October, 20 2009, 10:04am EDT
Off Target - Major Retailer Accused of Organic Improprieties
State and Federal Complaints Allege Mislabeling
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn
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 Corporation has misled consumers into thinking
some conventional food items it sells are organic.
The complaints are the latest salvo into a growing controversy whereas
corporate agribusiness and major retailers have been accused of blurring the
line between "natural" products and food that has been grown,
processed and properly certified organic under tight federal standards.
"Major food processors have recognized the meteoric rise of the
organic industry, and profit potential, and want to create what is in essence
'organic light,' taking advantage of the market cachet but not
being willing to do the heavy lifting required to earn the valuable USDA
organic seal," said Mark A. Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst at
Cornucopia.
The Wisconsin-based farm policy research group discovered Target
nationally advertised Silk soymilk in newspapers with the term
"organic" pictured on the carton's label, when in fact the
manufacturer, Dean Foods, had quietly shifted their products away from
organics.
Dean Foods, and its WhiteWave division, received media scrutiny, and
industry condemnation, this past spring for not notifying retailers or changing
the UPC codes, when they quietly switched to conventional soybeans in their
core-products.
Dean/WhiteWave also received heat in the organic food and agriculture
community when they decided to convert some of their Horizon products, the
leading organic label in terms of sales volume, to cheaper "natural"
(conventional) ingredients. "This really hit a nerve because one of
these new Horizon products, Little Blends
yogurt, is aimed specifically at toddlers, at an early stage of development,
where the nutritional superiority of organic food, and its utility in avoiding
chemical residues in our food, is so critically important," Kastel added.
A front-page story in the Chicago
Tribune in July outlined a consumer survey that showed the public
was unclear about the difference between natural and organic labels and that
some corporations, particularly Dean Foods, were taking advantage of the
confusion in the marketplace.
The story quoted Suzanne Shelton, president and CEO of the Shelton
Group which conducted the survey, as saying, "They [consumers] think
'natural' is regulated by the government but that organic
isn't, and of course it's just the opposite."
In fact, a strict set of farm and food handling standards have been
developed and implemented by the federal government to regulate food that
qualifies for the USDA's organic seal. For the most part, food
products containing "natural' ingredients represent little more
than soothing marketing puffery aimed at consumers.
This is not the first tangle involving Cornucopia and Target. The
giant Minneapolis-based retailer's own upscale private label food line,
Archer Farms, which blurs the line selling both natural and organically labeled
food, came under scrutiny when Cornucopia discovered that it's organic milk
supplier, Colorado-based Aurora Dairy, was flagrantly violating federal
organic livestock standards and filed a complaint with the USDA.
USDA investigators determined that Aurora had willfully violated 14 federal
organic regulations. In what was condemned as a "sweetheart
deal" by some in the organic industry, the Bush administration allowed Aurora to stay in
business. Unlike some other retailers, Target stuck with Aurora as their milk
supplier for their Archer Farms label.
"In an industry where educational achievement and passion are the
common denominators in describing its clientele, Target could certainly be
viewed as arrogant to think they can take advantage of consumers by ignoring
both the spirit and letter of the laws governing organic commerce," Kastel
affirmed.
SuperTarget stores have gained significant market share around the
country and are, according to a recent Nielsen/Shelby report, now the number
two grocer in Minnesota's
Twin Cities market.
"We feel very
strongly about taking seriously the use of the regulated term: Organic," said Lindy Bannister, general
manager of The Wedge, the nation's largest member-owned cooperative
store. "Although we welcome all the players that bring organic food
to people, we must insist that, for the unregulated (the non-certified
retailers), they at the very least should proof their ads as they are subject
to a federal fine for misusing that regulated term."
This is not the first time The Cornucopia Institute has found that
specialty retailers, like the nation's approximately 275 co-op grocers, have faced unethical competition
from big-box chains. After the group filed complaints with federal and
state regulators against Wal-Mart in 2006, also alleging misrepresention of
conventional food as organic with improper signage in their stores, the
nation's largest retailer signed consent agreements with the USDA and the state
of Wisconsin
committing to change their practices.
"Wal-Mart did indeed clean up its act, as we expect Target to do,
but it should not take the judicious oversight of an industry watchdog to cause
these giant corporations to comply with the law, said Will
Fantle, research director for the Wisconsin-based
Cornucopia. "One of the reasons these companies can undercut other
retailers is they do not invest in the kind of management expertise necessary
to prevent problems of this nature from occurring."
"It's bad enough Target steals real
farmers' identities with that fake 'Archer Farms' label," said Barth Anderson, a consumer long involved in the
organic movement and chief blogger at Fair Food Fight. "But blurring
the lines between natural and organic is just plain wrong. Target is
trying to profiteer at the expense of consumers like me."
Anderson was adamant that, "There's nothing wrong with larger
corporations being involved in organics but if they squeeze out ethical
companies by cutting corners, or play fast and loose by the rules, everyone
loses - real farmers, organic consumers and retailers alike.
Blurring the lines between natural and organic is just plain trying to
profiteer at the expense of consumers like me."
-30-
MORE:
The complaint filed with the USDA's National Organic Program can
be viewed here:
https://www.cornucopia.org/USDA/TargetComplaint_10-09.pdf
Photos of Mr. Kastel and Mr. Fantle, along with a graphic file of the
Cornucopia logo, are available upon request.
The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit farm policy research group, is dedicated to the fight for economic justice for the family-scale farming community. Their Organic Integrity Project acts as a corporate and governmental watchdog assuring that no compromises to the credibility of organic farming methods and the food it produces are made in the pursuit of profit.
LATEST NEWS
'Authoritarian Theater' Meets 'Pure F*cking Idiocracy' as Trump Promises White House UFC Match
"Americans, you won't have healthcare, Medicaid, public schools, nursing homes, rural hospitals, or SNAP," said one critic. "But, you'll get UFC fights on the White House lawn. America F-Yeah!"
Jul 05, 2025
Critics of President Donald Trump's announcement of a planned Ultimate Fighting Championship event on White House grounds to celebrate the United States Semiquincentennial next year took to social media Friday to call the proposal something "straight out of 'Idiocracy'"—the comedy cult classic about a dumbed-down 26th-century America—and condemn what one detractor called "authoritarian theater."
"Every one of our national park battlefields and historic sites are going to have special events in honor of America 250," Trump said at the Iowa State Fairgrounds Thursday. "We're going to have a UFC fight—think of this—on the grounds of the White House."
Yearning for a time when every new day isn't exponentially dumber than the day before.
[image or embed]
— Dave Vetter (@davidrvetter.bsky.social) July 4, 2025 at 2:57 AM
While Octagon aficionados cheered the prospect of a 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue fight card, many observers couldn't help but notice parallels with the plot of Mike Judge's 2006 film "Idiocracy," a satirical skewering of issues including the erosion of White House decorum in a future when IQs have plummeted and a sports drink corporation owns the country, whose voters elect Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho, "five-time ultimate smackdown champion and porn superstar," as president.
"If anyone defends Trump saying there will be a UFC fight on the White House lawn never listen to them again," former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois wrote on the social media site X Friday, adding that Trump's announcement was like the "plot to 'Idiocracy' with an equally stupid-ass president."
Another X user fumed: "This is what happens when a failed empire hits rock bottom and throws a party about it. UFC fight on the White House lawn to celebrate 250 years of what used to be a country with brains. This ain't strength, this is pure fucking Idiocracy. Straight out of Rome before it burned, give the mob a fight and some burgers while the world collapses around them.
Yet another social media critic joked that "'Idiocracy' was actually a documentary from the future, sent back in time as a warning to us all."
Some critics pointed to the decadeslong business ties between Trump and UFC President and CEO Dana White, who has donated at least $1 million to Trump's campaign coffers.
Others noted the "bread and circuses" vibes of Trump's proposed event, which some called a cynical ploy meant to distract from the devastating impact of policies like Friday's signing of a multi-trillion-dollar tax cut that will overwhelmingly benefit the rich and corporations, while ballooning the deficit and leaving millions of Americans without desperately needed health insurance coverage and food assistance.
"Americans, you won't have healthcare, Medicaid, public schools, nursing homes, rural hospitals, or SNAP. But, you'll get UFC fights on the White House lawn," New York Times opinion contributor Wajahat Ali wrote on Bluesky. "America, F-YEAH!"
Writing for The Guardian Saturday, Karim Zidan asserted: "Donald Trump's UFC stunt is more than a circus. It's authoritarian theater."
"It carries shades of fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini, particularly its obsession with masculinity, spectacle, and nationalism—but with a modern, American twist," he wrote. "Fascist Italy used rallies, parades, and sports events to project strength and unity."
"Similarly, Trump has relied on the UFC to project his tough-guy image, and to celebrate his brand of nationalistic masculinity," Zidan continued. "From name-dropping champions who endorse him to suggesting a tournament that would pit UFC fighters against illegal migrants, Trump has repeatedly found ways to make UFC-style machismo a part of his political brand."
"There was once a time when the U.S. could point to the authoritarian pageantry of regimes like Mussolini's Italy and claim at least some moral distance. That line is no longer visible," he added. "What was once soft power borrowed from strongmen is now being proudly performed on America's own front lawn."
Keep ReadingShow Less
As Flood Deaths Rise, Texas Officials Blast Faulty Forecast by DOGE-Gutted National Weather Service
"Experts warned for months that drastic and sudden cuts at the National Weather Service by Trump could impair their forecasting ability and endanger lives during the storm season," said one critic.
Jul 05, 2025
As catastrophic flooding left scores of people dead and missing in Texas Hill Country and President Donald Trump celebrated signing legislation that will eviscerate every aspect of federal efforts to address the climate emergency, officials in the Lone Star State blasted the National Weather Service—one of many agencies gutted by the Department of Government Efficiency—for issuing faulty forecasts that some observers blamed for the flood's high death toll.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that flooding caused by a powerful storm killed at least 27 people, with dozens more—including as many as 25 girls from a summer camp along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County—missing after fast-moving floodwaters rose 26 feet (8 meters) in less than an hour before dawn on Friday, sweeping away people and pets along with homes, vehicles, farm and wild animals, and property.
"Everybody got the forecast from the National Weather Service... It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw."
"The camp was completely destroyed," Elinor Lester, 13, one of hundreds of campers at Camp Mystic, told the AP. "A helicopter landed and started taking people away. It was really scary."
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said during a press conference in Kerrville late Friday that 24 people were confirmed dead, including children. Other officials said that 240 people had been rescued.
Although the National Weather Service on Thursday issued a broad flood watch for the area, Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd—noting that the NWS predicted 3-6 inches of rain for the Concho Valley and 4-8 inches for the Hill Country—told reporters during a press conference earlier Friday that "the amount of rain that fell in this specific location was never in any of those forecasts."
After media reports & experts warned for months that drastic & sudden cuts at the Nat Weather Service by Trump could impair their forecasting ability & endanger lives during the storm season, TX officials blame an inaccurate forecast by NWS for the deadly results of the flood.
[image or embed]
— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) July 5, 2025 at 3:19 AM
"Listen, everybody got the forecast from the National Weather Service," Kidd reiterated. "You all got it; you're all in media. You got that forecast. It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw."
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice also said during the press conference that the storm "dumped more rain than what was forecasted" into two forks of the Guadalupe River.
Kerr County judge Rob Kelly told CBS News: "We had no reason to believe that this was gonna be anything like what's happened here. None whatsoever."
Since January, the NWS—a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—has reduced its workforce by nearly 600 people as a direct result of staffing cuts ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, as part of Trump's mission to eviscerate numerous federal agencies.
This policy is in line with Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-led blueprint for a far-right overhaul of the federal government that calls for "dismantling" NOAA. Trump has also called for the elimination of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, arguing that states should shoulder most of the burden of extreme weather preparation and response. Shutting down FEMA would require an act of Congress.
Many of the fired NWS staffers were specialized climate scientists and weather forecasters. At the time of the firings, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, was among those who warned of the cuts' deadly consequences.
"People nationwide depend on NOAA for free, accurate forecasts, severe weather alerts, and emergency information," Huffman said. "Purging the government of scientists, experts, and career civil servants and slashing fundamental programs will cost lives."
Writing for the Texas Observer, Henry D. Jacoby—co-director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change—warned that "crucial data gathering systems are at risk."
"Federal ability to warn the public is being degraded," he added, "and it is a public service no state can replace."
On Friday, Trump put presidential pen to congressional Republicans' so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a $4 trillion tax and spending package that effectively erases the landmark climate and clean energy provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act signed by then-President Joe Biden in 2022.
As Inside Climate News noted of the new law:
It stomps out incentives for purchasing electric vehicles and efficient appliances. It phases out tax credits for wind and solar energy. It opens up federal land and water for oil and gas drilling and increases its profitability, while creating new federal support for coal. It ends the historic investment in poor and minority communities that bear a disproportionate pollution burden—money that the Trump administration was already refusing to spend. It wipes out any spending on greening the federal government.
Furthermore, as MeidasNews editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski noted Saturday, "rural areas hit hardest by catastrophic storms are the same areas now in danger of losing their hospitals after Trump's Medicaid cuts just passed" as part of the budget reconciliation package.
At least one congressional Republican is ready to take action in the face of increasing extreme weather events. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)—who once attributed California wildfires to Jewish-controlled space lasers—announced Saturday that she is "introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity."
"It will be a felony offense," she explained. "We must end the dangerous and deadly practice of weather modification and geoengineering."
Keep ReadingShow Less
National Team Member Becomes at Least 265th Palestinian Footballer Killed by Israel in Gaza
Muhannad al-Lili's killing by Israeli airstrike came as the world mourned the death of Portugal and Liverpool star Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva in a car crash in Spain.
Jul 04, 2025
Muhannad Fadl al-Lili, captain of the Al-Maghazi Services Club and a member of Palestine's national football team, died Thursday from injuries suffered during an Israeli airstrike on his family home in the central Gaza Strip earlier this week, making him the latest of hundreds of Palestinian athletes killed since the start of Israel's genocidal onslaught.
Al-Maghazi Services Club announced al-Lili's death in a Facebook tribute offering condolences to "his family, relatives, friends, and colleagues" and asking "Allah to shower him with his mercy."
The Palestine Football Association (PFA) said that "on Monday, a drone fired a missile at Muhannad's room on the third floor of his house, which led to severe bleeding in the skull."
"During the war of extermination against our people, Muhannad tried to travel outside Gaza to catch up with his wife, who left the strip for Norway on a work mission before the outbreak of the war," the association added. "But he failed to do so, and was deprived of seeing his eldest son, who was born outside the Gaza Strip."
According to the PFA, al-Lili is at least the 265th Palestinian footballer and 585th athlete to be killed by Israeli forces since they launched their assault and siege on Gaza following the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Sports journalist Leyla Hamed says 439 Palestinian footballers have been killed by Israel.
Overall, Israel's war—which is the subject of an International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide case—has left more than 206,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, and around 2 million more forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened, according to Gaza officials.
The Palestine Chronicle contrasted the worldwide press coverage of the car crash deaths of Portuguese footballer Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva with the media's relative silence following al-Lili's killing.
"Jota's death was a tragedy that touched millions," the outlet wrote. "Yet the death of Muhannad al-Lili... was met with near-total silence from global sports media."
Last week, a group of legal experts including two United Nations special rapporteurs appealed to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, the world football governing body, demanding that its Governance Audit and Compliance Committee take action against the Israel Football Association for violating FIFA rules by playing matches on occupied Palestinian territory.
In July 2024, the ICJ found that Israel's then-57-year occupation of Palestine—including Gaza—is an illegal form of apartheid that should be ended as soon as possible.
During their invasion and occupation of Gaza, Israeli forces have also used sporting facilities including Yarmouk Stadium for the detention of Palestinian men, women, and children—many of whom have reported torture and other abuse at the hands of their captors.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular