Is Your 'Organic' Milk Really Organic?

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Caveat Emptor (buyer beware)

Ralph Giarnella MD

Southington Ct USA

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Is Your 'Organic' Milk Really Organic?

Several well-known stores were allegedly mislabeling

regular milk as organic.

By GENE JOHNSON

The Associated Press

SEATTLE

Some of the nation's largest retailers and grocery

chains sold milk labeled " organic " that was not truly

organic, recently filed lawsuits allege.

The federal complaints focus on the sale of milk from

Boulder, Colo.-based Aurora Organic Dairy, which

recently agreed to change its practices after the U.S.

Department of Agriculture found more than a dozen

violations of organic standards.

The lawsuits allege that Costco Wholesale Corp.,

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Safeway Inc. and

Wild Oats Markets Inc. sold Aurora's milk under their

own in-house brand names.

The brands include Costco's Kirkland and Target's

Archer Farms, and the milk was sold in cartons marked

" USDA organic, " typically with pictures of pastures or

other bucolic scenes, the lawsuits allege.

" That's not even close to the reality of where this

milk was coming from, " said Steve Berman, a Seattle

lawyer whose firm is among those suing. " These cows

are all penned in factory-confinement conditions. "

Aurora denies selling non-organic milk.

The lawsuits seek class-action status on behalf of

people who bought the milk and ask for their money

back as well as punitive damages and attorneys' fees.

Several of the companies declined to comment or did

not respond to requests for comment, but Target, of

Minneapolis, said it stands behind Aurora's organic

milk.

" This lawsuit is inconsistent with the fact that the

USDA has reviewed and confirmed the organic

certification of Aurora dairy farms and its products, "

the company said in a statement.

Consumers typically pay more for organic food because

they believe it is free of hormones or pesticides and

produced with greater respect for the environment.

Large corporate players insist they can farm

organically on a large scale, while sustainable family

farms complain that such operations are not really

organic and contribute to surpluses that drive down

prices, making it harder for them to compete.

Aurora is one of the nation's largest dairies

certified organic by the USDA.

After a progressive farm-policy organization

complained about Aurora's operations, the USDA found

more than a dozen " willful violations " of the 1990

Organic Foods Production Act from 2003-06. Among them:

that cows had little access to pasture, that Aurora

moved its cows back and forth between conventional and

organic farms, and that it sold milk as organic that

did not meet federal standards.

Aurora agreed to change some of its practices in a

settlement with the USDA this summer, and it has

reduced the number of cows at its Platteville, Colo.,

facility from 4,000 to about 975, said company

spokeswoman Sonja Tuitele. But it was allowed to keep

its organic certification and was put on probation for

a year.

Over the past 18 months, the company has also

renovated its Platteville operation to increase its

pastureland from 325 to 400 acres and make other

improvements, Tuitele said.

" Any lawsuits claiming the milk we were selling was

not organic have no merit, " she said.

Aurora itself has been sued by some consumers, but

lawsuits filed in federal court in Denver, Seattle,

Minneapolis and San Francisco in the last two weeks

are the first to accuse the retailers of misleading

their customers.

Target said in its statement that " it is disappointing

that these types of lawsuits are attempting to

override the USDA and regulate the organic industry

and retailers with their own beliefs of what

constitutes an organic product. "

But Mark Kastel, co-founder of the Cornucopia

Institute in Wisconsin, said the USDA should have

revoked Aurora's certification. The Cornucopia

Institute is not involved in the lawsuits but

investigated Aurora and brought it to the USDA's

attention.

Kastel said Cornucopia repeatedly told the companies

now under fire about Aurora's practices.

On the Net:

http://www.auroraorganic.com/aodweb/site

http://www.cornucopia.org

http://www.usda.gov

said.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights

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