[Cornucopia will update this page with additional findings as they occur.]
Danone North America is one of the largest food and beverage companies in North America. The company is a subsidiary of Danone S.A., an international food-products corporation based in Paris.
Danone has a history of using industrial-scale milk suppliers.
Danone is under increased scrutiny due to a history of non-compliances with the National Organic Program standards, practices Cornucopia believes constitute industrialization in violation of organic integrity, and a lack of transparency.
As per Cornucopia’s Scorecard Adjustments Policy Danone North America’s score will be impacted until they participate in Cornucopia’s repair policy, which includes being transparent about their suppliers and production practices.
Danone has recently dropped many of its organic focused and organic-carrying subsidiaries. Currently, Cornucopia’s policy impacts the following Danone product lines:
History:
In 2016, when Danone sought to acquire Horizon in their merger with WhiteWave/Dean Foods, Cornucopia filed complaints with the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission citing the merger as a monopolistic threat to the US organic dairy marketplace (Cornucopia’s formal complaint letters to the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission). Cornucopia challenged the acquisition based on forecasting the serious erosion of competition it would have created in the consumer marketplace (especially with respect to organic yogurt) and the negative economic impact it would have on domestic organic dairy farmers. Cornucopia has also launched a consumer petition urging federal authorities to investigate the merger.
Cornucopia’s antitrust arguments were successful. While Danone did acquire Horizon and their milk production, they were required to divest the Stonyfield brand from the merger.
In 2018, Danone rebranded its DanoneWave subsidiary, formed after the 2017 acquisition of WhiteWave Foods (Alpro), and it became Danone North America.
In 2021, Horizon (as directed by Danone North America) dumped almost 100 dairy contracts in the Northeast. Horizon argued that it was more “climate friendly” to end these contracts with farmstead-scale dairies that were far from milk processing plants. Horizon apparently didn’t want to have to truck milk so far. Danone allegedly terminated contracts piecemeal for years —for example, they pulled out of Humboldt County in California in 2018, shortly after Danone acquired Horizon in their merger with WhiteWave/Dean Foods.
In April 2024, the global investment firm Platinum Equity announced that it had completed the purchase of a controlling stake in Horizon Organic. Danone retains a non-consolidated minority stake in the business. The sale of Horizon Organic and Wallaby businesses was part of Danone’s portfolio review and asset rotation program that the company had revealed in March 2022 (Reuters reported on this exchange).
[Placeholder links blockquote at bottom: Use Cornucopia’s Organic Dairy Scorecard to support community-scale agriculture with your milk purchases. We plan to add more high-quality organic dairies to the scorecard soon. In the meantime, please tell us about any local, certified organic dairy brands missing from our work.]
