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Baking giant Sara Lee
"hijacks" organics
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by Mark Kastel, The
Cornucopia Institute
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With the growing success of
organics and increasing consumer interest in buying foods that were
grown on sustainable farms without toxic chemicals, Sara Lee
Corporation has launched, with much fanfare, a marketing campaign for
its EarthGrains bread, chock-full of environment-friendly catchphrases.
Sara Lee claims that its "Eco-Grain™" is more sustainable than organic
grain. What has been described as a "crass and exploitive marketing
ploy" has angered many in the organic community. "Corporations like
Sara Lee clearly want to profit from consumers' interest in ecological
and healthy food production. But unlike organic companies, Sara Lee is
doing practically nothing to ensure its ingredients are truly
ecologically produced," said Charlotte Vallaeys, a food and farm policy
analyst at the Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based organic industry
watchdog. "It's a crass example of a corporation trying to capitalize
on the valuable market cachet of ‘organic,' while intentionally
misleading consumers." Cornucopia points out that the farmers who grow
Eco-Grain™ differ very little from most conventional grain producers
who use petroleum-based fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides, and
have little in common with certified organic farmers.
The one attribute that Sara Lee uses to differentiate Eco-Grain™
production is that the farmers, although they use chemical fertilizers,
incorporate technology that has reduced fertilizer usage by 15%. In
contrast, as mandated by federal law, organic farmers are required by
law to reduce their synthetic fertilizer use by 100%. Vallaeys points
out that "Even if their new fancy wheat were truly superior, each
EarthGrains 24 oz. loaf contains only 20% flour from Eco-Grain™, with
the remainder of the bread's wheat coming from regular, conventional
wheat. The total reduction in chemical fertilizer use in a loaf of
EarthGrains bread, therefore, amounts to a meager 3%."
According to Nathan Jones, who grows organic wheat in King Hill (Idaho)
and chairs the organic advisory board of the Idaho state department of
agriculture, "For Sara Lee to claim that their wheat is ecologically
grown and sustainable, when they appear to make no effort to reduce or
eliminate their use of toxic pesticides that have terrible effects on
the environment and public health, is highly disingenuous."
Unfortunately, this is another example of a major agribusiness trying
to blur the line between products labeled "organic" and "natural." It
seems that some corporations, like Sara Lee, appear more interested in
corporate profit and "greenwashing" than true environmental
stewardship, and are doing everything they can to take advantage of
this confusion among consumers. "The term ‘natural' on products like
bread is not regulated by state or federal government," says Marion
Nestle, professor of nutrition at New York University. "Companies that
use the term ‘all natural' essentially come up with their own
definition."
Sara Lee's longtime ad jingle-- "Everybody doesn't like something, but
nobody doesn't like Sara Lee"--doesn't seem to be ringing true for
organic farmers, bakers and consumers. It remains to be seen whether
spending more money on marketing and advertising than on Eco-Grain™
itself will pay off for the agribusiness giant.
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