Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Wal-Mart Declares War on Organic Farmers
Partners with Agribusiness for Corporate Takeover

CORNUCOPIA, WISCONSIN: A report released today by The Cornucopia
Institute, the nation's most aggressive organic farming watchdog,
accuses Wal-Mart of cheapening the value of the organic label by
sourcing products from industrial-scale factory farms and Third World
countries, such as China.

Wal-Mart announced earlier this year that they would greatly increase
the number of organic products they offered and price them at a target
of 10% above the cost for conventional food.

"We have received scores of press inquiries over the past few months
asking us if Wal-Mart's organic expansion was ‘good news or bad news’
for the industry,” stated Mark Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst for
the Wisconsin-based farm policy research group.  "My stock answer has
been: If Wal-Mart lends their logistical prowess to organic food both
farmers and consumers will be big winners by virtue of a more
competitive marketplace.  However, if Wal-Mart applies their standard
business model, and in essence Wal-Marts organics, then everyone will
lose."

The Institute's white paper, Wal-Mart Rolls Out Organic Products­Market
Expansion or Market Delusion?, makes the argument that Wal-Mart is
indeed poised to drive down the price of organic food in the marketplace
by inventing a "new" organic­food from corporate agribusiness, factory
farms, and cheap imports of questionable quality.  "Organic family
farmers in this country could see their livelihoods disintegrate the
same way so many industrial workers saw their family-supporting wages
evaporate as Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers put the screws to
manufacturers­forcing a production shift to China and other low-wage
countries," Kastel added.

Wal-Mart, already the nation's largest organic milk retailer, partnering
with the giant milk processor Dean Foods (Horizon Organic), recently
introduced their own private-label organic milk packaged by Aurora
Organic Dairy.  Aurora, based in Boulder, Colorado, has faced a
maelstrom of organic industry criticism and negative press for operating
a number of industrial-scale dairies with thousands of cows confined in
feedlot-like conditions.  They are also the subject of two current USDA
investigations into their organic management practices.

"If there was any previous doubt as to their intentions, partnering with
Dean/Horizon and Aurora should leave no question in anyone's mind as to
how Wal-Mart is approaching its organic initiative," proclaimed Steve
Sprinkel long-time industry observer and columnist for the nation's
leading sustainable agricultural journal, Acres USA.  Large percentages
of milk from Horizon and Aurora come from factory farms, milking as many
as 10,000 cows, allegedly without the required access to pasture.  The
two companies have also been accused of bringing nonorganic cows onto
their farms.  "Because of the intense media scrutiny there is no doubt
that Wal-Mart entered into these relationships in blatant disregard to
the ethical expectations of the consumers who have helped build organics
into a lucrative $16 billion industry," Sprinkel added.

This April, The Cornucopia Institute released a rating of the nation's
approximately 70 organic namebrand and private-label organic dairy
products ( www.cornucopia.org).  Although almost 90% received a very
high rating, Horizon and Aurora refused to participate in the study and
received the Institute's lowest score.  And in a subsequent poll of
their over 800,000 members, the Organic Consumers Association moved to
boycott Horizon and Aurora dairy products.  "It's hard to believe that
at this time Wal-Mart would embrace these products," said OCA director
Ronnie Cummins.

In addition to the report’s documentation of the Wal-Mart/factory-farm
connection, the study also highlighted the company’s decision to lower
the per unit cost basis on organic products by collaborating with its
long-time trading partner China.

"Even if it were not for many serious concerns about the propriety of
the certification process in China­and the fact that the USDA has
provided little if any regulatory oversight there­food shipped around
the world, burning fossil fuels and undercutting our domestic farmers,
does not meet the consumer's traditional definition of what is truly
organic," Kastel stated.

While Wal-Mart sources Chinese organic products, the industry's largest
organic and natural foods retailer, Whole Foods Market, announced plans
this summer to greatly expand their offerings of locally grown produce
in deference to organic consumer sentiments.

"Between Whole Foods and hundreds of the nation's cooperatively owned
natural foods groceries, we are certainly set up for a clash of the
titans,” said Cummins.  "Will consumers choose cheap industrial food, be
it from factory farms or questionable Third World imports, or will they
continue to support ethical processors and family farmers?"

Wal-Mart also depends on Natural Selection Foods, Earthbound Farms, a
giant industrial enterprise farming tens of thousands of acres in
California, Arizona, Mexico and Chile as their prime vendor for organic
vegetables.

"I don't think (consumers) have any idea just how industrialized it's
becoming (mainstream organics)," said journalism professor and author
Michael Pollan in a recent interview with the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Pollan’s book, “The Omnivore's Dilemma” has been a national
bestseller.
"There are some real downsides to organic farming scaling up to this
extent," Pollan added during the interview.  He and others worry that
the expansion of "Big Organic" will lower food quality, weaken standards
and hurt small family farms.

This month The Cornucopia Institute sent a letter to Wal-Mart CEO Lee
Scott suggesting that Wal-Mart’s approach to organics would likely
undermine the corporation’s campaigns to attract upscale shoppers to
their stores and to help cleanse the reputation of world's largest
retailer in terms of the widespread criticism that it has endured due to
its labor and environmental practices.

"We are afraid that you are grossly miscalculating your move into
organics and underestimating the knowledge and commitment of the organic
consumer. Those buying organic food are comfortable paying the historic
premiums because they think that part of their purchase dollar supports
a different kind of environmental, animal husbandry, and economic
justice ethic," the letter from Cornucopia read in part.

The letter also cited an example of Wal-Mart selling mislabeled
conventional yogurt as organic.  In addition, the Institute’s report
red-flagged the retailer selling organic baby formula made with both
questionable synthetic ingredients and processing materials.  The report
also suggests that Wal-Mart might lack the qualifications or commitment
to oversee what promises to be one of the nation's largest organic
manufacturing, distribution, and retail networks.

“Wal-Mart’s move into organics is worrisome to investors who realize
that the credibility of organic label, and the sustainability of organic
farming, is of greater significance to their returns than the mere
branding of the term ‘organic,’” said Daniel Stranahan, Investment
Committee Chair of the Toledo-based The Needmor Fund.  “If we undermine
the legitimacy of organic label then we also undermine the investor and
consumer confidence that have brought historic premiums to organic
products.”

– 30 –

EDITOR’S NOTE:  The Cornucopia Institute’s White Paper, Wal-Mart Rolls
Out Organic Products.  Market Expansion or Market Delusion?, along with
a photo gallery containing images of some of the organic items now being
offered for sale at Wal-Mart stores, and the letter sent by The
Cornucopia Institute to Wal-Mart’s CEO, can be found on the
organization’s Web page at www.cornucopia.org.

The Cornucopia Institute is dedicated to the fight for economic justice
for the family-scale farming community.  Through research, advocacy and
economic development our goal is to empower farmers both politically and
through marketplace initiatives.  The Organic Integrity Project acts as
a corporate watchdog assuring that no compromises to the credibility of
organic farming methods and the food it produces are made in the pursuit
of profit.

Will Fantle
The Cornucopia Institute
www.cornucopia.org