Word: cornucopia
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...News of Cornucopia's report card traveled quickly; Kastel received a flood of e-mails and phone calls with tips. He developed a network of what he calls "intelligence officers," including staffers at organic dairy farms and supermarkets, as well as ordinary consumers...
Dick Parrott, 65, is one of Kastel's informants. Parrott raises grass-fed organic beef on a 500-acre farm near the Nevada-Idaho border, about 40 miles from the Horizon Organic dairy farm. After reading one of Cornucopia's newsletters, he e-mailed Kastel with concerns that Horizon wasn't meeting federal organic regulations - in part because its operations were so big. He began driving his pick-up truck to the Horizon farm, camera in hand. "You can drive around and see the cows aren't in pasture," says Parrott...
...could recognize the milking barn, and a couple hundred cows standing up to their ankles in manure," Parrott says. He sent pictures to Kastel, who posted them on Cornucopia's website. A Horizon spokeswoman says the photos may have shown cows standing in mud after rain...
...Dean Foods' WhiteWave, which manages the Horizon Organic brand, invited Kastel to the company's Idaho farm in June 2006. Scalzo outlined the company's plans to spend at least $10 million expanding the farm's pasture, enabling cows to graze at the same time. But by that visit, Cornucopia had already embarked on its report card project - and had mailed Horizon and other farms its survey with 19 questions, ranging from how many cows were on a farm to whether they were treated with antibiotics. Scalzo says Horizon declined to participate in the survey because it "was unprofessional...
...After Cornucopia issued its report card, the Organic Consumers Association e-mailed some 380,000 organic food devotees calling for a boycott of Horizon milk. Dozens of food co-ops pulled the milk from their shelves. Horizon responded with ads in publications popular with organic-food advocates, like the Utne Reader, showing cows grazing in lush fields. Scalzo says, however, the boycott barely affected his company's sales, and that activists like Kastel cast doubt on the entire organic-food movement. "This is eroding consumer confidence in the business, this industry and the family farms he's a self-proclaimed...