We noted this a while ago, but now PR Newswire/Yahoo! has picked up the story, and your local newspaper will probably carry the story, somewhere not on the front page, with about 2 column inches devoted to it.
The Cornucopia Institute: Wal-Mart Slapped for Misleading Organic Consumers - Yahoo! News
Consumer fraud investigators in the state of Wisconsin released their findings this week after a three-month long investigation into allegations that Wal-Mart stores throughout the state of Wisconsin had misled consumers by misidentifying conventional food items as organic.In a letter to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., based in Bentonville, Arkansas, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection stated they'd found numerous instances of conventional food products improperly labeled as organic by the retail chain. Specifically, Wisconsin authorities told Wal-Mart's legal counsel that “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.
of course the FDA is hesitant to act, because the FDA is only supposed to protect corporations from consumers.
While Wisconsin regulators have completed their investigation, the USDA has yet to formally weigh in on the matter, despite being notified of the food fraud problem last November.“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 stated. Cornucopia provided photographic evidence and documentation to USDA investigators last November.
see more at http://www.cornucopia.org/
Tags: corruption, /FDA, /organic, /Wal-Mart
