« Bush's "faith-based administration" | Main | The rats are bailing out fast... »

November 18, 2006

Wal-Mart Cheats in Organic Food Labeling

Wal-Mart, after announcing earlier this year that it would greatly increase the amount of organic food for sale in its stores, has taken to misidentifying foods as organic through the use of erroneous in-store signage, and appears to be doing so in an effort to force down the prices of legitimately organic food. The Cornucopia Institute, an organic farming watchdog, is asking the USDA to investigate Wal-Mart and has filed a formal legal complaint.

Cornucopia notified Wal-Mart’s CEO Lee Scott in a letter on September 13, 2006 alerting the company to the problem and asking that it address and correct the situation on an immediate basis. But the same product misrepresentations were again observed weeks later, throughout October, at separate Wal-Mart stores in other states.

If found guilty, Wal-Mart could face fines of up to $10,000 per violation for every proven incident in which it misrepresented non-organic food as organic. The Cornucopia Institute has carefully documented and photographed several incidents and hopes the USDA will do its job to protect the integrity and reliability of the organic food supply.

Posted by Becky at November 18, 2006 06:59 PM