Petition to stop corporate takeover of organics

This Saturday, at the USA’s largest organic farming conference - the MOSES Conference - WhiteWave' s corporate representative will seek to teach farmers how to communicate with organic consumers and understand "consumer demographics, behaviors, attitudes, and mindsets."

Dean Foods has recently spun-off their branded production division (WhiteWave), including the Horizon and Silk labels. The company has cheapened organics, the Cornucopia Institute reports: Horizon has purchased milk from factory farms with as many as 10,000 cows, and their corporate-owned dairy has confined cattle in feedlots rather than grazing them. Horizon, facing a surplus of milk in 2009, illegally terminated the contracts of family farmers, according to the institute, and in 2014 introduced non-organic products with non-organic and synthetic ingredients. Silk switched to buying “organic” soybeans from China and therewith abandoned American farmers. Silk, when purchased by Dean / WhiteWave was 100% organic, and today it is only 6% organic, according to information from the Cornucopia institute.

According to Cornucopia it is questionable if the WhiteWave executive at the conference will help to better understand today’s organic consumer. The Cornucopia has launched a petition asking the MOSES board of directors to cancel WhiteWave’s workshop and encourages the public to sign it. The petition is available here: http://www.cornucopia.org/