The Associated Press’s Robert Imrie is reporting that the Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute filed a complaint with USDA on Tuesday to look into ads run by Target Corp. mislead costumers by claiming a soy milk was organic. The newspaper ad involved Silk soy milk and the group claims Target had the words “organic” included on the carton in the ad. Dean Foods, the producers of Silk soy milk, has shifted its production away from organic soy milk.
According to a member of the group, "Either this was a willful attempt to deceive customers and defraud them or more likely incompetence and lack of oversight by management," said Mark Kastel, an analyst for the Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute. "I would guess this was done in error. It is hard to believe that people at this company were stupid enough to think they could get away with this."
This is not the first complaint filed by the organic industry watchdog group, the Cornucopia Institute. In 2006, the Institute filed similar complaints against Wal-Mart. According to the article, “"Wal-Mart did indeed clean up its act, as we expect Target to do, but it should not take the judicious oversight of an industry watchdog to cause these giant corporations to comply with the law," said Will Fantle, the Cornucopia Institute's research director.
To view the Associated Press article, click here.
Posted: 10/21/09
