Were we hornswoggled by Silk?

Grocers around the country report feeling misled -- "hornswoggled," in fact -- by the reformulation of Silk Soymilk from organic to 'natural'. A recent article from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram depicts the same scenario that we experienced here at the Coop earlier this year.

Smart Choices in the news....

If you occasionally shop at a supermarket, you may have already seen the green "Smart Choices Made Easy" label on food packages. In an article entitled "Smart Choice Foods: Dumb as They Look" in Forbes, the writer, Rebecca Ruiz, details the absurdity of the label. The subhead for the article says it all: "Processed-foods giants spent more than $1 million to create nutritional guidelines for a labeling system that favors their own products."

So what products made the cut: Fruit loops and Fudgsicles. I haven't noticed the Smart Choice label on any products that the Coop carries--maybe Kellogg's Raisin Bran is too, too healthy. But then I haven't looked.

No More Silk Soymilk

The Coop will no longer be selling the half-gallon cartons of Silk Organic Soymilk. We will continue to sell Organic Valley Soymilk in the same four flavors that shoppers are used to seeing from Silk: original (plain), vanilla, unsweetened, and chocolate. This decision was prompted by recent actions taken by the Silk company (described below), and their integrity as a producer of organic soy products continues to be called into question. The major factors influencing our decision not to sell Silk are as follows:

1. In January 2009, Silk – whose soy products were formerly 100% organic -- reformulated their product line by converting almost all their products to conventional soybeans. They did this quietly, without telling retailers or changing the UPC code numbers on the products. Many retailers, including the Coop, didn’t find out about the change until consumers noticed and complained. The non-organic soymilks are labeled “Natural.” When we questioned Silk representatives about the change, we were told “there is a shortage of organic soybeans in North America.” However, it has been argued that Dean Foods (which owns Silk) “helped create these shortages by opting for cheaper organic imports instead of supporting domestic farmers with sustainable prices.1” (For the full report, please read the Cornucopia Institute's Soy Report & Scorecard)

2. Silk does not guarantee that all of their soybeans are free from GMO contamination. Organic Valley’s organic soybeans are 'Identity Preserved' - meaning each batch is tested to ensure there is no GMO contamination.

3. Silk is unwilling to share their sourcing information with consumers. Dean Foods “refused to transparently participate in the [Cornucopia Institute’s] study—depriving their customers of an independently verified review of their practices.” This stands in contrast to many other prominent soy food brands around the country that are fully transparent In their sourcing and production practices.

4. Silk brand is owned by Dean Foods - an agribusiness giant that owns over 50 milk labels around the country including Horizon Organic, a brand that heavily depends on factory farms each milking thousands of cows. Organic Valley is owned by CROPP Cooperative, a cooperative of organic family farmers. The Coop supports other cooperatives, wherever possible, and we try also to avoid companies that source from factory farms.

We will also replace the Silk soy creamers (made from non-organic soybeans) with Wildwood soymilk creamers (made from U.S. organic soybeans).

The Coop will continue to sell the quarts of Silk soymilk because this size is currently unavailable from any other company. Shoppers should beware, however, that these quarts are not organic. The quart sizes of Silk soymilk in plain, vanilla and chocolate flavors are all made from non-organic soybeans. Silk no longer sells their organic soymilk in a quart size carton.

1. Cornucopia Institute. (2009). Behind the Bean: The Heroes and Charlatans of the Natural and Organic Soy Foods Industry (1st ed.) [Report]. Cornucopia, WI: Charlotte Vallaeys.

In the News.....

Lots of Coop members have cats. Most are concerned about the environment. Probably most have not thought about how feeding fish (or chicken that was fed fish) to their cat plays a significant role in diminishing the ocean's resources, further endangering large ocean mammals, like whales. Paul Greenberg, who is writing a book on the future of fish, points out this problem in an interesting op-ed in the NYTimes 3/21/09. The Coop doesn't apply the same standards to fish, poultry and meat in the pet food we sell as we do for the products for human consumption. Something to think about.

The recent peanut scare highlighted how unregulated the food industry is. Both the Wall Street Journal and the NYTimes detail how many manufacturers do not know the origin of many of their ingredients, even when they are required to document their sources.

And the LA Times weighs in about a similar problem concerning pharmaceuticals. Reporter David Lazarus was unable to track down where his generic acetaminophen was manufactured. Unlike the food industry, there is no requirement to cite the source of ingredients in pharmaceuticals, and many sold in the US are manufactured in other countries. China is a major manufacturer.

An independent lab that tests supplements, ConsumerLab, recently updated its review of fish oils. The good news is that the 52 products that they tested did not have high levels of mercury. However, the free summary on the web hinted that some of these products were more like snake oil than fish oil, i.e., they didn't contain the omega-3's the labels cited. Unfortunately, in order to read the full report you need to spend $$ and subscribe.