CORNUCOPIA, WI: The Cornucopia Institute has filed a lawsuit in federal
court seeking to compel the USDA to provide public records sought through
several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The Institute is a
Wisconsin-based farm policy research group and organic food watchdog.
"We have gone into federal court because the USDA has been unwilling to
provide us with important records that would help us and our farmer-members
and consumers understand why the USDA has delayed enforcement of key federal
organic farming standards for five years," said Will Fantle, the Institute's
Research Director. "These are documents that they are obligated, by law, to
share with the public."
At issue is the record of correspondence and discussions that have taken
place at the USDA between USDA staff and corporate lobbyists, farm
organizations, and the public, concerning the requirement that organic dairy
cows have access to pasture and obtain a significant portion of their feed
from grazing.
The lawsuit comes amidst a growing national debate occurring in the organic
farming community over the rise of factory farms in organic dairying,
milking 2000 to 6000 cows in confinement-type conditions, that provide
little if any pasture for their milk cows. Public interest groups and
farmers have accused the USDA of purposefully ignoring the matter for
years-a fact that has allowed these gigantic farms to proliferate and gain a
growing foothold in the booming organic marketplace.
"We know that powerful companies like Dean Foods, the owner of the Horizon
organic dairy brand, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying the
USDA last year," said Fantle. "This company and the factory farms they are
procuring organic milk from are financially benefiting from USDA
footdragging on this matter."
When the National Organic Standards Board was ready to close loopholes and
tighten federal organic rules in August 2005, staff at the USDA unexpectedly
and without explanation blocked action by their expert advisory panel.
"We smell a rat," said Fantle, "and we want to see if there are corporate
fingerprints on the USDA's critical policy reversal."
Three FOIA requests, filed since August 2005, have never been complied with
by the USDA. The agency released some documents in response to a fourth
FOIA request but withheld several others, without explanation, prompting an
appeal from the Institute that is also now part of the federal lawsuit.
"We expect USDA to honor the letter of the law in a timely fashion,
something they have yet to do," said Gary Cox, counsel for the Institute.
"Transparency is important in government if the public is to have faith in
its decisions," Cox added. "And transparency is doubly important in organic
agriculture, where consumers care deeply about their food and how it is
produced."
Fantle noted that frustration with USDA inaction led Cornucopia to more
closely investigate the organic dairy industry and what goes into the dairy
foods being sold to the consumer. Their recently released report,
Maintaining the Integrity of Organic Milk, and accompanying scorecard, based
on a year of research, ranks 68 different retail organic dairy brands and
measures the organic ethics and integrity involved in their production.
"If the USDA is reluctant to enforce organic regulations, we believe
consumers should know which brands represent their ethics and values,"
explained Fantle. "Our scorecard spotlights the heroes and identifies
companies that are cutting corners."
The report is available on the group's Web page at
www.cornucopia.org.
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The Cornucopia Institute, a 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.
