America’s Largest Corporate Dairy Processor Muscles Its Way into Organics

Clout-Heavy Dean Foods Kills USDA Investigation of Their Horizon Label The Cornucopia Institute CORNUCOPIA, WI: After a three-and-a-half year battle with Dean Foods regarding the legality of milk it labels as Horizon Organic, the country’s most aggressive organic industry watchdog filed additional legal actions today. Dean, the nation’s largest dairy processor, with nearly $12 billion… Read more »

Organic Infant Formula Ingredients Processed with Toxic Chemical

FDA Reports Indicate Infants Sickened from Algae/Fungal-Based Nutritional Supplements The Cornucopia Institute CORNUCOPIA, WI. — The Cornucopia Institute has filed a legal complaint with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), demanding that the agency enforce the organic regulations prohibiting toxic solvents from being used in the production of organic food. The Institute found that baby… Read more »

Unsustainable Shrimp Farming Degrading the Environment, Posing Health Risks

Eli Penberthy The Cornucopia Institute Consumer demand for shrimp is soaring. In 2006, the US alone imported 1.3 billion pounds of farm-raised shrimp, more than any other seafood. The results are wreaking havoc on the environment, threatening the livelihood of fishing communities, and significantly contaminating the water and food supplies in the US and abroad…. Read more »

23 Organizations Critique Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Initiatives

Human rights, labor and environmental groups find Wal-Mart”s “green” initiatives lack real impact on global warming, employee health and welfare Washington, DC– As Wal-Mart releases its long-anticipated sustainability progress report today, 23 environmental, farm, labor, and human rights groups are disseminating their own report, “Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Initiative: A Civil Society Critique.” The report, prepared by… Read more »

Halloween Trick — USDA lets “Organic” Factory Farms off the Hook

Agency Fails to Take Enforcement Action against Industry Giants Cornucopia, WI – The Cornucopia Institute sharply criticized the conclusion by USDA that an 8000-head factory dairy in Idaho was operating within the federal organic standards. Cornucopia had requested an investigation based on its site visit to the giant industrial-scale dairy, owned by Dean Foods, and… Read more »

Aurora Dairy Exemption from Check-off Program Challenged

USDA should demand retroactive payment from faux organic milk producers Cornucopia, WI “The Cornucopia Institute has sent a formal request to the Chief of the USDA’s Dairy Promotion and Research Program, requesting that the program collect almost three years’ worth of unpaid dairy promotion “check-off” assessments from the Colorado-based Aurora Dairy. Since February 2005, the… Read more »

Lawsuits Announced Against Nation’s Biggest Organic Dairy

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… Read more »

Aurora Farm’s Certifier Found to Have Willfully Violated Organic Rules

Secret USDA Enforcement Action Revealed CORNUCOPIA, WI: In a startling revelation The Cornucopia Institute is making public a new document indicating that not only did the USDA find that the nation’s largest organic factory-farm dairy operator “willfully” violate the federal organic standards, but that one of its certifiers, the Colorado Department of Agriculture, had, also,… Read more »

USDA Enforcement Action At Nation’s Largest Dairy Fails to Levy Fines or Yank Certification – Findings of Investigation Appear to Constitute Fraud

Watchdog: Organic Community “Taking the Law into Its Own Hands” CORNUCOPIA, WI: Announcing the filing of additional legal complaints with the USDA, and threatening civil litigation, the nation’s most aggressive organic watchdog, The Cornucopia Institute, blasted the USDA for not penalizing the industry’s largest organic milk producer after government regulators found that they have perpetrated… Read more »

23 Organizations Issue Joint Report Critiquing Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Initiatives

Human rights, labor and environmental groups find Wal-Mart’s “green” initiatives lack real impact on global warming, employee health and welfare Washington, DC – As Wal-Mart prepares to release its long-anticipated sustainability progress report, 23 environmental, farm, labor, and human rights groups have released their own report, “Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Initiative: A Civil Society Critique.” The report, prepared… Read more »