Dean Foods pulls bait-and-switch on "organic" Silk soymilk

[Autumn Colors]

http://www.naturalnews.com/027450_food_foods_Dean.html

(NaturalNews) Until early 2009, Silk brand soy milk was made using organic soybeans. But earlier this year, Dean Foods (owner of the Silk brand) quietly switched to conventional soybeans, which are often grown with pesticides. But they kept the same UPC barcodes on their products, and they kept the product label virtually the same, only replacing the word "organic" with "natural" in a way that was barely noticeable. They also kept the price the same, charging consumers "organic" prices for a product that was now suddenly made with conventionally-grown soybeans.

Many retailers and consumers never noticed the bait-and-switch tactic, so they kept buying Silk, thinking it was still organic. The shift on the product label from "organic" to "natural" wasn't well understood by consumers, either. Many consumers continue to think that the term "natural" is basically the same as "organic," when in fact they are almost opposites. The term "natural" is entirely unregulated, and almost anything can be claimed to be "natural" even when it's sprayed with pesticides or treated with other chemicals.

This bait-and-switch ploy continued throughout 2009 until a few watchdog organizations started to catch on to the covert switch. In late October, the Cornucopia Institute (www.Cornucopia.org) accused Target stores of misleading consumers by advertising Silk products using the old "organic" labeling even though the product being sold in stores was not organic. Cornucopia's Mark Kastel accused Target and Dean Foods for "blurring the line between organic and natural," thereby confusing consumers while boosting profits from the more lucrative sales of non-organic products sold at organic prices. (http://www.cornucopia.org/2009/10/off-target-major-retailer-accused-of-organic-improprieties-state-and-federal-complaints-allege-mislabeling/)

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According to that same story, food retailers in California, Delaware and Texas were also duped by Silk's bait-and-switch scheme, only discovering the switch to conventional soybeans months after the switch was covertly made. Dean Foods, you see, never bothered to tell retailers they had switched from organic to conventionally-grown soybeans. They just quietly made the switch but kept the same box design and UPC codes, perhaps hoping no one would notice. And the ploy worked!

[hlthe2b]

1. Organic or not, I think they are GMO soybeans...

are they not?

[Sebastian Doyle]

3. GMO soybeans, by definition, cannot be organic

Since the the genetic modification itself involves pesticides.

[omega minimo]

5. Organic is non GMO

[CrispyQ]

7. No GMOs allowed in products that are organic.

There are different labels for organics, depending on what percentage of the product is organic. Maybe this will help clear up the labeling confusion: http://www.organic.org/articles/showarticle/article-201

I'm not sure that Silk was completely organic in the past. They did use organic soybeans, but some of the other ingreds were not organic. That said, it is getting harder & harder to guarantee that organic soybeans/corn/potatoes haven't been contaminated with GMOs.

[CrispyQ]

2. We wondered what happend when our local health food store suddenly had an organic version

of Silk on the shelf, in a new green carton that is clearly labeled 'organic.'. That led to comparing the labels of both products & learning of the bait-n-switch. We decided to switch to another brand. Fuck Silk.

[dhill926]

4. thanks for the heads up on this.......n/t

[derby378]

6. It's Organic Valley milk for me

I think they're the last producer of organic milk that has not yet been taken over by one of the big boys.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

13. +1...........

Organic Valley is the only milk I drink.

[City Lights]

23. Ditto. We also buy Wisconsin Organics.

http://www.wiorganics.com/

[Maat]

26. I, too, have become a loyal patron of Organic Valley products.

They are great products, and this company is the real deal - a company committed to making high-quality, certified organic products in a fair, concientious and environmentally-friendly way.

[SpiralHawk]

8. Mutant GMO soybeans are not organic

The megacorps which occultly foist the mutant 'facsimile food-like product' without labels down the public gullet, would like you to think their mutant crud is somehow equivalent.

[bahrbearian]

9. I've decided to make my own Rice and Almond milk

http://www.veganreader.com/2009/05/17/how-to-make-rice-milk-and-stop-supporting-rice-dream/

[newtothegame]

10. If a part (read: cost) of the process for organic foods, is taken out, namely pesticides...

why are organic foods more expensive? Shouldn't it cost LESS to produce if you're not spending money on pesticides?

[hughee99]

12. As I understand it,

when you take out the pesticides and other chemicals, the yields are lower. Since they're not able to produce as much per acre, they charge more to make up the difference.

[newtothegame]

14. I thought that was it, but I guess I just don't understand organic at all.

I choose not to do organic because I can't afford it, and I don't understand why so many who are very poor do organic (I have friends around here who work for $7 an hour in coffee shops, but spend $6 for their jar of organic peanut butter). But to each his own.

[hughee99]

18. I'm not big on organics either,

though my wife is, so I usually end up eating organic anyway. I tried the organic peanut butter and did not like it at all.

[newtothegame]

21. I understand the appeal, but Ican't justify the cost given that we've been eating non-organic for

years and we're still here.

[Luminous Animal]

17. Very few organic farmers receive the kind of price supports

that conventional farmers do.

[WhiteTara]

24. it's more labor intensive.

You have to pick the bugs off rather than spray with chemicals. Takes more people that have to bend low to the ground.

edited for spelling

[TwilightGardener]

11. Organic or no, the only thing that's really important: does it cause man-boobs or not?

[supernova]

16. Yes, soy is a phyoto-estrogen

whether it's GMO or not, soy is a plant estrogen, so yes, you'd be risking moobs if you're overweight

[onestepforward]

19. It hasn't caused man boobs for my husband

and we've been drinking soy milk for well over 10 years now. His chest is quite flat :)

[supernova]

15. I don't buy milk but that's crummy

I just bought Silk Soy Nog for the holidays and it's pretty good, but it's a crummy thing to do to consumers. Once again, do they not realize who their customers are?

I cannot drink real milk, dairy intolerance. I sometimes get almond milk. I may look into making my own, as little as I use it. Can't be that hard.

[blueworld]

20. And for those who think organic can't be GMO...

Can you find me a list of variety names for GMO soybeans? See Monsanto won't release that information, so frequently even the farmers growing a crop only know it's "improved" but they don't necessarily know it's GMO. Not to mention organic farmers whose fields are next to GMO fields.

[Tashca]

25. There is a simple test

I worked for awhile and my brother still does for an organic soybean processor.

There is a simple test you can do to see if they are GMO or non-GMO. That is all the test will tell you. There is basically no way to test for pesticide residue. That is left to trust. In our case we would test every load and immediately reject any load that didn't pass the non-GMO test. The soybeans we processed were for animal feed and used for mostly egg and some milk production. I don't know why they couldn't use the same test for human consumption foods. It is very inexpensive and takes about 5-10 minutes. It was suppose to be able to detect as low as one GMO bean in a thousand.

[knitter4democracy]

22. I'd wondered why the price went down.

The price here went down this fall by as much as a dollar at times (price fluctuates a bit, but it was really quite a bit this fall), and I didn't know why. I had noticed a change in packaging but didn't even think to check if it were still organic or not. Hmm. If it weren't the only one my kids and I like, I'd switch, but I've tried other ones only to throw them out (some soy milks taste freakin' awful). Dang.

[jgraz]

27. K&R: Remember Horizon Organics is also owned by Dean

They've been cited several times for deplorable conditions for their dairy cows. Avoid these pirates at all costs.