May 12, 2008
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Kastel,
608-625-2042
America
's Largest Corporate
Dairy Processor Muscles Its Way into Organics
Clout-Heavy
Dean Foods Kills USDA Investigation of Their Horizon Label
CORNUCOPIA, WI:
After a three-and-a-half year battle with Dean Foods regarding the legality of
milk it labels as
Horizon Organic,
the country's most aggressive organic industry watchdog filed additional legal
actions today. Dean, the nation's largest dairy processor, with nearly
$12 billion in sales and controlling 50 different milk brands, has obtained a
large percentage of its organic milk supply from giant factory farms milking
thousands of cows each.
The Cornucopia Institute, a farm policy research group and family farm
advocate, filed a formal
legal complaint with the USDA claiming that one of Dean’s Horizon
suppliers, a dairy in Snelling, California, was skirting the law by confining
the majority of their cows to a filthy feedlot rather than allowing them fresh
grass and access to pasture as the federal organic regulations require.
Cornucopia has also asked the Inspector General
at the USDA to investigate appearances of favoritism at the agency that has
benefitted Dean Foods. Cornucopia charges that past enforcement of the
Organic Foods Production Act, the law governing organic food labeling and
production, has been unequally applied toward major corporate agribusiness by
the USDA.
“We are asking the USDA, once again, to investigate serious
alleged improprieties at dairies that produce Horizon organic milk,” said
Mark A. Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst with the Wisconsin-based Cornucopia
Institute.
Besides the legal issues that Cornucopia raised, they suggest Dean
Foods has seriously injured the value of its Horizon label and the reputation
of organic milk. “In the eyes of consumers, factory
farms—with questions about humane animal husbandry and records of endemic
pollution—do not meet the ethical litmus test,” Kastel added.
Cornucopia's most recent complaint is the third filed with the USDA
alleging Dean Foods has broken the federal law that governs organic
production. Prior complaints also charged Dean was confining cattle on
their two corporate-owned dairies, managing as many as 8000 head of cattle
each.
Although the USDA, based on Cornucopia research, sanctioned or
decertified two independent factory farms supplying Horizon, the federal agency
dismissed both legal complaints against Dean Foods itself. According to
documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by Cornucopia,
the USDA never investigated or even visited Dean's largest corporate-owned
industrial dairy, in the desert-like conditions of central Idaho.
“It appears that Dean Foods has more political clout in
Washington than the two independent factory farm operators that were found to
have been abusing the trust of organic consumers,” according to Will Fantle, Research Director at Cornucopia.
According to FOIA documents, Dean Foods hired lawyers at Covington and Burling, one
of the capital’s most powerful and influential legal and lobbying groups,
to plead their case. “The USDA closed complaints we filed in 2005
and 2006 without ever having visited the Horizon dairy in Idaho, and warned
Dean Foods in advance before inspecting their Maryland farm,” stated
Fantle.
In a letter
to USDA Inspector General Phyllis K. Fong, Cornucopia asked her to investigate
why the agency arbitrarily chose to adjudicate some of the formal legal
complaints filed by Cornucopia but looked the other way when it came to the
largest corporate dairy processor and marketer in the country for almost
identical alleged offenses.
Cornucopia's letter stated, “Conditions on the 8000-head factory
farm operated by Dean/Horizon in Idaho
were very similar to the factory farms that the USDA has already
sanctioned. The only discernible difference appears to be how much money Dean
Foods has spent on lobbyists and campaign contributions in Washington.”
The Cornucopia Institute's latest complaint against the Fagundes dairy
in California
calls into question Dean Foods’ marketing claim that "80% of our
milk comes from … family farmers."
“We have been challenging Dean Foods’ greenwashing of their
Horizon label for a number of years now,” stated Kastel. One of
Horizon's decertified suppliers, milking 10,000 cows, in a feedlot in Pixley, California,
was categorized as a "family farm" by Dean.
“My family and 1800 or so other organic farmers around the
country have worked hard to build the stellar reputation organic dairy products
deservingly enjoy in the eyes of consumers,” lamented Tony Azevedo, one
of the first organic dairy farmers in California milking
350
cows
near
the town of Stevinson. “Virtually every other name-brand
organic dairy product in the country depends exclusively on
real family farmers to produce their
milk. We don't want subterfuge by confinement dairies giving us all a
black eye and endangering our livelihoods.”
"Ninety percent of all participants in the marketplace are
approaching organic dairy production ethically," emphasized Cornucopia's
Kastel. A comprehensive report and scorecard, listing organic brand-name
and private-label organic dairy products, can be found on The Cornucopia
Institute website: www.cornucopia.org
- 30 -
MORE:
In addition to filing a formal legal complaint against Fagundes dairy
with regulators at the USDA, Cornucopia also sent the complaint to the
California Department of Agriculture that also oversees organic production in
the state.
Although past complaints regarding the integrity of organic production
have sometimes taken months or even years to adjudicate at the state and federal
levels Cornucopia's concerns elicited a response in less than 24 hours from the
dairy’s organic certifier, CCOF, based in Santa Cruz, California.
In a letter to Cornucopia CCOF said, “
Please note that CCOF takes organic livestock living
conditions extremely seriously.’ They added, “We will immediately
initiate a full investigation which will include an on-site inspection of the
operation.
Organic certifiers are on the front lines of efforts to protect
consumers and ethical farmers from fraud. “The immediate and
serious tone from CCOF should not be surprising as the certifier has been one
of the most highly respected organizations in the organic movement since its
founding in the early 1970s, said Fantle.
The letter sent to the USDA Office of Inspector General can be viewed
at:
http://cornucopia.org/Horizon
/OIG_Letter.pdf
The formal legal complaint filed with the USDA regarding alleged
violations at the Fagundes organic factory farm dairy can be viewed at:
http://cornucopia.org/Fagundes
/Fagundes_USDA_Complaint.pdf
Images of the Fagundes operation can be viewed at:
http://cornucopia.org/index
.php/fagundes-bros-factory
-farm-dairy/
ADDITIONAL QUOTES:
"Pasture has always been the cornerstone of organic dairy
production, stated Azevedo.
"Although we know it's not 80%, of their milk supply, we have no
reason to believe that the family farmers that do supply Dean Foods’
Horizon label are not every bit as ethical as the family-scale dairies that supply
other processors in the industry," according to Kastel, who tracks dairy
policy for The Cornucopia Institute. The Institute estimates that at
least half of Horizon's organic supply comes from legitimate and ethical family
farmers who understand and abide by the federal organic regulations.
