Tell these Organic Dairies: Support Consumers, not the IDFA!
Stonyfield Farm resigned from the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), a trade group that is suing Vermont to overturn the state’s GMO labeling law. If Stonyfield can do it, so can the other Big Three Organic Dairies. TAKE ACTION: Tell Organic Valley, White Wave/Horizon Organic, and Aurora Organic Dairy to do the same: http://orgcns.org/1sBgdb9#Organic #Milk
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In July, OCA and our allies asked a number of leading organic dairies to withdraw from the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), a trade group that is suing Vermont to overturn its GMO labeling law, and lobbying to pass a federal law that would preempt states from passing laws requiring the mandatory labeling of foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
So far, only two of these organic dairy companies—Clover-Stornetta and Stonyfield Farm—have ditched their memberships in the IDFA.
Please tell Organic Valley, White Wave/Horizon Organic, and Aurora Organic Dairy: All we want for Christmas is for them to do the right thing and quit the IDFA today.
On December 5, 2014, Stonyfield Farm, a New Hampshire-based producer of organic milk and yogurt, resigned from the IDFA.
The resignation came about five months after OCA and its allies, including Mercola Health Resources, LLC, Cedar Circle Farm (Vermont), Vermont Public Interest Research Group, Alliance for Natural Health USA, Food & Water Watch, Rural Vermont, GMO Inside and Food Democracy Now! sent the organic dairy companies an open letter asking that they withdraw their membership in the IDFA.
An article in Vermont Digger, stated that Stonyfield and California-based Clover-Stornetta Farms (which wasn’t one of the companies we wrote to, but pulled out of the IDFA in July, after our letter to the larger dairies) claimed they were “under fire” from consumers.
In our letter, sent July 23, 2014, and addressed to Stonyfield Farm, Aurora Organic, Organic Valley and White Wave/Horizon, OCA warned that organic consumers were outraged that leading organic dairy companies were paying membership dues and lending credibility to the pro-Monsanto IDFA. The IDFA is not only party to the lawsuit against Vermont, it is also lobbying for H.R. 4432, an outrageous anti-consumer bill, introduced in April (2014) in the House of Representatives by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.). The bill, dubbed by consumers as the Deny Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act, would preempt all state GMO labeling laws, and make it legal to use the word “natural” on products that contain GMOs.
Here are three more reasons organic dairies should not belong to the IDFA:
• IDFA is a leading force lobbying to outlaw the sales of raw milk and dairy products in the U.S.
• IDFA is a member of the COOL Reform Coalition, which wants to keep consumers in the dark by fighting Country of Origin labels.
• The IDFA wants dairy companies to be able to hide the fact that their products contain aspartame which has been linked to brain cancer and to the accumulation of formaldehyde, known to cause gradual damage to the nervous system and the immune system and to cause irreversible genetic damage at long-term, low-level exposure.
In their letter, written on behalf of their combined ten million members, OCA and its allies warned the organic dairy companies:
"If your company continues to support the GMA and/or IDFA, consumers will have no choice but to seek out alternative brands sold by companies that are on the right side of the GMO labeling issue."
In July, Stonyfield said it had been hit with “friendly fire” from the OCA, and that it would not resign from the IDFA:
“The OCA may believe that quitting the IDFA is the right way to support GMO labeling. But at this point in time we disagree, instead of quitting, we’re fighting harder. After all, if we believed that positions about GMO labeling couldn’t be changed, we wouldn’t be in this fight in the first place.”
The company also said it “directly” opposed and had “challenged the International Dairy Foods Association’s (IDFA) decision to join the lawsuit against VT’s GMO labeling law.”
Yet in a statement following Stonyfield’s resignation last week, IDFA Spokesperson Peggy Armstrong said:
“The company [IDFA] represents 200 dairy companies, many of which agree with the trade group’s position. We have not been hearing from a lot of people saying they support Vermont.”
Apparently, the IDFA didn’t hear (or didn’t listen to) Stonyfield’s direct opposition or challenge. So Stonyfield did the right thing—resign.
In an email to an OCA supporter who wrote to Horizon Organic, the company responded that it felt obligated to retain its membership in IDFA in order to promote GMO labeling from within the organization.
Yet it’s clear, from Armstrong’s statement, and from Stonyfield’s resignation, that the IDFA has no plans to withdraw from the Vermont lawsuit, much less “promote” GMO labeling.
It’s time for Organic Valley, Horizon Organic and Aurora Organic Dairy to prove their loyalty to consumers, not a multi-million dollar, anti-labeling, anti-consumer lobbying group.
Claims by organic and other dairy companies that their membership dues go toward IDFA’s administrative expenses, not the lobbying group’s efforts to defeat GMO labeling laws, ring hollow with consumers. Funneling dues to fund operational expenses just leaves more money for the IDFA to fight lawsuits.
On December 8 (2014) OCA and our allies sent a second letter to Organic Valley, White Wave/Horizon Organic and Aurora Organic asking once again that the companies follow Stonyfield’s lead and immediately resign from the IDFA.
Tell Organic Valley, White Wave/Horizon Organic, and Aurora Organic Dairy to do the right thing and quit the IDFA today!
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50865/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=15305&track=FB&tag=FB
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