Cornucopia’s Take: After two years of litigation, Handsome Brook, a marketer of certified organic and conventional eggs, and Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC) have reached an out-of-court settlement, agreeing to pay their own court costs.

HFAC had sent emails to Handsome Brook’s retail outlets, claiming Handsome Brook’s certifications for organic and pasture-raised were not current. At the time of these allegations in 2016, Cornucopia had become aware that Handsome Brook had purchased several large orders of “organic” eggs from outside their network of contracted farmer-suppliers. Those eggs did meet the USDA organic standards. However, they did not conform with the company’s marketing representations in terms of their animal welfare practices (including being “pastured”) and were not certified by HFAC as was represented on the packaging.

After the first allegations became public in 2016, new owners took control of the management of Handsome Brook. They have been fully cooperative in our investigations of the company’s past conduct.