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Farm News: Cornucopia Institute Takes Issue With Sara LeecommentsPosted: 02.23.2010 The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin based organic industry watchdog, is taking issue with a marketing campaign being used by Sara Lee Corporation for their new "Earth Grains" bread. Cornucopia Institute claims that Sara Lee's advertisizing that claims its EarthGrains brand breads, is more sustainable than organic grain is misinformation that's angered many in the organic community.
“Corporations like Sara Lee clearly want to profit from consumers’ interest in ecological and healthy food production. But unlike organic companies, Sara Lee is doing practically nothing to ensure its ingredients are truly ecologically produced,” said Charlotte Vallaeys, a Food and Farm Policy Analyst at The Cornucopia Institute. “It's a crass example of a corporation trying to capitalize on the valuable market cachet of organic, while intentionally misleading consumers—without making any meaningful commitment to protect the environment or produce safer and more nutritious food.”
The Cornucopia Institute, a farm policy research group, points out that the farmers who grow Eco-Grain differ very little from most conventional grain producers who use petroleum-based fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides, and have little in common with certified organic farmers.
The one attribute that Sara Lee uses to differentiate Eco-Grain production is that the farmers, although they use chemical fertilizers, incorporate technology that has reduced fertilizer usage by 15%.
Cornucopia's Vallaeys points out that, “Even if their new fancy wheat were truly superior, each EarthGrains 24 ounce loaf contains only 20% flour from Eco-Grain, with the remainder of the bread’s wheat coming from regular, conventional wheat. The total reduction in chemical fertilizer use in a loaf of EarthGrains bread therefore amounts to a meager 3%.”
The Cornucopia Institute has written to the CEOs of both Sara Lee and NPR requesting that the "misleading and unethical" packaging and advertising campaign, and associated advertising and underwriting, be immediately suspended while the corporations investigate their propriety.
"Unfortunately, this is another example of a major agribusiness trying to blur the line between products labeled ‘organic’ and ‘natural’,” stated Mark Kastel, who acts as Cornucopia's Senior Farm Policy Analyst. “It seems that some corporations, like Sara Lee, appear more interested in corporate profit and greenwashing than true environmental stewardship, and are doing everything they can to take advantage of this confusion among consumers," Kastel added.
“The term ‘natural’ on products like bread is not regulated by state or federal government,” says Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition at New York University. “Companies that use the term ‘all natural’ essentially come up with their own definition.”
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