

Help Us Find the Good Eggs

The National Organic Program’s Organic Integrity Database currently lists nearly 1,000 certified egg operations. We need your help identifying them, and getting more authentic organic brands on the shelves of your local co-op, natural grocery store, or other retail outlet. As organic egg sales continue to rise, making up...

Flint Farmers Market
November 2020

Restore the Cost Share for Organic Certification

10 Minutes to Support Organic Farmers In this season of gratitude, your voice is needed. Your call or email today could help organic farmers receive the cost share assistance they have been promised in fiscal year 2021. In August, the USDA’s Farm Service Agency announced a partial defunding of the Organic...

September 2020

Urge USDA to Close US Ports to Fraudulent Imports

Comment by Midnight ET on October 5 The long awaited Strengthening Organic Enforcement Rule is sorely needed, and your help is needed to get a sensible rule to the finish line. Tell the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) to strengthen and finalize the SOE. Cornucopia has been investigating fraudulent...

Milk Plant Code
August 2020

Watch That Milk Plant Code!

What if you had a way to avoid milk from an “organic” dairy feedlot operation? Happily, you may! It requires the fine print, usually found near the top of the milk carton or on the lids of gallon containers. Those faint numbers, known as the “milk plant code,” give...

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