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WHY ORGANIC CONSUMER ASSOCIATION BELIEVES THAT MOST "NATURAL" FOODS ARE A FRAUD
- There is widespread use of GMO (genetically modified organisms) ingredients in so-called "natural" foods, including the "natural" brands that make up most of WFM and UNFI's sales.
- So-called "natural" (non-organic) soy milk, including leading brands such as "Silk," are made with conventional soy lecithin, utilizing the hazardous chemical, hexane, as an extraction agent.
- 90% or more of the vitamins and supplements now on the market labeled as "Whole Foods," "natural" or "food based" are spiked with synthetic chemicals.
Why Target Whole Foods and United Natural Foods?
Corporate Takeovers & Monopolistic Practices
The $25 Billion organic marketplace has
enjoyed substantial growth for over a decade, thanks to growing consumer
consciousness and farmer innovation.
No longer a passing trend or simply a
niche market, organic food and farming are proving to be a viable
alternative to the unhealthy, unsustainable and unjust conventional food
system.
Unprecedented wholesale and retail
control of the organic marketplace by UNFI and Whole Foods, employing a
business model of selling twice as much so-called "natural" food as
certified organic food, coupled with the takeover of many organic
companies by multinational food corporations such as Dean Foods,
threatens the growth of the organic movement.
Perpetrating "Natural" Fraud
Consumers are confused about the
difference between conventional products marketed as "natural," and
those nutritionally and environmentally superior products that are
"certified organic."
Retail stores like WFM and wholesale
distributors like UNFI have failed to educate their customers about the
qualitative difference between natural and organic.
A troubling trend in organics today is
the calculated shift on the part of certain large companies from
certified organic ingredients and products to so-called "natural"
products. With the exception of the "natural" meat sector, where there
are limited voluntary guidelines, there is no definition of "natural."
In the majority of cases, "natural" products are green
washed conventional products, with "natural" label claims neither
policed nor monitored.
Whole Foods and UNFI are maximizing their
profits by selling quasi-natural products at premium organic prices.
Organic consumers are increasingly left without certified organic
choices while organic farmers continue to lose market share to
"natural" impostors. It's no wonder that less than 1% of American
farmland is certified organic.
Excluding Small and Family Farms
Whole Foods and UNFI's business model of
centralized sourcing and prioritizing natural products over organic
rewards large corporate farms and processors, to the detriment of local
and regional small-scale organic farmers and brands.
Organic farmers must "get big or get out"
to be able to compete and have free access to markets. Many industrial
organic farms and dairy operations reflect the same abuses and problems
of the conventional food system: extremely energy intensive, systematic
abuse of workers, reduced food quality, and damage to biodiversity.
So-called "natural" products, since they
are actually in most cases conventional products in disguise, are being
sold at lower prices than genuine organic products--thereby retarding
the growth of the organic sector.
Organic and Local Food?
In light of the food system's significant
contribution to the climate crisis and the deepening economic troubles
facing local food economies, it is more important than ever to
prioritize locally produced organic food.
Though Whole Foods talks a lot about
supporting local food and producers, the fact is that the vast majority
of their products are not local, and much of what they sell is sourced
from a small number of industrial organic operations in California,
often owned by the same conventional food conglomerates responsible for
destroying the world's food system.
Organic Monopoly and the "Whole Paycheck" Phenomena
UNFI has undermined the growth of the
organic movement by implementing an unfair tiered pricing system that
gives Whole Foods deep discounts while other grocers, coops and
independent retailers pay significantly higher prices, in effect
subsidizing UNFI for its reduced profits at Whole Foods.
With UNFI as the largest organic (but of
course their sales are mostly so-called "natural" products) food
wholesaler and Whole Foods as the largest organic (like UNFI most of its
sales are "natural") food retailer, organic consumers are assured
higher prices, lower quality and fewer choices.
Cancer in a Bottle?
In 2008, the Organic Consumers
Association exposed a problem which particularly threatens women - a
large number of leading conventional as well as "natural" and "organic"
brands of shampoos, lotions, cosmetics and household cleaning products
which contained the carcinogen 1,4-Dioxane.
Included in the list of products were several Whole Food's 365 brand products and many products in the UNFI catalog.
While several dozen companies have
committed to eliminating the 1,4-Dioxane, neither Whole Foods, nor UNFI,
have endorsed OCA's Coming Clean Campaign, nor have they called on the
USDA to crack down on blatant labeling fraud in the organic personal
care and cosmetics sector.
Corporate Consolidation of Organics
In the last decade, the organic
marketplace has experienced hyper consolidation, with numerous small to
medium-sized farmers, manufacturers and retailers being taken over by
larger, profit-hungry corporations.
Whole Foods has employed an expansion
strategy that resembles Wal-Mart with its targeting of local and
independent retailers with new store locations while steadily buying out
competitors like Wild Oats.
UNFI has also grown rapidly over the last
decade, in part by aggressively taking over other distributors,
regional wholesalers and manufacturers.
Organics for Elites?
The organic food and farming movements
were born out of the desire to provide healthy and safe food to all.
Whole Foods' business model: selling overpriced conventional foods as
"natural," with organics in a subordinate role, is a recipe for
maximizing profits rather than maximizing the growth of organic food and
farming.
Worse yet, Whole Food's high prices have
not translated into larger profits for family farms or small-scale
manufacturers. Likewise, UNFI's growing market share and near-monopoly
of the organic and "natural" market has reduced the options for
consumers and independent retailers alike, undermining the growth of
consumer buying clubs and the lower-cost alternatives.
Anti-worker
UNFI and Whole Foods have a history of
cutting workers' benefits. Both have gone to extreme lengths to block
their employees from choosing to unionize. Whole Foods has long fought
unionization of its retail locations, largely ignored the demands of
farm workers organizations, like the United Farm Workers, and kept
workers' wages consistently low by industry standards.
UNFI has repeatedly fought efforts by its
employees to fight for better pay, benefits and working conditions.
Where workers have sucessfully formed unions, UNFI has begun moving jobs
to new, non-union locations.
Source:
www.organicconsumers.org
http://worldtruth.tv
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