Gigantic Organic Livestock Farm Decertified by Federal Agents --- New administration/OIG investigating past USDA corruption]

[Guest guest]

OT- but since a lot of us eat organic now, couldn't help share

federal Agents --- New administration/OIG investigating past USDA corruption]

Another reason not to buy dairy or meat from Walmart/Costco.

---

Gigantic Organic Livestock Farm Decertified by Federal Agents

--- New administration/ OIG investigating past USDA corruption

Date:

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:13:17 -0800

From:

The Cornucopia Institute <cultivate@cornucopi a.org>

To:

vandalsemcomcast (DOT) net

Target Press Release

December 2, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Mark Kastel, 608-625-2042

Giant Organic Livestock

Operation Decertified by USDA

Federal Organic Enforcement

Hammer Falls Hard to Protect Farmers/Consumers

WASHINGTON, DC: In

an investigation and legal case that dragged on for almost four years,

one

of the largest organic cattle producers in the United States,

Promiseland

Livestock, LLC, was suspended from organic commerce, along with its

owner

and key employees, for four years. The penalty was part of an order

issued

by administrative law judge Davenport in Washington, DC on

November

25.

Promiseland, a

multimillion dollar operation with facilities in Missouri and Nebraska,

including over 13,000 acres of crop land, and managing 22,000 head of

beef

and dairy cattle, had been accused of multiple improprieties in formal

legal complaints, including not feeding organic grain to cattle,

selling

fraudulent organic feed and " laundering " conventional cattle as

organic.

" We are pleased that

justice has been served in the Promiseland matter, " said Mark A.

Kastel,

Senior Farm Policy Analyst for the Wisconsin-based Cornucopia

Institute.

Scrutiny from Cornucopia, one of the industry's most aggressive

independent

watchdogs, was part of the genesis for the comprehensive USDA

investigation

and subsequent legal proceedings.

Promiseland became

the

focus of Cornucopia's investigation into giant factory farms, milking

thousands of cows, that were allegedly operating illegally. Promiseland

sold thousands of dairy cows to giant factory dairy farms owned by Dean

Foods (Horizon Organic), Natural Prairie Dairy in Texas and Aurora

Dairy

based in Colorado. Aurora and Natural Prairie supply private-label,

store-brand milk for Wal-Mart, Costco, Target and major supermarket

chains

such as HEB, Safeway and Teeter.

" It appears that it

was

the investigation into improprieties by Aurora that finally led to the

hammer coming down on Promiseland, " Kastel observed. Aurora operates

five

dairies in Texas and Colorado and was found by USDA investigators to

have

" willfully " violated 14 tenets of federal organic regulations in 2007.

However, Bush administration officials let the $100 million corporate

dairy

continue in operation under a one-year probation.

" It's sad that the

civil

servants at the USDA, who had recommended Aurora be decertified, were

overruled, " Kastel lamented. " They should have been banned from organic

commerce the same way Promiseland, and its owner Tony Zeman, now have

been. "

Although Cornucopia

has

praise for the professionalism of law enforcement agents at the USDA,

and

the career staff at the National Organic Program (NOP), who carried out

the

Aurora and Promiseland investigations, the farm policy research group

has

harshly criticized past management at the USDA which allowed

Promiseland,

and Aurora, to operate illegally for years.

" From formal legal

complaints that we filed, Bush Administration officials at the USDA

were

alerted, starting in January 2005, to the alleged improprieties by

massive

factory farms masquerading as organic, " said Will Fantle, Research

Director

for The Cornucopia Institute.

Documents secured

under

the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by The Cornucopia Institute

indicate

that the initial investigation was squashed for political reasons by

Dr.

Barbara , who until recently directed the USDA's organic

program.

" It is inexcusable

that

these improprieties took place for so long and that justice was

delayed, "

said , an attorney who represents Cornucopia. " Ethical organic

dairy farmers have been placed at a distinct competitive disadvantage

and

consumers were obviously taken advantage of. "

An investigation by

the

Office of Inspector General at the USDA, focusing in part on the

relationship between and prominent agribusiness lobbyist and

lawyer Jay Friedman, was profiled in a July 3 Washington Post story.

Friedman, in addition to representing Aurora and Dean Foods, also was

the

lawyer for Promiseland when they were targeted by the USDA for

investigation.

New documents made

public

have prompted Cornucopia to prepare additional legal complaints asking

the

USDA to focus attention now on Quality Assurance International (QAI),

the

certifier for Promiseland when many of the alleged abuses took place.

" This is not the

first

time QAI has been suspected of incompetence or improperly accommodating

corporate agribusiness, " said Fantle. The , Friedman and QAI

connection is part of an investigation by the USDA's Inspector General.

QAI

also certifies portions of Aurora's operation and Dean Foods'

corporate-owned industrial dairies.

" However grim it

sounds,

this investigation and the legal proceeding illustrate that if organic

stakeholders are persistent, the system works, " Kastel said.

Cornucopia and other

organic policy groups have been delighted by what they have called a

" decisive shift " that has taken place since Obama administration

officials

have taken over at the USDA and its organic program.

At a recent industry

meeting in Washington, D.C., Miles McEvoy, USDA Deputy Administrator

and

the new director of the National Organic Program, stated emphatically

that

we were now entering the " age of enforcement " at the NOP.

" We started asking

for

new management at the organic program in 2004, " said Kastel. " We had

suggested that they go outside of the Department to gain the needed

expertise from someone who was universally respected by participants in

the

organic industry. We couldn't have asked for a more qualified candidate

than Mr. McEvoy. "

In addition to

investigating QAI, Cornucopia has formally asked USDA Secretary Tom

Vilsack

to reopen the Aurora matter, alleging that the consent agreement

allowing

their probation included illegally favorable provisions. The farm

policy

group also asked that complaints involving Dean Foods and its Horizon

label, which had languished under the Bush administration since early

2005,

now also be actively investigated by the new administration.

" We think that

organic

consumers and the family farmers who have built this industry have good

reason to be optimistic and confident that from this point forward,

when

they see the organic seal on a product, they know that the public

servants

in Washington share their steadfast desire to maintain the integrity of

the

organic label, " Fantle stated.

-30-

MORE:

The USDA's

decertification order can be viewed at:

http://www.cornucop ia.org/USDA/ Promiseland_ Judgement. pdf

It appears that QAI,

the

certifying agent, did not act in the Promiseland matter until they were

compelled to do so by USDA investigators, even though court records

indicate that QAI had reported they knew of " significant audit trail

deficiencies " as early as 2005.

" If I'd been guilty

of

just one of these 'willful' violations, my farm would've been shut down

in

a New York minute, " said Bruce Drinkman, a farmer from Glenwood City,

Wisconsin and board member of the Midwest Organic Dairy Producers

Alliance.

" Rumors swirled for

years

about shady practices by Tony Zeman, " said Bill Welsh, long-time Iowa

organic livestock producer, Cornucopia board member and former member

of

the USDA's National Organic Standards Board. " Many of the major players

that bought meat and dairy replacement animals knew very well what the

allegations were and chose, during a period of time when supply was

extremely tight, to look the other way. I'm sure there's some heavy

soul-searching going on right now. "

At the time the legal

action was finally brought against Promiseland, in June 2008,

Cornucopia

and other industry observers were highly critical that the Bush USDA

only

asked for a suspension of Promiseland, and its owner J. Zeman,

in

lieu of requesting a permanent decertification of the operation. The

USDA

and the administrative law judge both found Zeman and Promiseland had

" willfully " violated federal law.

In addition, the

Organic

Foods Production Act of 1990 gave the USDA the right to fine operators

like

Zeman up to $10,000 per incident for willful violations of the law.

They

could have levied millions of dollars worth of fines but failed to do

so.

" Enforcement actions

of

this nature should serve as a strong deterrent to other industry

scofflaws, " said Kastel. " We lament the failure of the past

administration

to aggressively carry out the will of Congress in this regard. "

" Like Al Capone, they

didn't actually convict Zeman and Promiseland of actually cheating in

organics, " Kastel said.

Promiseland was found

guilty of not allowing USDA investigators to audit and inspect their

financial and organic operating records. " The " audit trail " is the

backbone

of organic certification, " said Fantle. " Obviously, they had something

to

hide! "

Al Capone was not

convicted of murder or racketeering but rather of federal tax evasion.

The Cornucopia Institute,

a

Wisconsin-based nonprofit farm policy research group, is dedicated to

the

fight for economic justice for the family-scale farming community.

Their

Organic Integrity Project

acts as a corporate and governmental watchdog assuring that no

compromises to the credibility of organic farming methods and the food

it

produces are made in the pursuit of profit. Their web page can be

viewed at

www.cornucopia. org.

The Cornucopia Institute

P.O. Box 126 Cornucopia, WI 54827 www.cornucopia. org