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Class Action Charges Fraud in Organic Milk Sales

Nation's largest organic dairy accused of improprieties

October 17, 2007
Acting on behalf of organic food consumers in 27 states, class action lawsuits are being filed in U.S. federal courts, in St. Louis and Denver, against the nation's largest organic dairy.

The suits charge Aurora Dairy Corporation, based in Boulder, Colorado, with consumer fraud, negligence, and unjust enrichment concerning the sale of organic milk by the company.

"This is the largest scandal in the history of the organic industry," said Mark Kastel of The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm policy research group.

Cornucopia's 2005 formal legal complaint first alerted USDA investigators to Aurora's improprieties. "Aurora was taking advantage of the consumer's good will in the marketplace toward organics," Kastel added.

The attorneys are seeking damages from Aurora to reimburse consumers they claim were harmed by the company's actions and are requesting an injunction be put in place to halt the sale of Aurora's organic milk until it can be demonstrated that the company is complying with federal regulations.

Aurora, with $100 million in annual sales, provides milk that is sold as organic store-brand products for some of the nation's biggest chains, including Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, Safeway, Wild Oats, and about 20 others.

Independent investigators at the USDA concluded earlier this year that Aurora -- with five dairy facilities in Colorado and Texas, each milking thousands of cows -- had 14 "willful" organic violations. One of the most egregious findings was that from December 5, 2003, to April 16, 2007, the Aurora "labeled and represented milk as organically produced, when such milk was not produced and handled in accordance with the National Organic Program regulations."

"We believe that there are tens of thousands of consumers across the United States who have been directly impacted by Aurora's practices," said Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association. "We are pleased to see this legal action. We will do what we can to ensure that organic continues to mean organic," Cummins added.

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