Organic Milk Lawsuit Against Aurora Dairy Will Continue

Unless you've been living in a far off cave, you've likely heard of Aurora Dairy's ongoing issues with organic certification. Just in case you missed it though - many years back, The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm-policy group, started questioning whether Aurora's organic milk was truly as organic as they said. See Cornucopia's in depth look at organic dairy to learn more.

As it turns out, Aurora Dairy seemingly was not as organic as they stated. Fast forward to now, and many consumers have sued several national chains and Aurora Dairy, (currently the largest U.S. provider of store-brand organic milk) claiming that Aurora has falsely labeled their organic milk.

What's brand new: Last Wednesday, a federal appeals court ruling issued these consumers the right to continue with their lawsuit, which not only includes Aurora Dairy but other popular retailers as well, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Wild Oats Markets Inc., Target Corp. and Costco Wholesale Corp.

The ruling from the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means that a lower court will hear claims from consumers that Aurora Organic Dairy's milk has been deceptively marketed as coming from small farms with open pastures. It's not a total win for organic integrity though. The original lawsuit also claimed that Aurora's milk should not even be called organic. This last claim has been tossed out due to the fact that the USDA has allowed Aurora to maintain their organic certification, in spite of consumer arguments against it.

The USDA at one point did propose to take away Aurora's organic certification after identifying "willful violations" of the organic standards which even included use of non-organic cows. However, in 2007, Aurora and the USDA reached a somewhat odd agreement where Aurora agreed to reduce their herd and provide some access to pasture; an agreement that allowed the company to retain its organic certification.

According to reports, a spokesman for Wal-Mart said that Wal-Mart is "Pleased that the court agreed that the dairy products were properly labeled as organic" - although I think we can agree this is a bizarre technically more so than a total agreement.

Costco and Wild Oats (now owned by Whole Foods Market) haven't commented on the court's decision and neither would Target, a company who actually quit carrying Aurora milk.

Right now the USDA decisions aren't making some people happy. Cornucopia spokesman Mark Kastel notes that just because Aurora made a deal with the USDA changes little. In fact consumers still have to pay more for Aurora's organic milk even though "Much of the milk comes from industrial-scale operations in Texas."

Personally, I think this situation doesn't bode well for the USDA. They aren't holding up their end of organic integrity when they allow Aurora to cut deals with them that may not cover the full scope of organic. Plus, it's just a shame, because some companies work hard to stick to organic ideals. I guess we'll have to wait and see what the lawsuit dealings bring, but with the USDA on the side of Aurora, I'm not overly optimistic for organic consumers.

Organic Dairy © Elke Dennis