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Complaint Against Target Filed with USDA
Leading organic watchdog the Cornucopia Institute has registered a formal complaint with the USDA against retail behemoth Target for falsely representing Silk brand soymilk as organic in newspaper advertisements. The allegation states the following (pdf):
Specifically, Target Corporation advertised Silk soymilk in newspapers with the term "organic" pictured on the carton’s label, when in fact the product’s manufacturer, Dean Foods’ WhiteWave division, has been sourcing this product line with conventional soybeans. The newspaper ads potentially reached millions of consumers in the Midwest, and possibly nationwide, with the false representation.
This is not the first time Target has been accused of organic mislabeling. They were named in a 2007 class-action suit for selling conventional milk in Archer Farms cartons which bore the seal of organic certification. That lawsuit is currently pending and both Target and Aurora, who were the producers of the Archer Farms milk, dispute this allegation.
In the area of Target's recent newspaper ads, it appears that officials at Cornucopia are choosing a relatively non-cynical approach when it comes to discussing intent.
"Either this was a willful attempt to deceive customers and defraud them or more likely incompetence and lack of oversight by management," said Mark Kastel, an analyst for the Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute. "I would guess this was done in error. It is hard to believe that people at this company were stupid enough to think they could get away with this."
[...]
Kastel said Target's actions amount to creating an "organic light" product in the marketplace. "Major food processors have recognized the meteoric rise of the organic industry — and profit potential," he said.
Joan Shaffer, a spokeswoman for the USDA's National Organic Program in Washington, D.C., said the Cornucopia Institute's complaint will be reviewed to determine what the next step should be. "If it warrants an investigation, we will do an investigation," she said.
Target could be fined for a "willful violation" of organic certification regulations, Shaffer said.
In the past year, the USDA's organic program has received 160 complaints alleging bogus organic products, she said.
Whether through incompetence or perceived opportunity, there is no shortage of opportunity for consumer confusion when it comes to organic marketing. Cornucopia has previously encountered a somewhat similar issue with Wal-Mart.
This is not the first time The Cornucopia Institute has found that specialty retailers, like the nation’s approximately 275 co-op grocers, have faced unethical competition from big-box chains. After the group filed complaints with federal and state regulators against Wal-Mart in 2006, also alleging misrepresention of conventional food as organic with improper signage in their stores, the nation’s largest retailer signed consent agreements with the USDA and the state of Wisconsin committing to change their practices.
“Wal-Mart did indeed clean up its act, as we expect Target to do, but it should not take the judicious oversight of an industry watchdog to cause these giant corporations to comply with the law, said Will Fantle, research director for the Wisconsin-based Cornucopia. “One of the reasons these companies can undercut other retailers is they do not invest in the kind of management expertise necessary to prevent problems of this nature from occurring.”
The Wal-Mart complaint, which I had previously written about, involved in-store signage. Some of the signage in question is pictured below. The photos were provided by the Cornucopia Institute and are reproduced here with their permission.
My first impression upon reading this was "clueless floor staff." But somebody had to make the decision to make up that signage and distribute it to the staff, and thus had some responsibility for oversight.
I am especially not impressed by the banner sign over the produce case. Kinda hard for management to miss that one, you'd think?
I hope the result of these lawsuits is for these big chains to give up on having their own instore organic signage (or advertising) entirely. People who are looking for it don't need to be prodded, let alone lied to. This will also have the spinoff effect of making people suspicious about any loose produce sold by these stores as "organic," especially if expensive. If they can make up one kind of signage and use it illegally, why not move on to labels, etc? I can see people thinking that, whether it's likely to happen or not.
is the pattern of miscues, intentional or accidental, which are enabled by a lack of meaningful regulatory enforcement. This leads to quality control in this arena becoming something of an afterthought.
the fact that in the case of organic regulation, they're regulating in the wrong direction.
Ideally, it would be a given that food was grown according to organic standards, and you'd have to get a special permit to do otherwise.
This would reflect real costs (including environmental and social costs) instead of this Alice in Wonderland situation where one is charged extra time and money to do it the sustainable way (all the paperwork and permitting, etc.), and is thus forced to pass the cost on to the consumer - who then complains about organic food being so expensive.
And that extra cost adds up and helps to keep organic from going mainstream, not to mention looking at where ag subsidies go - NOT to the small or medium-scale organic farmer.
Ultimately, the consumer is right about the extra expense. Sometimes I wish organic farmers would organize as 501 (c) 3's - call themselves churches. Pray to the plants and end-run the government at the same time. What's not to like?
consumers by and large have been idiotic and destructive in their influence. Consider the dance of the apple. It wasn't just producers or just marketers who decided that an apple was something stop sign red with high shoulders and cute little dimples on the bottom, taste and everything else be damned, it was consumers.
I can't tell you how many morons I know who think rotenone is just fine because it is "organic." If you let these idiots loose there wouldn't be a stream left in North America with any fish in it.
I'm very interested in tomatoes, for the same reasons you're interested in apples. I don't live in apple country, but I could write for a number of paragraphs about the ins and outs of apple varieties, and the lameness of teh Red Delicious, etc.
However, heirloom tomatoes do well here. I hope to work more on these next year.
Isn't arsenic okay with organic certification? I can't remember. I've GOT to read up on this stuff more. I got ya on rotenone. I use soap on insects, or handpick, or ignore, or pray for Polistes sp. paper wasps (good helpers, those!).
We have no storm drains in Carlsbad, New Mexico, a city of 20 odd thousand, through which the Pecos runs. I've often wondered what on earth they were thinking, the city founders? No storm drains? WTF?
To give people some credit, the whole organic standards movement was such an uphill battle. We might look back on those brave folks when considering ACES, etc. At least they managed to get people thinking about agriculture. In its own vague, thin way, it was a start. A big one really.
Day late and a dollar short? Time will tell. But what we *are* doing is building culture, with its inherent values and built-in reality-based education; and in the long run that may be the most important.
This year I planted heirloom tomatoes and could not be more pleased. The flavors are heavenly and pack more nutrition than the moistened-cardboard-tasting, nutritionally depleted hybrids found in the grocery. I am now committed to only growing heirloom vegetables. Soon I will dry some seed for the next generation of bliss.
This morning I read that the USDA "endorses use of coal combustion wastes by farmers 'for crop production' while acknowledging uncertainty on the extent to which 'toxic elements' are absorbed into produce entering the market." And according to EPA, "agriculture annually uses more than 180,000 tons of coal ash and other coal combustion byproducts. There are no federal standards governing agricultural applications of coal ash."
Hmm, I think I will take a pass on the possibility of dining on vegetables with "trace elements such as mercury, arsenic and selenium." Growing heirlooms in my back yard, yep, that is the way I shall go.
[The insert/edit link gizmo did not work, maybe I am in need of more coffee!]
I grew purple calabash heirloom tomatoes this year. They had a really strong winy flavor, just wonderful for saucing, and were pretty tolerant of relative soil dryness, and the vines did not get sick from anything. Some of the Amish paste did have virus problems, and I did not cull any vines (this was an experiment) but the purple calabash still didn't catch anything from their compatriots. That was interesting, since we have a lot of curlytop virus here, and there are not known to be any reliably resistant tomato varieties - though I'm not sure what got the Amish paste. Looked like curlytop though.
I was really impressed. I also picked up an interesting book, "100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden," by Carolyn J. Male, published 1999. At the time of publication she'd been in with Seed Savers Exchange since before 1994, and she notes in the forward that "nearly 1,000 members of the Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) used the Seed Savers 1999 Yearbook to offer 21,500 listings of rare vegetables and fruits - and nearly one-third of those listings were tomatoes."
They're an interesting group; I'm a member and get their yearbooks and supplementary publications. On my list of websites I want to spend some time with - long list!
They're at seedsavers.org.
Thank you, Miep, for book and seedsavers link information, I look forward to reading both. I also plan to include the purple calabash in my next selection of tomatoes. Have you grown Brandywine? I have not encountered curlytop, but the Brandywine is a hardy tomato, rather disease resistant for an heirloom. Gorgeous and delicious!
From what I have read, the beet leafhopper is the culprit for transmitting curlytop. Seedsofchange.com mentioned the possibility of covering your young tomato plants with floating row cover until they need to be staked. Once a tomato plant gets beyond the vulnerable seedling stage it is better equipped to survive the leafhopper.
Some of the deterrents for keeping whiteflies at bay apparently can work with hoppers. As a preventative measure, I sprayed tomato plants with hot pepper spray and basil tea, planted marigolds and basil amongst tomatoes, and attracted these little nippers to color. For whatever reason yellow attracts; I attached yellow zip lock trash bag fasteners to sticks at varying heights, coated with canola oil, and inserted in soil by tomato plants. Whiteflies would land on the yellow strips and get stuck.
A book I have turned to on a number of occasions is "Trowel & Error" by Sharon Lovejoy; she has quite a few solutions and it's a fun read.
What method do you use to water your tomatoes?
Hi, Gabriella. Curlytop is pretty much a southwestern tomato disease, but it could easily be spreading. Yes, the beet leafhopper is the insect vector, and there are a wide variety of host plants for the leafhopper as well.
Agreed on floating row covers and net barriers generally, but it would still be neat to come up with a resistant variety. Much simpler. Curlytop is less likely to kill an older plant, but it still is debilitating.
Here where it is so hot tomatoes in large containers under trees sometimes do better; the beet leafhopper is not crazy about the shade, and if there is filtered light that can be enough for the tomatoes...it depends. Otherwise, dvarieties that work here have to be evolved for hot climates; for example they have to set fruit under their leaves, as opposed to exposing the fruit more, or the tomatoes get sunburned. I don't know that Brandywine is a high heat-evolved variety, though I know it's popular. I tried it years ago and it did not do well. But if you're in this region and grow it and don't get curlytop, that would be interesting.
I've never had whitefly trouble here, and not much with aphids; but we do have a healthy natural population of lacewings and a variety of lady beetles; that may be part of why not. I've read that yellow as an attractant works for aphids as well.
I water tomatoes different ways different times, depending on the season and where I'm living and the time of year and the mood I'm in and all kind of other things (like whether we have water rationing instituted). But in a hot climate like this, the best thing is to mulch a lot and deep water several times a week, I'd expect. We DO have trouble with blossom end rot here, even with our high-lime soil base, because it gets so hot and dry in the early summer and the fruit needs even moisture to develop, so even with heavy mulch there are times you still have to water just about every day to avoid that. If I lived somewhere more temperate I'd handle it all differently.