The Cornucopia institute has released news describing how this product line by Sara Lee is made with "toxic agrochemicals" even though it's being marketed as better than organic.
The full statement from the Cornucopia Institute follows (www.Cornucopia.org)
Sara Lee greenwashing reaches new lows with EcoGrain bread
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 environmental-friendly catchphrases.Sara Lee claims that "Eco-Grain™," an ingredient actually used in small proportions in its Earthgrains brand breads, 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 -- without making any meaningful commitment to protect the environment or produce safer and more nutritious food."
Not exactly organic
The Cornucopia Institute, a farm policy research group, 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%.
Organic farmers use natural fertilizers, compost and crop rotations to enrich the long-term health of the soil, without damaging the environment or potentially contaminating the food produced.
However, Cornucopia's Vallaeys points out that, "Even if their new fancy wheat were truly superior, each Earthgrains 24 ounce 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%."
"Even though they've done a countrywide media rollout, including underwriting spots on National Public Radio, Sara Lee is, in essence, playing a shell game," said Mark A. Kastel, Codirector at The Cornucopia Institute. "Even as they had the audacity to promote a bread with just 20% of their 'value added' wheat, the rest of their product line has 0% content of the Eco-Grain. If advertising executives could be charged with malpractice, this would be a major felony," Kastel said.
By Mike Adams
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1 comments:
Eco-grain is a corporate scam, a lie wrapped in environmentalist jargon to fool the gullible public. They have a big ad in National Geographic, so the people who trust that magazine to be environmentally safe will be tricked into supporting another ploy of corporate greed.
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