UPDATE: Gary has posted a new blog in light of the recent USDA decision – please read: The Organic Community Must Come Out Swinging at the Right Opponents
Dear Stonyfield Friend,
I am writing today with great urgency.
If you care about being able to choose organic foods, please take a moment to read this brief note. We each need to get a message to our congressperson right away.
Within the next few days, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will announce its policy on genetically-engineered (GE) alfalfa. There are lots of reasons to be concerned about GE crops including compelling evidence that these crops lead to herbicide-resistant super-weeds and require the use of more toxic herbicides. But the biggest potential problem posed by GE alfalfa is the likely contamination of organic alfalfa, which is used as feed by most organic dairies.
The USDA is now considering whether to approve full deregulation, giving biotech a green light to use GE-alfalfa without any restrictions OR de-regulation with restrictions through a policy of “coexistence” which would mandate the protection of organic.
While we have worked hard alongside fellow organic agriculture supporters to ban GE production completely, it is clear that, faced with these choices, our best chance at preserving the future of organic agriculture is to fight for every protection available under the “coexistence” approach.
We believe that Coexistence makes sense, provided three essential conditions are met:
• the protection of seed purity for all farmers, including organic, so we maintain variety and avoid massive mono-culture;
• compensation by the patent holder to the farmer for any losses related to the contamination of his crop; and
• public oversight by the USDA as it has the authority to protect all US agriculture.
If you agree that consumers deserve to be able to choose to buy organic foods free of GE contamination, your voice is needed today. We are joining with the National Cooperative Grocers Association and others to ask that you take this step:
Please ask your Congressperson to contact House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas to express support for Secretary Vilsack’s coexistence option. To find your Congressperson, visit: http://www.house.gov/zip/ZIP2Rep.html
You can also email the USDA about this issue at: biotechquery@aphis.usda.gov and you can reach the White House at 202.456.1111.
Let’s make our voices heard in Washington to protect consumer choice, and organic and non-GMO farmers and markets.
Gary Hirshberg
P.S. If you want to read more about this critical issue, go to http://strongertogether.coop/from-the-source/we-support-an-organic-future/
To all decent Americans who hate GM.
make your own cheese, get some organic milk, boil it, add lemon juice until curdles,strain it with a cloth, there you have cheese paneer.
do same with Yoghurt, leave it warm, then add fruit… do your best my friends, your goverment dont care… they want this shit everywhere… Oh they are storing natural seeds in Iceland, wonder why? they know it will collapse in few years, already soya beans is spitting out, how you can you people eat GM corn with a pesticide in it? they will make you ill, then sell medicines that dont work, hense pharamceutical companies banned herbal medicines cos they do work
MOTHER EARTH PLEAES RISE UP COS THESE INHUMANS SOLD OUT
GM food = GM diseases….. You americans should wake up, u you invaded Iraq to PLANT GM FOOD, in a country that was self suffient.. oil was 25% of the reason
I believe you sold out to monsanto, you should fight this and prepared for everything, it wont be before the US food system colapses, and when it does i hope that you would realise there is no compromise with mother earth
Grow a pair and OBJECT to the disingenuous and manipulative “choices” being offered by Monsanto-cronyism at the USDA, like I will reject your products for agreeing on my behalf to this unacceptable “compromise”.
I will cease immediately and forever to purchase your products on a weekly basis. I will no longer purchase any of your related company products. Wake up and smell the dwindling confidence we have in your commitment to truly wholesome food.
Wake up consumers and use your dollars to vote ABSOLUTELY NO GMO/GE foods like they did in Europe. Enough bad science and fake food in the USA.
Can you please explain why we should continue to support your business? I will go with a local supplier and just eat less. Too bad, I love your marketing and your recent ad campaigns, some with farmers I know, but I can not bring myself to support this decision,.
So sad to learn today that Stonyfield Farms has sold out. I won’t be buying any more Stonyfield products for my family. I understand how very hard it must be to keep up a fight against Monsanto and their powerful allies in government, but giving up when you know you are in the right, and are defending so many people from harm, is shameful.
Folks:
What part of the phrase “SELLOUT” do you not comprehend??
My family were large consumers of your products because of TRUST…
You just lost that and us in one depressing swoop!
We are just everyday people concerned about our children and
grandchildren…and you “elites” decide it is OK to sign a pact
with the ‘devil’.
Bad Karma and Bad PR…Sleep well at night???
The only products my family and I purchase (yogurt/milk) were stonyfield and organic farms. We spend quite a bit on those products. No more. I will now remove dairy completly from my family’s diet. You and Organic Farms have joined with Monsanto in “pushing”a deadly toxic substance to our food supply.
The only products my family and I purchase (yogurt/milk) were stonyfield and we spend quite a bit on those products. No more. I will now remove dairy completly from my family’s diet. You and Organic Farms have joined with Monsanto in “pushing”a deadly toxic substance to our food supply.
@ James Colton – there are many local farms that produce wonderful dairy products for your family. Look around – I’m sure you’ll find at least one!
I was just informed of the following betrayal by Whole Foods, Organic Valley and Stonyfield Farm and will personally BUYCOTT all three entities! I will advise my health coaching clients of the same.
In the wake of a 12-year battle to keep Monsanto’s Genetically Engineered (GE) crops from contaminating the nation’s 25,000 organic farms and ranches, America’s organic consumers and producers are facing betrayal. A self-appointed cabal of the Organic Elite, spearheaded by Whole Foods Market, Organic Valley, and Stonyfield Farm, has decided it’s time to surrender to Monsanto. Top executives from these companies have publicly admitted that they no longer oppose the mass commercialization of GE crops, such as Monsanto’s controversial Roundup Ready alfalfa, and are prepared to sit down and cut a deal for “coexistence” with Monsanto and USDA biotech cheerleader Tom Vilsack.
In a cleverly worded, but profoundly misleading email sent to its customers last week, Whole Foods Market, while proclaiming their support for organics and “seed purity,” gave the green light to USDA bureaucrats to approve the “conditional deregulation” of Monsanto’s genetically engineered, herbicide-resistant alfalfa. Beyond the regulatory euphemism of “conditional deregulation,” this means that WFM and their colleagues are willing to go along with the massive planting of a chemical and energy-intensive GE perennial crop, alfalfa; guaranteed to spread its mutant genes and seeds across the nation; guaranteed to contaminate the alfalfa fed to organic animals; guaranteed to lead to massive poisoning of farm workers and destruction of the essential soil food web by the toxic herbicide, Roundup; and guaranteed to produce Roundup-resistant superweeds that will require even more deadly herbicides such as 2,4 D to be sprayed on millions of acres of alfalfa across the U.S.
I am profoundly disappointed in Stonyfield’s betrayal of the consumers that have put you in the position of power that you currently hold. You are stabbing the backs of our children and grandchildren (not to mention those of us who have fed Stonyfield products to our families over the years!). Our children deserve better than this BS “co-existence” you have promoted and helped pass. YOU, (don’t think we don’t know about your friendship with Biotech promoter Vilsack??) are a traitor. Not even YOUR children deserve the disservice you have done to the american food industry, this beautiful country and the world!
[...] cabal of the Organic Elite, spearheaded by Whole Foods Market, Organic Valley, and Stonyfield Farm, has decided it’s time to surrender to Monsanto. Top executives from these companies have [...]
I do not accept one word of this. If you stand for organic, then you stand for organic. There is no co-existence with GMO’s; there is no assurance to protect our future seeds. What we need is for those who say they represent the organic industry, to do just that. And yes, I agree that consumers need to be educated and vote with their dollar. My dollar will not be spent on Stonyfield Products now. That’s for sure! You have surrendered! How can you live with yourselves?
I will no longer buy your products
I can’t believe that you have given in to deregulation. What a contradiction to what your company stood for and now will not stand by your products as being clean and non toxic. I will stop buying your products because they can cause cancer and other serious diseases.
You caving in to the fabricated excuses of Vilsack and his private Monsanto army is the first chink in the armor. Don’t you think they used these same exploitative tactics decades ago to “convince” farmers it was in their own best interests to go along and get along. I honestly cannot believe you have so quickly forgotten how many organice (and other) farmers out of business completely with their lawsuits of patent violations. What in God’s name in “remuneration” going to do when their land is polluted? What farmer do you know of that can afford the money or years it will take to restore purity? You are officially off my list of products to be carried in my natural food store and unofficially an enemy of healthy living.
Coexistence is just another name for capitulation. When the winds blow, nothing can be contained. Stonyfield, you used to be the good guys. What happened to you? This letter is nothing more than a disingenuous attempt to flimflam those who have been loyal to your brand. NO COEXISTENCE IS POSSIBLE. BAN GMO Alfalfa.
I am very disappointed in Stonyfield. You have caved to the Frankenfood industry. I will no longer be buying any of your products. If every dollar truly is a vote, I’ll be using my money to support producers who are standing firm in their beliefs in the need to completely ban GE products, not “coexist.” I’m deeply saddened and disheartened by your decision.
So now Stonyfield, along with Organic Valley and Whole Foods, has given up and will “coexist” with one of the slimiest corporations on earth, a dealer in death and ecological destruction. Shame on you. Where is your integrity? On my next food shopping trip I’ll seek out alternate brands from businesses that continue to say No to Monsanto and Frankenfoods. Unfortunately, Stonyfield is not one of those businesses. Consumer boycott anyone?
[...] A self-appointed cabal of the Organic Elite, spearheaded by Whole Foods Market, Organic Valley, and Stonyfield Farm, has decided it's time to surrender to Monsanto. Top executives from these companies have publicly [...]
“A self-appointed cabal of the Organic Elite, spearheaded by Whole Foods Market, Organic Valley, and Stonyfield Farm, has decided it’s time to surrender to Monsanto. Top executives from these companies have publicly admitted that they no longer oppose the mass commercialization of GE crops, such as Monsanto’s controversial Roundup Ready alfalfa, and are prepared to sit down and cut a deal for “coexistence” with Monsanto and USDA biotech cheerleader Tom Vilsack. ”
As a long time consumer of Stonyfield farm products, in light of this information posted on Common Dreams, I will be spending my money elsewhere in the dairy isle at the grocery store.
[...] A self-appointed cabal of the Organic Elite, spearheaded by Whole Foods Market, Organic Valley, and Stonyfield Farm, has decided it’s time to surrender to Monsanto. Top executives from these companies have [...]
There can be no safe coexistence with the poison Roundup. I can’t believe you sold out. You can be sure I will no longer buy Stonyfield products.
[...] A self-appointed cabal of the Organic Elite, spearheaded by Whole Foods Market, Organic Valley, and Stonyfield Farm, has decided it’s time to surrender to Monsanto. Top executives from these companies have [...]
You caved. I will not be buying your products anymore.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_22449.cfm
Co-existance? You have betrayed the people who support your products. Did you suddenly forget how Alfalfa is pollinated? No, the ONLY solution is to say NO to GMO Alfalfa and Monsanto’s roundup ready abomination.
Stand beside the Center for Food Safety. Don’t vote for co-existance, call President Obama and demand he reverse Vilsack’s biotech Big Food friendly decision. How does someone so pro-biotech industry make it to his position anyway? It’s farcical!
The Center for Food Safety criticized the announcement today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that it will once again allow unlimited, nation-wide commercial planting of Monsanto’s genetically- engineered (GE) Roundup Ready alfalfa, despite the many risks to organic and conventional farmers USDA acknowledged in its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). On a call today with stakeholders, Secretary Vilsack reiterated the concerns surrounding purity and access to non-GE seed, yet the Agency’s decision still places the entire burden for preventing contamination on non-GE farmers, with no protections for food producers, consumers and exporters.
“We’re disappointed with USDA’s decision and we will be back in court representing the interest of farmers, preservation of the environment, and consumer choice” said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director for the Center for Food Safety. “USDA has become a rogue agency in its regulation of biotech crops and its decision to appease the few companies who seek to benefit from this technology comes despite increasing evidence that GE alfalfa will threaten the rights of farmers and consumers, as well as damage the environment.”
On Monday, the Center sent an open letter to Secretary Vilsack calling on USDA to base its decision on sound science and the interests of farmers, and to avoid rushing the process to meet the marketing timelines or sales targets of Monsanto, Forage Genetics or other entities.
CFS also addressed several key points that were not properly assessed in the FEIS, among them were:
• Liability, Implementation and Oversight — Citing over 200 past contamination episodes that have cost farmers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales, CFS demands that liability for financial losses incurred by farmers due to transgenic contamination be assigned to the crop developers. CFS also calls on USDA to take a more active oversight role to ensure that any stewardship plans are properly implemented and enforced.
• Roundup Ready alfalfa will substantially increase herbicide use – USDA’s assessment misrepresented conventional alfalfa as utilizing more herbicides than it does, which in turn provided a false rationale for introducing herbicide-promoting Roundup Ready alfalfa. In fact, USDA’s own data shows that just 7% of alfalfa hay acres are treated with herbicides. USDA’s projections in the FEIS show that substantial adoption of Roundup Ready alfalfa would trigger large increases in herbicide use of up to 23 million lbs. per year.
• Harms from glyphosate-resistant weeds – USDA’s sloppy and unscientific treatment of glyphosate-resistant (GR) weeds ignored the significant contribution that RR alfalfa could make to their rapid evolution. USDA failed to analyze how GR weeds fostered by currently grown RR crops are increasing herbicide use; spurring more use of soil- eroding tillage; and reducing farmer income through increased weed control costs, an essential baseline analysis.
“We in the farm sector are dissatisfied but not surprised at the lack of courage from USDA to stop Roundup Ready alfalfa and defend family farmers,” said Pat Trask, conventional alfalfa grower and plaintiff in the alfalfa litigation.
The FEIS comes in response to a 2007 lawsuit brought by CFS, in which a federal court ruled that the USDA’s approval of GE alfalfa violated environmental laws by failing to analyze risks such as the contamination of conventional and organic alfalfa, the evolution of glyphosate-resistant weeds, and increased use of glyphosate herbicide, sold by Monsanto as Roundup. The Court banned new plantings of GE alfalfa until USDA completed a more comprehensive assessment of these impacts. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals twice affirmed the national ban on GE alfalfa planting. In June 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ban on Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Alfalfa until and unless future deregulation occurs.
“Last spring more than 200,000 people submitted comments to the USDA highly critical of the substance and conclusions of its Draft EIS on GE Alfalfa,” said Kimbrell. “Clearly the USDA was not listening to the public or farmers but rather to just a handful of corporations.”
Sonyfield has joined the GMO bandwagon. Trusted sources suggest Stonyfield has contributed to Vilsack’s campaigns before, because the CEO is an old friend. How’s that for a conflict of interests.
I will adamanatly oppose any of Stonyfield’s products from now until a COMPLETE RETRACTION of your statment herein is made and an apology given to all your consumers with a promise to stand and fight with the Center for Food Safety’s Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director.
Disgraceful…as of today I will never purchase your products again and will tell all my friends. I once trusted your company…no more. How shameful that your company has joined the GMO bandwagon.
me too- no more purchases from any of these companies. i am organizing a whole foods boycott in my area. i hope they can all coexsist with out customers. disgraceful.
Sonyfield was the last resort for yogurt. I guess I have to stop buying that too.
I’m very sad to have to stop buying Stonyfield yogurt, but that’s what I’ll be doing. Big business disguised as healthy eating is off my plate.