Wisconsin Questions Wal-Mart's "Organic" Claims

Inspectors Find Regular Products Mixed in with Organics

May 10, 2007

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Wal-Mart has been heavily promoting its "organic" food selection but Wisconsin investigators say the chain is misleading consumers.

After a three-month investigation, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection said it found numerous instances of conventional food products improperly labeled as organic.

"Use of the term 'Wal-Mart Organics' in combination with reference to a specific non-organic product may be considered to be a misrepresentation and therefore a violation" of Wisconsin state statutes, Wisconsin authorities said in a letter to Wal-Mart.

The Wisconsin officials said they had reached an agreement with Wal-Mart and expected that the chain would be more careful in the future.

The Wisconsin probe was at least partly prompted by complaints from the Cornucopia Institute, a watchdog group that said it found numerous incidents of fraudulent organic labeling in Wal-Mart stores in five states including Texas and Minnesota.

"This finding is a victory for consumers who care about the integrity of organic food and farming" said Mark Kastel, codirector of The Cornucopia Institute. "Wal-Mart cannot be allowed to sell organic food on the cheap because they lack the commitment to recruit qualified management or are unwilling to properly train their store personnel."

Kastel faulted federal agencies for doing nothing and said his group had notified the USDA of the problems last November, two months before Wisconsin officials were alerted.

"A six-month period without any federal enforcement action is absolutely inexcusable when the largest corporation in the country is accused of defrauding organic consumers," Kastel said. "Last November, we supplied photographic evidence and documentation to the USDA investigators who contacted us about our complaint."

Kastel said his group forwarded its complaint to Wisconsin after USDA failed to act.

The USDA's National Organic Program has been under fire from consumer advocates who have criticized it as being too cozy with corporate agribusiness. Two independent audits of the program, conducted by the American National Standards Institute and the USDA's Inspector General, were harshly critical of USDA's management of the program.

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