{"id":24517,"date":"2009-10-20T14:17:16","date_gmt":"2009-10-20T14:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/?p=24517"},"modified":"2009-10-20T14:17:16","modified_gmt":"2009-10-20T14:17:16","slug":"article_19414","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/article_19414\/","title":{"rendered":"Cornucopia Nails Target Stores on Ad Fraud for Calling ‘Natural’ Products Organic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\tMINNEAPOLIS, MN<\/span>: A public interest group that
\nfocuses on food and agriculture, The Cornucopia Institute, announced
\nthis week that it had filed formal complaints<\/a>
\nwith the USDA\u2019s organic program, and Wisconsin and Minnesota officials,
\nalleging that Target Corporation has misled consumers into thinking
\nsome conventional food items it sells are organic.<\/p>\n

The complaints are the latest salvo into a growing controversy
\nwhereas corporate agribusiness and major retailers have been accused of
\nblurring the line between \u201cnatural\u201d products and food that has been
\ngrown, processed and properly certified organic under tight federal
\nstandards.<\/p>\n

\u201cMajor food processors have recognized the meteoric rise of the
\norganic industry, and profit potential, and want to create what is in
\nessence \u2018organic light,\u2019 taking advantage of the market cachet but not
\nbeing willing to do the heavy lifting required to earn the valuable
\nUSDA organic seal,\u201d said Mark A. Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst at
\nCornucopia.<\/p>\n

The Wisconsin-based farm policy research group discovered Target
\nnationally advertised Silk soymilk in newspapers with the term
\n\u201corganic\u201d pictured on the carton\u2019s label, when in fact the
\nmanufacturer, Dean Foods, had quietly shifted their products away from
\norganics.<\/p>\n

\t<\/span><\/p>\n

Dean Foods, and its WhiteWave division, received media scrutiny, and
\nindustry condemnation, this past spring for not notifying retailers or
\nchanging the UPC codes, when they quietly switched to conventional
\nsoybeans in their core-products.<\/p>\n

Dean\/WhiteWave also received heat in the organic food and
\nagriculture community when they decided to convert some of their
\nHorizon products, the leading organic label in terms of sales volume,
\nto cheaper \u201cnatural\u201d (conventional) ingredients. \u201cThis really hit a
\nnerve because one of these new Horizon products, Little Blends yogurt,
\nis aimed specifically at toddlers, at an early stage of development,
\nwhere the nutritional superiority of organic food, and its utility in
\navoiding chemical residues in our food, is so critically important,\u201d
\nKastel added.<\/p>\n

A front-page story in the <\/p>\n

\tChicago Tribune<\/span> in July outlined
\na consumer survey that showed the public was unclear about the
\ndifference between natural and organic labels and that some
\ncorporations, particularly Dean Foods, were taking advantage of the
\nconfusion in the marketplace. <\/p>\n

The story quoted Suzanne Shelton, president and CEO of the Shelton
\nGroup which conducted the survey, as saying, \u201cThey [consumers] think
\n\u2018natural\u2019 is regulated by the government but that organic isn\u2019t, and of
\ncourse it\u2019s just the opposite.\u201d <\/p>\n

In fact, a strict set of farm and food handling standards have been
\ndeveloped and implemented by the federal government to regulate food
\nthat qualifies for the USDA\u2019s organic seal. For the most part, food
\nproducts containing \u201cnatural\u201d ingredients represent little more than
\nsoothing marketing puffery aimed at consumers.<\/p>\n

This is not the first tangle involving Cornucopia and Target. The
\ngiant Minneapolis-based retailer\u2019s own upscale private label food line,
\nArcher Farms, which blurs the line selling both natural and organically
\nlabeled food, came under scrutiny when Cornucopia discovered that it\u2019s
\norganic milk supplier, Colorado-based Aurora Dairy, was flagrantly
\nviolating federal organic livestock standards and filed a complaint
\nwith the USDA.<\/p>\n

USDA investigators determined that Aurora had willfully violated 14
\nfederal organic regulations. In what was condemned as a \u201csweetheart
\ndeal\u201d by some in the organic industry, the Bush administration allowed
\nAurora to stay in business. Unlike some other retailers, Target stuck
\nwith Aurora as their milk supplier for their Archer Farms label.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an industry where educational achievement and passion are the
\ncommon denominators in describing its clientele, Target could certainly
\nbe viewed as arrogant to think they can take advantage of consumers by
\nignoring both the spirit and letter of the laws governing organic
\ncommerce,\u201d Kastel affirmed.<\/p>\n

SuperTarget stores have gained significant market share around the
\ncountry and are, according to a recent Nielsen\/Shelby report, now the
\nnumber two grocer in Minnesota\u2019s Twin Cities market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel very strongly about taking seriously the use of the regulated term: <\/p>\n

\tOrganic<\/span>,\u201d
\nsaid Lindy Bannister, general manager of The Wedge, the nation\u2019s
\nlargest member-owned cooperative store. \u201cAlthough we welcome all the
\nplayers that bring organic food to people, we must insist that, for the
\nunregulated (the non-certified retailers), they at the very least
\nshould proof their ads as they are subject to a federal fine for
\nmisusing that regulated term.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not the first time The Cornucopia Institute has found that
\nspecialty retailers, like the nation\u2019s approximately 275 co-op grocers,
\nhave faced unethical competition from big-box chains. After the group
\nfiled complaints with federal and state regulators against Wal-Mart in
\n2006, also alleging misrepresention of conventional food as organic
\nwith improper signage in their stores, the nation\u2019s largest retailer
\nsigned consent agreements with the USDA and the state of Wisconsin
\ncommitting to change their practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWal-Mart did indeed clean up its act, as we expect Target to do,
\nbut it should not take the judicious oversight of an industry watchdog
\nto cause these giant corporations to comply with the law, said Will
\nFantle, research director for the Wisconsin-based Cornucopia. \u201cOne of
\nthe reasons these companies can undercut other retailers is they do not
\ninvest in the kind of management expertise necessary to prevent
\nproblems of this nature from occurring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s bad enough Target steals real farmers\u2019 identities with that
\nfake \u2018Archer Farms\u2019 label,\u201d said Barth Anderson, a consumer long
\ninvolved in the organic movement and chief blogger at Fair Food Fight.
\n\u201cBut blurring the lines between natural and organic is just plain
\nwrong. Target is trying to profiteer at the expense of consumers like
\nme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson was adamant that, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong with larger
\ncorporations being involved in organics but if they squeeze out ethical
\ncompanies by cutting corners, or play fast and loose by the rules,
\neveryone loses \u2014 real farmers, organic consumers and retailers alike.
\nBlurring the lines between natural and organic is just plain trying to
\nprofiteer at the expense of consumers like me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A public interest group that focuses on food and agriculture, The Cornucopia Institute, announced this week that it had filed formal complaints with the USDA’s organic program, and Wisconsin and Minnesota officials, alleging that Target…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2,77,80,9,32,42],"organicbytes":[],"countries":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCornucopia Nails Target Stores on Ad Fraud for Calling 'Natural' Products Organic - Organic Consumers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/article_19414\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cornucopia Nails Target Stores on Ad Fraud for Calling 'Natural' Products Organic - 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