Live Link: The Cornucopia Institute

Organic Egg Business Being Hijacked by Corporate
Agribusinesses—Help Reverse this Scandal!

Meeting October 25-28, 2010 in Madison, Wisconsin
Attend or mail in your proxy letter ASAP!

Imagine 80,000 laying hens in a single building, crowded in confinement conditions, on “farms” with hundreds of thousands or a million birds.  Is that organic?

How about a tiny enclosed concrete porch, accessible by only 3%-5% of the tens of thousands of birds inside a henhouse.  Does that pass as outdoor access as required by federal organic law?

Industrial-scale egg producers are gaming the system with their livestock management shortcuts and are placing family-scale organic farmers at a competitive disadvantage.  Some pasture-based organic farmers have already been driven out of the organic egg business.

The organic community has an opportunity to reverse this scandal and support authentic organic agriculture.  The USDA’s National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) will be debating the meaning of outdoor access and stocking densities for organic poultry and other livestock at the upcoming meeting in Madison, Wis., October 25-28. More