Sludge Watch ==> Big Biz Infiltrates Health Food Stores

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sludgewatch Admin

Huh...having failed to sneak sludge into 'organic' food, big biz has now 
snuck into
the local organic 'natural' marketplace. First  industrially contaminated 
sludge is  parading as 'organic' (playing on the organic chemistry meaning 
to make the public think its the Certified Organic meaning) ...but failed to 
get the USDA regs for 'organic' blown open enough to include sludge-ammended 
crops.  Canadian Organic standards also do not permit sludged fields to be 
considered for growing certified organic crops, milk, or meat.

Now Big Food Corps are stripping down to little brown packaging and have 
thrown away their corporate logos...to snuggle up to the organic shopper who 
is looking for local/fresh/organic food.

The public is rightly concerned about their food quality. This shows that 
the marketplace wants high quality food.  We better keep a sharp eye out.
...................................................................

http://www.organicconsumers.org/SOS/nowmag101405.cfm

Toronto's Now Magazine Takes on the Corporate Takeover of Organics


http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2005-10-13/cover_story8.php

BIG BIZ'S ORGANIC GRAB
CORPORATIONS HAVE INFILTRATED HEALTH STORES WITHOUT YOU KNOWING IT
By ADRIA VASIL

Organic Toronto | The truth behind the labels | Big biz's organic grab |

Putting soul back in soil | Moral fibre | Beauty bests Ever wonder why your 
favourite mom 'n' pop crunchy granola organic cereal is suddenly appearing 
next to Tony the Tiger and Snap, Crackle and Pop in mainstream supermarket 
aisles? Well, it ain't because Pa scored a killer deal with the mega-grocers 
of Canada. Rather, crunchy granola has been taken in by another, 
better-connected family - Big Food - but it's all very hush-hush. If you 
walk into your local health food store, for instance, you'd assume nothing 
much had changed. Okay, so you're cereal of choice might have slightly 
jazzier packaging and five new spinoff varieties (like super crunchy granola 
with berries). But nowhere on the box is there any indication of corporate 
infiltration ­ no little Kellogg's logo or Kraft insignia ­ even though as 
much as 40 per cent of packaged organic foods on health store shelves like 
the Big Carrot's have been bought out by large American corporations.

"It's very inconspicuous. For the most part they try to hide it as much as 
possible," says Asa Copithorne, chair of the standards committee and floor 
manager at the Big Carrot, who notes the number of takeovers has grown 
rapidly over the last five years.

If nothing else, Big Food knows its new clientele enough to recognize the 
potentially devastating impact that throwing a corporate logo on something 
like Earth's Best baby food might have on a brand. "The heavy organic buyer 
would not only not be impressed, but the brand would have zero credibility, 
so it won't help sales," says York marketing prof Alan Middleton.

Not that sales are suffering. The organic food biz is now the fastest 
growing food sector, worth about $15 billion in the U.S. and $3.1 billion in 
Canada. Some would say all that corporate backing just means organic brands 
are available in more and more stores, to a wider and wider audience. Maybe 
we should be commending companies for taking an interest in healthy living? 
Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Minnesota-based Organic Consumers 
Association (OCA), doesn't think so. Not when dollar signs drive industry to 
water down organic standards. And Cummins says the Organic Trade Association 
(whose list of newer members includes Dole, Kraft and the Grocery 
Manufacturers of America) has been doing just that, quietly lobbying the 
U.S. Senate to legalize the use of certain synthetic processing and handling 
aids (ingredients deemed illegal in a recent court ruling) and make it 
easier to approve others without public input. OCA (a network of about 
600,000 consumers) launched a massive counter-campaign and managed to derail 
the effort ­ at least temporarily. But Cummins blames the whole mess on 
corporate interference.

"It appears the Organic Trade Association has been taken over by large 
corporate food processors. This is not the way the organic community ever 
acted before. This is the way Monsanto acts." (For more on the situation see 
article on page 24.) Why should we care about American dust-ups? When 90 per 
cent of our organics come from the U.S., their problems become ours. And 
with Canada's national organic standards finally coming into being (a draft 
is being voted on now that's expected to be made into regulations by March 
2006), many worry that trade pressures will mean Canada's standards will 
look a little too much like our largest trading partner's. Joe Southall, 
head of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's organic task force (the CFIA 
will be enforcing our standard), says that's not the case.

For instance, the U.S. system fails to specify the amount of square footage 
a chicken or cow should be given, but the Canadian standard does. However, 
like our neighbours, we don't provide much detail about how long those 
animals should be outside. In the U.S. that lack of clarity has been abused 
to the point where about a third of all organic milk comes from confined 
factory-style stalls without access to the outdoors. While some corporations 
like Whole Foods are pressuring the government to see American standards 
strengthened, most mainstream milk producers and retailers argue it's the 
only way to keep up with demand.

Is Canada leaving itself open to that kind of abuse here? Hard to say until 
the final regs are set in stone, but Toronto's most widely marketed 
certified organic milk, Organic Meadow, is co-op owned and guarantees its 
cows get to go outside whenever they like, except in frigid weather. But 
what is clear is that mega-retailers like Wal-Mart (which declared organics 
to be the chain's fastest growing food category) and Loblaws (Canada's 
single largest retailer and distributor of organics) are pressuring farmers 
to keep supply high and prices low. It's the kind of business mandate that 
terrifies organic farmers, says Laura Telford, executive director of 
Canadian Organic Growers. "Consumers say it's great that prices are coming 
down. But we cringe when we hear that because we want to create a 
sustainable food system, and I don't think we can at current prices." Few 
local farmers are reaping the benefits of all this supermarket exposure.

Thanks to centralized buying, Telford says, "big grocery stores all buy from 
the same farmer in California. Because they can get year-round contracts at 
low prices from [California], they won't go to Canadian farmers. They won't 
pay for local." Adds Telford, "It's a really, really dangerous phenomenon." 
Loblaws did not return NOW's calls for comment by press time.

Still, Katherine DiMatteo, head of the Organic Trade Association, says the 
advantages of having corporations on side are often overlooked. They can pay 
for more organic R&D, more supply, more conversion of lands to organic.

"Otherwise," says DiMatteo, "we, the organic movement, will remain a small 
niche market that doesn't deliver the changes we hoped would come from 
organic production ­ the enhancement of the environment and of public 
health."

Maybe so, but Cummins worries the opposite is also true. "The fear in the 
organic community is, of course, if things go too far, we're going to have 
to have another label, something other than the the word 'organic. '"

Who owns what

Guess which corporations are hiding behind your favourite organic/natural 
brands.

KELLOGG'S Kashi (cereal)

KRAFT Back to Nature (crackers, cookies) Boca Foods (soy "meat" products)

CADBURY SCHWEPPES Nantucket Organic Nectars

DANONE Stonyfield Farm (yogurt)

HEINZ Owns 16 per cent of Hain Celestial, which in turn owns Arrowhead Mills 
(cereal, flour) Health Valley (cookies, soup) Casbah (mediterranean food) 
Imagine (rice/soy milk) Yves (veggie meats) Westbrae (Westsoy) (soy milk) 
Earth's Best (baby food)