Today’s Good News: OCA Forces USDA To Remove Organic Certification From Factory Farm
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and the Cornucopia Institute celebrated a major victory early in June. A large factory farm, a supplier to Horizon Organic, had its organic certification suspended. As organic products gain market share, Big Food keeps trying to talk the government into lowering (one might even say “gutting”) the federal organic standards. They like the idea of being able to gain organic sales without having to use resources to meet the existing standards. OCA is fighting the good fight for us on this. In 2006, they launched a boycott of Horizon (a unit of Dean Foods) because they source milk from giant dairy feedlots where the animals have little or no access to pasture. The boycott has contributed to lower profits at Horizon.
“This is a big victory for the farm families around the country who work so hard to create milk and dairy products that meet a high ethical standard,” said Mark Kastel, Cornucopia’s senior farm policy analyst.
OCA has recently expanded its boycott to other problem companies: Costco’s “Kirkland Signature,” Safeway’s “O” organics brand, Publix’s “High Meadows, “Giant’s “Natures Promise,” “Woodstock Farms” and Wild Oats’ organic milk.
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