People in Wisconsin take their organic food seriously, Walmart. Don’t mess with Wisconsin. They wear cheese on their heads, for pete’s sake.

From CBS:

Wal-Mart stores said Tuesday it has given updated guidelines to its employees following a complaint filed with the state of Wisconsin that some foods were incorrectly labeled as organic.

The complaint was filed with the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection by the Cornucopia Institute, an organic industry watchdog group based in Cornucopia in far northern Wisconsin.

Wal-Mart said that green tags on their shelves, which identify food as organic, may have inadvertently or mistakenly been placed, or accidentally shifted in front of the wrong item.

“Our green organic signing is for additional consumer convenience to show that an organic alternative is available. It is not a label,” the company said in a statement. “The USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) certification label is featured on the packaging of the organic selections we offer and consumers should always rely on this USDA certification label for proper organic verification.”

Translated, that last part means: “This marketing will probably continue to be misleading, so we’re warning you about it.” Wisconsin says it will continue to monitor Walmart for compliance. We’re sort of confused about how a tag can “shift” or be “inadvertently placed” when it has the name of the product printed on it, but that’s probably because we have a very small brain and can’t fully understand complicated things like honesty.—MEGHANN MARCO

Wal-Mart Corrects Organic Mislabeling Mistakes [CBS] (Thanks, Peter!)
Mislabeling Organic Food at Wal-Mart [Cornucopia Institute]
(Photo: Cornucopia Institute)

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