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.

Check out Vanadana Shiva's article about India's Proposed Food Safety & Standards Bill. One excerpt:

While food hazards grow, food safety laws are being shaped which deregulate large corporations and over-regulate the small scale self organized economy. Such industrial food safety standards promote large scale globalised production, and act against local foods. These laws are also the basis of the Sanitary and Phyto Sanitary Agreement of WTO.

Shiva is one of the best critics of the WTO and this article is a case in point. However, in focusing on the WTO, she overlooks corporate para-state institutions like EurepGAP, which actually bypass the WTO by one-upping it on free market rhetoric by suggesting that their policies merely reflect the demands of its ("sovereign"?) consumer base.

According to the Business Standard entitled `EU standards bleed Indian traders':

In some cases, the cost of complying with the EU standards [i.e. EurepGAP] is as high as 65 per cent of the production cost of the goods, with the high cost of EU compliance certificates and the lack of availability of certifying agencies in the country making exporting to the EU difficult, the survey said.

Note that even though Eurep, which operates EurepGAP, is a consortium of entirely private firms, this article in the Business Standard basically equates exporting to EurepGAP to exporting to the EU.

Review of: Jason Konefal, Michael Mascarenhas, and Maki Hatanaka (2005) "Governance in the global agro-food system: Backlighting the role of transnational supermarket chains" Agriculture and Human Values 22: 291–302.

Reviewer: kjmcw

Some of the liveliness of contemporary democracy is to be found away from the polling booths, where one often looks for it in vain, in the less examined machinery of science and technology policy-that is, in technical advisory committees, court proceedings, regulatory assessments, scientific controversies, and even the ephemeral web pages of environ-mental groups and multinational corporations. (Jasanoff 2005: 9)

The authors of "Governance in the global agro-food system: Backlighting the role of transnational supermarket chains" to a certain degree echo Jasanoff#039s argument above that science and technology policy is an increasingly important nexus of conflict and debate about all aspects of public life. However, while Jasanoff apparently sees hope, "liveliness", and opportunities for greater democratic participation, Konefal et al. are less optimistic, and perceive an opaque realm of "backstage" deal making by technocrats from the highest echelons of supermarket firms.

A new book was released December 16 ($150!!) by Larry Busch and Jim Bingen of the IFAS, who work closely with the authors of the article reviewed by kev about supermarkets. Here's a link to it on the publisher's website.. And the full citation: Bingen, J. and L. Busch, eds.. 2005. Agricultural Standards: The Shape Of The Global Food And Fiber System. Dordrecht: Springer.

Here's the table of contents (sorry for the formatting or lack thereof):

DEDICATION. CONTRIBUTORS. PREFACE. PART I - THINKING ABOUT STANDARDS. 1. INTRODUCTION: A NEW WORLD OF STANDARDS; L. BUSCH, J.BINGEN. PART II - PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS. 2. THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION; K.C. KENNEDY. 3. CIRCULATIONS OF INSECURITY: GLOBALIZING FOOD: STANDARDS IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE; S. ILCAN, L. PHILLIPS. 4. THE INTERNATIONAL OFFICE OF VINE AND WINE (01V) AND THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO): STANDARDIZATION ISSUES IN THE WINE SECTOR; H. HANNIN et al. PART Ill - REGULATORY PROCESSES. 5. NEGOTIATING STANDARDS FOR ANIMAL PRODUCTS: A PROCEDURAL APPROACH APPLIED TO RAW MILK: B. SYLVANDER, 0. BIENCOURT. 6. THE INDIVISIBILITY OF SCIENCE, POLICY AND ETHICS: STARLINKTM CORN AND THE MAKING OF STANDARDS; M.P. SALAZAR et al. 7. STANDARDS AND STATE-BUILDING: THE CONSTRUCTION OF SOYBEAN STANDARDS IN BRAZIL; I. SERGIO FREIRE DE SOUSA, L. BUSCH. 8. PARADOXES OF INNOVATION: STANDARDS AND TECHNICAL CHANGE IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE US SOYBEAN INDUSTRY: L. BUSCH et al. PART IV - ACCESS AND ETHICAL TRADE. 9. DEFINING A GOOD STEAK: GLOBAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF WHAT IS CONSIDERED THE BEST RED MEAT; E.RANSOM. 10. IMPROVING THE ACCESS OF SMALL FARMERS IN AFRICA TO GLOBAL MARKETS THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT OF QUALITY STANDARDS FOR PIGEONPEAS; R. JONES et al. 11. CHINA AND GLOBAL ORGANIC FOOD STANDARDS: SOVEREIGNTY BARGAINS AND DOMESTIC POLITICS; P. THIERS. 12. COTTON IN WEST AFRICA: A QUESTION OF QUALITY; J. BINGEN. PART V - CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE AGENDA. 13. SHAPING A POLICY AND RESEARCH AGENDA; 1. BINGEN, L. BUSCH. INDEX.

Kenyan newspaper The Standard is reporting about changes to the export market for cut flowers. 

The small-scale farmers have been unable to meet the high cost of certification required by foreign certifying bodies. "This is why the Government through financial support from the development partners are developing a programme to keep the small scale farmers afloat," said Muriithi. The small-scale farmers, who accounted for more than half of Kenya’s flowers export market a decade ago, now supply less than ten per cent of the total export volumes.

What's interesting is that this is a public body in Kenya dealing with a private body in Europe (Eurepgap).

One of the premises of this site is that the development and enforcement of grades and standards in agriculture are increasingly important nodes of power in the neoliberal economy. Which makes a story like this one, about government certifiers refusing to cross the picket line at the UFCW strike of the Tyson-owned Lakeside Packers meatpacking plant in Brooks, Alberta, all the more exciting.Here#039s the story. (Tuesday October 25, CBC).

The strike is now over, after 55% of workers voted to accept a contract. Check out the UFCW.ca page about the strike.

Nobody quoted in this article seems to have a problem with the tremendous power Wal-Mart will have over farmers in expanding into the organics industry. Is public cynism so profound as to overlook such devastating consequences for farmer autonomy if Wal-Mart dictates the terms of food production? Is the desire for organic food so strong that we should be meant to overlook the social consequences? What about the tension between the ecological benefits of organics versus the industrial-model production that Wal-Mart demands All of this is rather generic, obvious critique of Wal-Mart's move. The interesting thing to note about this article is the way "sustainability" is defined as a corporate ethos and the way corporations are depicted as frontline workers in this battle. Perhaps there could be some positive unintended consequences of this Wal-Mart attack in terms of subsidizing the transition to organic for some farmers... Or introducing people to organic food who would otherwise have no access, or can't afford it. But then again, Wal-Mart is a powerful force that will fast emerge as just another Invisible Giant.

Wal-Mart's move to organics could shake up retail world, analysts say

It's a real tragedy that the brightest minds in animation and video production technology work for marketing departments. Eurepgap's new "motivator" video, shown at their conference in Paris October 17-19, is a case in point. Are you ready to be un-impressed?

Includes awkward interventions from technocrats of Europgap, and delegates from McDonald's, Sainsbury's, Tesco, etc. Also contains a brief but flashy history of EurepGAP since 1999, which begins with Christian Moeller, the secretary of EurepGAP, reading this bizarre introduction off a teleprompter: "I would like to invite you now ... on a short journey... on (sic) our milestones, and values, and find out how you can benefit and share our common vision ... the vision of Eurepgap: global partnership for safe and sustainable agriculture."