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July 30, 2007

Watch Those Organic Brands

I've written before about the efforts at the USDA to weaken the standards for organic foods under pressure from corporate lobbyists. Well now there is a new threat to organics: major corporate food processors like Heinz, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Hershey, Kellogg, Kraft, General Mills, and M&M/Mars are busily buying up all the successful organics producers they can get their grubby hands on. Could the next step be that the USDA will tell the public it is weakening organic food standards at the request of the organics industry itself – an industry which is increasingly corporate?

If you want to know whether your favorite organic brands are still independent, check this chart to see the remaining major independent producers who have not sold out to a big corporation. It is important to support these companies if we want to continue to have organic standards that are meaningful.

We know that organic produce is considerably more nutritious than conventionally farmed produce. We also know the breast milk of women who drink organic milk and eat organic meat is of higher quality than the breast milk of women who eat factory farmed beef and drink conventionally produced milk. And eating organic is also good for the farm workers who grow the food. For instance, right now Dole is being sued by Latin American banana plantation workers who were never told that the chemicals they were forced to use on the bananas would make the men sterile.

To keep up-to-date on all the important organics news, subscribe to the Organic Consumer Association's newsletter, Organic Bytes, here.

Posted by Becky at July 30, 2007 10:27 AM