In past issues of the Scoop, I have written of some bad news in the organic food industry—that the multinationals are taking over our favorite organic companies faster than we can imagine. Honest Weight is beginning to take some action about this issue so you can look for new signs in the store that will help you understand where you food is really coming from. This month, I want to highlight a few companies that have not been taken over and are still committed to the causes that make us want to shop at the Coop—our own health and the health of the planet. Each of these companies also donates funds to help support the organic consumer movement. Look for products from these companies when you shop.

Organic Valley Family of Farms began in1988. It produces organic dairy, vegetables, brown eggs, juice and meat. Organic Valley is the largest organic farmer-owned cooperative in North America. As a cooperative, the farm families that produce the products are the direct owners of the business. There are 548 farmer members in fourteen states, with a cooperative structure not too different from ours.

While large corporations have taken over 600,000 family farms since 1960, the members of Organic Valley remain independent. The membership decides what new products to introduce, how to allocate profits and, most importantly, what the milk pay price will be. Milk prices vary from month to month, making dairy farm income unstable. Organic Valley counters this by sending more of sales dollars directly back to the farming families. When we purchase Organic Valley’s products we support sustainable family farms, which might not otherwise be able to continue. Organic Valley is also committed to humane animal treatment, and the stewardship of our environment and to protect and preserve biodiversity.

Eden was a retail store in 1969 that the grew to be a producer of soy products, cereals and whole grains made in their own stone mill, bottled unrefined vegetable oils and a variety of nut butters. Its success led to it becoming a major distributor of natural foods. The retail store expanded to include a cafeteria, bakery and book section. People came from all over because, at that time, it was one of the only places to purchase miso, sea vegetables, and organic whole grain flours.

In 1972, Eden became an importer of Japanese traditional and macrobiotic food such as sea vegetables, teas, miso, brewed soy sauces, umeboshi plums, kuzu root, rice vinegar, rice bran pickles, mirin, and heirloom grains and beans. In 1982, organic whole grains were virtually non-existent in this country—so Eden purchased a pasta manufacturer and developed the Eden Organic Pasta Company. In 1983 Eden developed a soymilk made using a new technique. It was marketed as EdenSoy, and within six months it became the fastest-selling item in the natural food industry. This led to other companies to enter the market of an entirely new grocery category: "non-dairy liquid foods." By1997, Eden owned the largest organic food processing facility in the world.

In 1991, Eden Organic Canned Beans was introduced and became their fastest growing category. In 2001, the Canadian Sobaya noodle company became part of Eden. Eden also drafted the first standards in the Americas for "seed to table" organic food handling and processing. This included the creation of the first "audit trail," by which each food is traced back to the specific field where it was grown. These efforts helped led to the first organic certification agencies in the United States and Canada. Eden only accepts organic certification from agencies that use an "audit trail." In 1989 the Eden Organic Pasta Company became America’s first certified organic food processing facility.

Dr. Bronner’s Soap is well known for the fine product itself, as well as for its labels crammed full of messages of inspiration. Dr. Bronner believed, as stated on his gravestone: "A Life Dedicated To God, Mankind & Spaceship Earth." Dr. Bronner saw the soap as the messenger for his vision of a universe filled with goodness and inspiration. The company is not religious, but treasures Dr. Bronner’s efforts. Dr. Bronner was actually the third generation of master-soapmakers from Germany. He came to America in the late 1920s and died in1997, after becoming a folk legend in the natural products community.

Dr. Bronner’s company spends at least 10% of its profits each year on many important causes, including sponsoring drinking wells in Ghana and orphanages in China. Their workers are well paid, and receive excellent benefits and bonuses and profit sharing. No products or ingredients are tested on animals and this is independently certified. The company signed the Co-op America Woodwise Pledge to be socially responsible through diminishing consumption of forest tree-based materials and products. In the spirit of this pledge, their bar soap paper label and inner liner are now a 25% hemp and 75% post-consumer recycled blend, and their official letterhead is printed on this same paper. All office copy/printer paper is made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper. They also silk-screen their soap bottles in place of the million-plus paper labels they had used per year. The bottles themselves are 50% post-consumer recycled plastic and come in sizes up to one gallon, so you can save money and save packaging.