SUING THE LYING LIARS WHO SELL US "NATURAL FOODS"

"100% Natural" Weed Killer?

Dear K,

You’ve heard a lot in the past few years about consumers’ right to know about GMOs. And believe me when I say that battle is not over yet.

But what about your "right to know" about irradiated synthetic ingredients in “organic” baby formula?  Or about Monsanto’s glyphosate in “100% Whole Grain” Shredded Wheat and “100% Natural” Nature Valley granola bars?

And shouldn't you have the "right to know" if the eggs you bought that had a "pasture-raised" label on them actually came from chickens that never spent a day outdoors, much less on a pasture?

Food manufacturers are lying to you. Every day.

That’s why the OCA is behind five lawsuits against food companies—and why we will soon announce several more.

Can you help support this work by donating to our fall online fundraising campaign? We need to raise $200,000 by midnight,September 16, to meet our budget and keep these, and future, lawsuits going. You can donate online, by check or by mail, details here.

Junk food makers spend millions of dollars studying consumer preferences. They know what you want—and what you don't want.

They know you don’t want food full of pesticides and hormones and other toxic chemicals. They know you care about the environment, about the welfare of farmers, and about the way animals raised for food are treated.

But rather than produce the food consumers want, companies like General Mills, Post, Earth’s Best, Handsome Brook—even a company that calls itself The Honest Co.!—use false and misleading labels to trick you into thinking you’re buying the food you want. 

And then they charge you a premium for it!

On Monday this week, we announced our latest lawsuit, against Handsome Brook Farm. This egg producer was started by a husband and wife, on a “bucolic” farm in New York, according to a recent article in Forbes. When the company started out, its eggs probably came from “pasture-raised” chickens.

But like a lot of small companies, Handsome Brook has grown. According to Forbes, the company has contracts with 75 farms in six states, and its eggs are sold in more than 4500 stores—including Kroger, Publix, Wegmans and Sprouts Farmers Market. 

Handsome Brook still labels its eggs “pasture-raised.” But it’s not true. And by lying about it, Handsome Brook is cheating you, and its competitors—those companies that are doing the right thing.

We’ve also recently sued Post Holdings (maker of Shredded Wheat), and General Mills and its subsidiary, Nature Valley, for claiming that their products that test positive for Monsanto’s glyphosate are “100% natural.”

In April, we sued two baby formula makers—The Honest Co. and Earth’s Best—for stating that some of their infant formula brands are “organic” when they in fact contain ingredients not allowed under federal organic standards.

Last month, we forced Colgate-Palmolive to take down a webpage that intentionally misled consumers into thinking Tom’s of Maine toothpaste, owned by Colgate, was organic. Fortunately, we didn’t need to sue—one letter from our attorney was enough to end the deception.

I’m not personally a big fan of lawyers and courts. But I believe you deserve the truth about what you’re buying.

If Big Food companies refuse to label properly, OCA will sue them.

These lawsuits won’t bring in money for OCA, that’s not why we’re doing this. Our goal is to force companies to stop lying to you. And we need your help to do it.

Please help support this work by donating to our fall online fundraising campaign. We need to raise $200,000 by midnight, September 16, to meet our budget and keep these, and future, lawsuits going. You can donate online, by check or by mail, details here.

Thank you!

In solidarity,

Ronnie Cummins
International Director

P.S. We must bring down the factory farm system. Less than 25 percent of GMO crops go into non-organic processed food. The overwhelming majority are used to make animal feed and ethanol. Factory farms are polluting our  water and air, abusing animals, treating workers unfairly, creating an antibiotic-resistant public health crisis and producing food that makes us sick. Please support this important work!  Donate online here.