How organic are Wal-Mart 'organics'?

By BusinessWeek

A year after Wal-Mart laid out plans to become a much bigger player in the organic-foods business, the giant retailer's efforts are running into trouble with consumer activists and government regulators.

It was March 2006, at an analysts' conference, when Wal-Mart Stores' (WMT, news, msgs) vice president of marketing, Stephen Quinn, said the company would double its offerings of organic products within weeks. Wal-Mart promised to make organics affordable to more consumers by offering what executives called "the Wal-Mart price."

In July, the Bentonville, Ark., retailer launched an ad campaign on The Food Network, HGTV, and parenting and women's magazines with tag lines such as: "Know what goes well with organic milk? Organic cereal and knock-knock jokes"

Now there are questions about whether "the Wal-Mart price" might come at a cost to organic foods. State officials in Wisconsin have launched an investigation into the retailer's practices after complaints that Wal-Mart may be misleading consumers.

How big an issue?

A central question is whether signs on store shelves and banners above the shelves describe foods as "organic" while the foods nearby do not qualify for the label, under federal guidelines.

"We are beginning an investigation that will look into signage and whether it can be considered misleading," says Jim Rabbitt, the director of the consumer-protection bureau of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. The bureau plans to examine the practices of Wal-Mart and other retailers for 30 to 60 days to determine how big an issue this is.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is reviewing a complaint about Wal-Mart's practices from the same watchdog group that notified Wisconsin officials. The USDA has not decided whether to pursue its own investigation. "We are seeking more information to determine what action should be taken," says Joan Schaffer, a spokeswoman for the national organic program at the USDA.

'An isolated incident'

Wal-Mart officials say that the company has done nothing wrong. A spokeswoman points out that the company has more than 2,000 locations that offer up to 200 organic selections, in addition to thousands of nonorganic offerings.

Karen Burk, a company spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mail that if there were any inaccurate signs or banners around organic foods "we believe it to be an isolated incident."

She added: "The USDA certification label is featured on the packaging of the organic selections we offer for further customer information and verification. We have sent procedural guidelines to our stores for proper management of these identification tags."

Retailers and farmers involved in organic foods worry that giants like Wal-Mart may muddy the waters about what is and is not organic. Some are upset over the allegations and wonder whether other supermarkets will take steps similar to those alleged.

Active in 'family-scale' farming

"A huge amount of work went into coming up with a standard of quality in the organic industry," says Randy Lee, the chief financial officer of PCC Natural Markets, which runs eight stores in the Seattle area and is the largest grocery co-op in the United States. "If these allegations are true, then it very easily erodes those standards and comes with a significant business impact on other retailers that have higher standards."

The watchdog group that prompted the Wisconsin investigation is called The Cornucopia Institute and has been active in what it calls family-scale farming. It has produced photographs of items that are not certified organic or are only partially organic that appear on shelves at Wal-Mart with banners or signs that read "Wal-Mart Organics." The photos from Cornucopia show items that could be easily mistaken for organic. Many have descriptions such as "all natural" or "natural," including Stonyfield Farms All Natural Yogurt and Florida Crystals Natural Cane Sugar.

Organics have been a booming business for food manufacturers and retailers, growing 15% annually for the past five years. It's extremely lucrative: Supermarkets typically charge a 30% to 40% premium in price for organic food compared with conventionally grown food.

Retailers and farmers are eager to protect this growing business.

Lee, of PCC Natural Markets, says that if Wal-Mart is placing nonorganic items under its organic banner, then it will have a ripple effect on other national grocery chains. PCC and other organic retailers say that they train their employees and store managers rigorously to ensure high organic standards. They wonder how strong Wal-Mart's commitment to organics is. "Where is the USDA in all this?" asks Lee.

USDA under fire

The USDA has come under fire in the past for not taking action on similar complaints. Two audits of its organic program, performed by the American National Standards Institute in 2004 and by the USDA's Office of Inspector General in 2005, were highly critical of how the USDA has handled complaints of potential violations of organic standards.

The 2005 report states that "in fiscal year 2003, the eight complaints referred to the national organic program for a decision have not been resolved, one of which involved a possible prohibited substance being added to an organic product." The USDA counters by saying that complaints about organic food aren't treated like an emergency. "It's not like this is a food safety issue," says spokeswoman Schaffer.

Mark Kastel, a co-director of The Cornucopia Institute, says that it launched its inquiry after a visit in September to Wal-Mart's prototype store in Plano, Texas. After noticing what he said were labeling problems in its organic offering, the institute sent off a letter to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott suggesting that the company correct the problem.

Kastel says that consecutive visits to Wal-Mart showed that the company hadn't heeded its advice, so Cornucopia filed a legal complaint with the USDA in November and followed up with a complaint with the Wisconsin Agriculture Department on Jan. 13.

The latest assessment came after visiting stores and finding alleged violations in at least four states: Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota.

This article was reported and written by Pallavi Gogoi for BusinessWeek.