In the latest example of how consumers can pressure food companies to do the right thing, on Friday (December 5, 2014), Stonyfield Farm, a New Hampshire-based producer of organic milk and yogurt, resigned from the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA). IDFA is a trade group that is suing Vermont to overturn the state’s GMO labeling law, passed earlier this year.
The resignation came about five months after OCA and a number of our allies sent an open letter to four leading organic dairy companies, demanding that they withdraw their membership in the IDFA.
So far, only Stonyfield has dumped its membership. (California-based Clover Stornetta Farms quit the IDFA in July, after our letter was published, though the company wasn’t targeted in the letter).
Organic Valley, White Wave/Horizon Organic and Aurora Organic Dairy continue to support the IDFA, which not only is suing Vermont, but also is lobbying for H.R. 4432, an outrageous anti-consumer bill, introduced in April (2014) in the House of Representatives by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.). The bill, dubbed by consumers as the Deny Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act, would preempt all state GMO labeling laws, and make it legal to use the word “natural” on products that contain GMOs.
The IDFA says it’s “sad” that Stonyfield resigned, but that it hasn’t heard much opposition to its anti-consumer lobbying from its other 200 members.
So how about it, Organic Valley, Horizon Organic and Aurora Organic? Isn’t it about time the IDFA heard from you—that if they don’t support consumers’ right to know, you won’t support them?