WASHINGTON, April 4, 2006 -- The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is calling on consumers to boycott milk brands that claim to be organic while routinely importing calves from conventional farms and raising the animals in intensive confinement, with little or no access to pasture.

"Consumers buying products labeled 'organic' do not realize that they often essentially being scammed by some of the larger companies who put pictures of happily grazing cows on their products, but in reality keep their cows confined in ways very similar to traditional factory farms. OCA is calling on consumers to boycott these bogus organic products , and give their consumer dollars to ethical producers who are upholding strict organic standards," says Ronnie Cummins, executive director of the Organic Consumers Association.

For the confused consumer trying to buy ethical organic dairy, there is a new study, Maintaining the Integrity of Organic Milk, produced by the Cornucopia Institute that rates 68 organic dairy name-brands and private labels, exposing the dubious practices of some so-called organic companies, and highlighting companies that are producing truly organic milk.

Contact Your Senators TODAY to defend local control over food safety!

Congressional Switchboard:  #202-224-3121

Tell them to oppose the “National Uniformity for Food Act,” when it comes before the Senate.

On March 2nd the House passed H.R. 4167, the “National Uniformity for Food Act,” which would basically overturn any state or local food safety laws that are not "identical" to federal law.  Hundreds of laws and regulations that are tougher than federal rules are now at risk, including those governing the safety of milk and shellfish. With massive federal budget cutbacks, local and state officials are now responsible for 80% of the nation's food safety enforcement. These officials regularly improve training, sanitation and labeling standards to address new food borne diseases and other dangers to our food supply whether natural or man made. This preemption legislation, if it passes the Senate and is signed by Pres. Bush. would put a straitjacket on local food safety efforts and severely compromise the principle of food sovereignty in the U.S.

Caspian (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasian and Numbering), an American privacy advocacy group, is taking issue with Tesco, the UK's largest Supermarket chain, over their trials of RFID tagging on individual food items, as opposed to just the cases involved in shipping. Wal-mart, who pioneered the retail sector's mass adoption of RFID tags, has also been criticized for this.Here's the article

While i don't think that gleaning information from consumers is the primary purpose for RFID tags, it certainly represents a major threat, and once instituted, represents a major technological wedge that could help ratchet down privacy laws. It would be a truly golden opportunity for many a market research firm. Here's an article by Katherine Albrecht, the founder of Caspian, about the imminent use of RFID in supermarkets, in the context of other supermarket information gleaning technologies. The privacy advocacy groups, such as Caspian, also represent a potential ally against the dark lords of transnational commodity chain governance.