Honolulu Star-Bulletin Special

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Honolulu Star-Bulletin Special

Sunday, September 29, 2002 [ THE BIG 5 ] Isle institutions’ economic impact endures 3 members turn to real estate and retail ventures after ownership changes and the decline of local sugar and pineapple Big 5 profiles By Lyn Danninger ldanninger@starbulletin.com Statehood in 1959 forever changed the fields for the Big 5. Their political clout weakened, though their economic power lived on. Sugar cane and pineapple went out of favor. Hotels and resorts sprouted. The Republicans lost office and the Democrats became entrenched. In 1964 the Department of Justice sued to challenge the majority ownership of Matson Navigation by four of the Big 5. In addition to controlling Hawaii's sugar industry, A&B, Amfac, C. Brewer and Castle & Cooke together owned nearly three-quarters of Matson, and Matson carried 80 percent of all cargo shipped between the mainland and Hawaii. As such, competition between Matson and other water carriers was limited, violating anti-merger and restraint-of-trade laws, the feds said. Theo H. Davies was the only member of the Big 5 that did not own Matson stock. The lawsuit was settled under a consent decree that barred the four companies from sharing officers, executives and directors. A&B acquired 94 percent of Matson, buying out the other three firms for $22 million. HAWAII STATE ARCHIVES The C. Brewer & Co. building, also known as "Market House," around 1900-1910. In the 1970s, sugar mills and plantations began to close, and members of the Big 5 started getting bought out. Theo H. Davies was sold in 1973 to Jardine Matheson & Co., a British firm based in Hong Kong. Davies diversified, buying the assets of Eurocars of Hawaii Ltd. in 1979, then exited the sugar business in 1984 by selling the now-defunct Hamakua Sugar Co. to one of its executives. Davies also acquired Hawaii's Pizza Hut and Taco Bell franchises. Philadelphia-based IU International Corp. picked up full ownership of C. Brewer & Co. in 1978. Eight years later, J.W.A. "Doc" Buyers led a leveraged and complex $200 million management buyout of Brewer. Last year, Brewer's shareholders voted to liquidate the 175-year-old firm. Los Angeles billionaire David Murdock became chairman of Castle & Cooke in 1985 by merging the company with his Flexi-Van Corp. Murdock acquired full control of C&C in 2000. The firm still has large ownership of Central Oahu and Iwilei as well as nearly all of the island of Lanai. Dole Food is a separate, publicly held company based in California, with Murdock as its chairman and CEO. STAR-BULLETIN FILE Fresh pineapple being packed in 1964 at Dole Co., then a Castle & Cooke unit. Amfac, along with its 60,000 acres in Hawaii and its Liberty House chain, was sold in 1988 to Chicago-based JMB Realty Corp. for just less than $1 billion. Earlier this year, Amfac filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, heavily in debt with most of its assets sold. Liberty House has been sold and converted to Macy's West, its one-time competitor in San Francisco. A&B is the only member of the Big 5 that has not quit sugar and was not bought out, though the company's management fought a proxy battle in 1985 against dissident shareholder Harry Weinberg. Weinberg had sought to eject pro-management directors and argued that A&B shareholders could get a better return if its land or the company itself were sold. Instead, then-Chairman Robert J. Pfeiffer and management won control of the firm's board, garnering 60.7 percent of shares in an election, and ousted Weinberg. STAR-BULLETIN / JANUARY 2001 Long a fixture in Hawaii, Amfac's Liberty House stores have been sold and converted to Macy's. A&B's biggest business is ocean transportation, thanks to its ownership of Matson. The firm is Hawaii's fifth-largest private landowner with 91,000 acres, putting it just behind Castle & Cooke, Damon Estate, Parker Ranch and Kamehameha Schools. A&B also owns 17 commercial properties on the U.S. mainland. The company recently made several property purchases on Oahu, including two neighborhood shopping centers in Mililani and Kaneohe. In April, A&B attempted to buy Kakaako landowner Victoria Ward Ltd. but was outbid by Ala Moana Center owner General Growth Properties Inc. of Chicago. BACK TO TOP | Profiles of the Big 5, then and now By Tim Ruel truel@starbulletin.com C. Brewer & Co. >> Founded: 1826 >> Founder: Capt. James Hunnewell >> Past: The history of the first of the Big 5 stretches back to 1826, shortly after the arrival of Protestant missionaries to Hawaii, when Massachusetts native Capt. James Hunnewell began trading sandalwood with China. His business grew into a trading house. The firm's modern namesake, Capt. Charles Brewer, became a partner in 1836, and C. Brewer & Co. specialized in supplying whaling ships. When the whaling business began to dive, Brewer looked toward sugar and molasses, and in 1863 the firm became an agent for three Maui plantations. >> Today: The firm's private shareholders have voted to liquidate the company, including its 70,000 acres, over several years. Theo H. Davies & Co. >> Founded: 1845 >> Founders: James Starkey and Robert C. Janion >> Past: What started as a small isle trading company in 1845 was boarded 12 years later by Theophilus Harris Davies, who came to Hawaii from Britain at the age of 23. After the overthrow of the Hawaiian government in 1893, Davies and Princess Kaiulani went to Washington, D.C., to ask President Grover Cleveland to restore the monarchy. The firm Davies worked for expanded into other businesses including sugar, transportation and insurance, and became known as Theo H. Davies & Co., the smallest of the Big 5. >> Today: Davies is a unit of Hong Kong multinational giant Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd., and owns Hawaii's Pizza Hut and Taco Bell franchises as well as Pacific Machinery. Amfac >> Founded: 1849 >> Founders: Heinrich Hackfeld and J.C. Pflueger >> Past: H. Hackfeld & Co. was founded as a merchandising firm in Honolulu in 1849 by German captain Heinrich Hackfeld and his brother-in-law J.C. Pflueger. Hackfeld became a business agent for Kauai's Koloa Plantation, the first long-lived sugar plantation in the islands. Shortly before Germany's defeat in World War I, an agent for the U.S. Alien Property Custodian sold the company for $7.5 million to a consortium that included Alexander & Baldwin, Castle & Cooke, C. Brewer and other companies. The new firm was called American Factors Ltd., later shortened to Amfac. >> Today: Liberty House went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1998, and Amfac Hawaii did the same this year. Their parent, JMB Realty Corp. of Chicago, gave up on sugar and sold off much of Amfac's assets. Castle & Cooke >> Founded: 1851 >> Founders: Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke >> Past: Castle & Cooke was formed in 1851 by missionaries Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke. It sold farm tools, sewing machines and medicine. In 1907 the firm became the Hawaii agent for Matson Navigation. C&C acquired a stake in Matson. Around the end of WWII, Castle & Cooke also had taken a significant stake in James Dole's Hawaiian Pineapple. The firm was later renamed Dole Co. and became part of Castle & Cooke's food division. The takeover took place after James Dole attempted to ship pineapple with a Matson rival, according to "Land and Power in Hawaii," by George Cooper and Gavan Daws. >> Today: The firm is owned by Los Angeles billionaire David Murdock, who separated C&C from Dole Food in the 1990s. C&C owns major plots on Oahu and most of Lanai island, which Murdock has redeveloped into a resort destination. Alexander & Baldwin >> Founded: 1870 >> Founders: Samuel Thomas Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin >> Past: In 1869, Samuel Thomas Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin bought 12 acres at Makawao, Maui, for $110 to grow sugar cane. Alexander & Baldwin, established the next year, was the only member of the Big 5 that started in sugar. Baldwin lost his right arm in a factory accident, but still the company managed to dig a 17-mile irrigation ditch that took millions of gallons of water from Haleakala to East Maui. In 1889, the firm established the Hawaiian Sugar Co. at Makaweli, Kauai. Five years later, A&B opened its own sugar agency in San Francisco, and in 1898 the firm took over the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. in Puunene, Maui. A&B became a Hawaii corporation in 1900. >> Today: A $919 million publicly traded company that owns Matson Navigation and has vast land holdings on several islands and 17 commercial properties on the mainland. E-MAIL THIS ARTICLE TO A FRIEND | | | PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION E-mail to City Desk BACK TO TOP Text Site Directory: [News] [Business] [Features] [Sports] [Editorial] [Do It Electric!] [Classified Ads] [Search] [Subscribe] [Info] [Letter to Editor] [Feedback] © 2002 Honolulu Star-Bulletin -- http://archives.starbulletin.com

Iwi found at First Hawaiian's Kailua site | starbulletin.com | Business | /2008/06/24/

Iwi found at First Hawaiian’s Kailua site By Nina Wu nwu@starbulletin.com First Hawaiian Bank will redesign its proposed new branch in Kailua Town after three native Hawaiian remains were uncovered at the construction site. The bank has a long-term lease with Kaneohe Ranch, and is building it from the ground up behind McKenna's Ford dealership. Construction began this summer and is still on schedule to be completed the first quarter of 2009. The existing First Hawaiian Bank, meanwhile, will remain open with uninterrupted service until the new one is completed. Corbett Kalama, executive vice president and Oahu region manager of First Hawaiian Bank, said in a written statement that the contractor found a small, ancient Hawaiian gravesite at the proposed site of the new branch during a property survey. The area measures about 350 square feet, and is on the perimeter of the proposed branch property. "In respect of the site and in cooperation and consultation with Kailua's Ahupua'a Cultural Descendants and the state Historic Preservation Division, the bank chose to move and redesign the proposed branch in order to leave the iwi undisturbed. An appropriate blessing was performed and a marker will be provided for the site." Hal Hammatt of Cultural Surveys Hawaii and Alani Apio, cultural consultant for First Hawaiian Bank, presented these findings to the Oahu Island Burial Council, according to April 9 minutes. The council praised the bank for their cultural sensitivity. A public notice also went out in late April, informing interested parties that these lands were claimed by Queen Hakaleleponi Kalama. The bank -- after consulting with Kailua descendants -- decided to redesign. Kalama was out of town yesterday, and unreachable for additional comment. The remains were discovered in March, and the burial council this month approved First Hawaiian Bank's redesign plans to leave the burials in place, according to Deborah Ward, spokeswoman for the Department of Land and Natural Resources. Ward said the archaeological inventory survey was conducted just for the bank site, and not for the entire redevelopment site, which would include a brand-new Whole Foods Market. If history repeats itself, then a concentration of more iwi are bound to be uncovered in the area, which is rich with native Hawaiian history -- and near a heiau that was surrounded by taro fields and a large fishpond. Texas-based Whole Foods Market has been unlucky in its real estate deals entering the Hawaii market. At the Ward site, which is where its flagship store was expected to open this year -- what originally was reported as 11 sets of iwi remains eventually grew to a count of 64, resulting in protests and a lawsuit from a cultural descendant seeking to halt construction. Developer General Growth Properties was ordered by the state to redesign a planned high-rise condo at the six-acre site, which, to date, has not been resurrected. Whole Foods Market, however, was allowed to proceed, and is expected to open at Ward next year. The iwi at Ward have were reburied last month at a central location at the site during a private ceremony. When a developer encounters bones determined to be more than 50 years, it must notify the state historic preservation division and await further instruction. In Kailua, Whole Foods Market plans a 40,000-square-foot store slated to open in 2010 at the site of the old Straub Clinic and existing First Hawaiian Bank. Both plans were announced in July 2007. Landowner Kaneohe Ranch issued a statement saying it has worked hard to "do the right thing" by consulting with cultural descendants, SHPD and the burial council in this matter. Kaneohe Ranch will develop the store to be leased to Whole Foods Market. First Hawaiian Bank, meanwhile, is building a state-of-the-art, energy-efficient branch which will be larger than the existing one. It will offer drive-through teller windows, new private banking and investment services, and an expanded staff. "The decision to move the branch and respect the site was absolutely the right thing to do," said Don Horner, CEO of First Hawaiian Bank.

01/31/2008: Coluccio Construction Co. and Castle Family LLC fined for Oahu wetlands violations

Coluccio Construction Co. and Castle Family LLC fined for Oahu wetlands violations Release Date: 01/31/2008 Contact Information: Dean Higuchi, 808-541-2711, higuchi.dean@epa.gov (01/31/08) HONOLULU – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today fined Frank Coluccio Construction Co. and Castle Family LLC. a total of $68,000 for filling sensitive wetlands adjacent to Hamakua Stream in Kailua, Oahu without federal permits. “We will protect the Kailua wetlands from illegal filling and ensure it is restored to provide water bird habitat, flood storage, and protect the island’s coastal water quality,” said Alexis Strauss, water division director for the EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. “When wetlands are filled, these important ecological functions are lost. Any discharge of fill to wetlands or streams requires a federal permit.” In response to complaints by Kailua residents, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers informed Coluccio and Kaneohe Ranch Company, Ltd., the Castle Family LLC property manager, that Clean Water Act permits were required for the filling of wetlands. Under an agreement with Castle Family LLC, Coluccio had cleared wetland vegetation at the site to create a project equipment and materials staging area. In February 2005, the Hawaii Department of Health and EPA officials inspected the site and noted that large stockpiles of excavated soil and rock had been dumped into the wetland habitat, although neither company had obtained the required permit. Coluccio filled just under one acre of wetlands which are part of a larger system running from Kawainui Marsh to Kaelepulu Pond and the Pacific Ocean. The EPA then ordered the companies to develop and implement a plan to remove the fill from the wetlands and restore the habitat with native plants and appropriate re-grading. The companies also must monitor the restoration site, evaluate its success, and submit annual reports to EPA for up to 5 years.

VAMPIRES IN THE CASTLE

Bill Mills - Chairman of Bill Mills Development & Investment Company, Inc.; former CEO of Castle & Cooke. From the Maui Lani website: The principal partner of Maui Lani is Bill Mills, chairman of Bill Mills Development & Investment Company, Inc. Mr. Mills is a Hawaii-regional developer and former CEO of Castle & Cooke. Mr. Mills, owns, or has owned, through his various companies, prestigious developments on Maui, Lanai, Hawaii, Oahu, and the mainland. Among them, the Turtle Bay Hilton Golf & Tennis Resort, and the Waikiki Galleria Tower. Mr. Mills is a well-respected Hawaii businessman. He is a member of the board of directors for Hawaiian Electric Industries, Grace Pacific Corporation, Hawaii Pacific Theatre, and the Historic Hawaii Corporation. He is a Trustee of Hawaii Pacific University, the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, and St. Andrews Priory School. Mr. Mills is also a member of the board of governors for the Iolani School, and has served as a governor, secretary, and vice-chair of the Hawaii Community Foundation. The Maui Lani community consists of a number of partners who have combined their knowledge and resources to create a dynamic Central Maui community. Leiane Paci and Dave Gleason are the key local contacts for the development side of Maui Lani.... ~ ~ ~ Maui Lani is the first master-planned community on Maui to receive zoning approval under a “project district” ordinance, which provides for a very flexible and creative approach to planning and development. This has allowed Maui Lani to create unique land plans and subdivision layouts that sets it apart from anything on Maui and are the reason why Maui Lani Homeowners’ Association exists to oversee the implementation and adherence to the project’s design, controls and overall maintenance. Maui Lani’s highway, water, sewer, and zoning entitlements are in place, and construction of many new amenities is continuous and evolving every day.

VAMPIRES IN THE CASTLE

The state's largest pineapple producer, Maui Land & Pineapple Co., also has been selling pieces of "noncore" land in recent years. Maui Land & Pine, which owns more than 25,000 acres on Maui and grows pineapple on roughly 4,000 acres, sold nearly 3,000 acres of mostly agricultural land in the past two years. Dole disclosed its potential land sale effort in a quarterly financial report, saying the company is "considering a plan to market certain land parcels" in places including Hawai'i and Latin America. The company has been in the process of selling assets that don't meet its future strategic direction or profit goals. This year, Dole sold several Chilean farms, and in recent months classified 4,400 acres in California as assets held for sale. Earlier this year, other farmland for fruit and flower operations in California and Latin America were classified as assets held for sale. Total assets held for sale were valued at $53 million, according to the report detailing three months of business ended Oct. 6. Dole, which reported $6.2 billion in revenue last year, is the world's largest producer and marketer of fresh fruits, vegetables and cut flowers, and also markets a growing line of packaged and frozen foods. The company is owned by billionaire David Murdock, who in 2003 bought out other holders of Dole's publicly traded stock in a $2.5 billion deal that took the firm private.

Monsanto & Dole Team Up to Force-Feed Consumers Genetically Engineered Fruits & Veggies

Monsanto & Dole Team Up to Force-Feed Consumers Genetically Engineered Fruits & Veggies Dole, Monsanto enter into innovation agreement By Eric Schroeder Food Business News, June 23, 2009 Straight to the Source MONTEREY, CALIF. - Dole Fresh Vegetables, Inc. and Monsanto Co. have entered into an agreement to develop new products that will "enhance consumer vegetable choices," according to the companies. The five-year agreement will focus on broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and spinach. Any new products developed through the agreement will be commercialized by Dole in North America. Plant breeding techniques will be used to improve the nutrition, flavor, color, texture, taste and aroma of the vegetables. Monsanto's role in the collaboration will be to improve the development of new and beneficial vegetable characteristics. Their efforts will be guided by Dole's knowledge of consumer needs and marketing. "Dole prides itself on innovation and bringing consumers high quality, nutritious and great-tasting products," said Roger Billingsley, senior vice-president of research and development for Dole Fresh Vegetables. "We are looking forward to collaborating closely with Monsanto to do just that."

USDA Forces Whole Foods To Accept Monsanto | Monsanto Boycott

USDA Forces Whole Foods To Accept Monsanto Feb 9, 2012 “The policy set for GE alfalfa will most likely guide policies for other GE crops as well. True coexistence is a must.”   -  Whole Foods Market, Jan. 21, 2011 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. “compensation.” In exchange for a new assault on farmworkers and rural communities (a recent large-scale Swedish study found that spraying Roundup doubles farm workers’ and rural residents’ risk of getting cancer), WFM expects the pro-biotech USDA to begin to regulate rather than cheerlead for Monsanto. In payment for a new broad spectrum attack on the soil’s crucial ability to provide nutrition for food crops and to sequester dangerous greenhouse gases (recent studies show that Roundup devastates essential soil microorganisms that provide plant nutrition and sequester climate-destabilizing greenhouse gases), WFM wants the Biotech Bully of St. Louis to agree to pay “compensation” (i.e. hush money) to farmers “for any losses related to the contamination of his crop.” In its email of Jan. 21, 2011 WFM calls for “public oversight by the USDA rather than reliance on the biotechnology industry,” even though WFM knows full well that federal regulations on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) do not require pre-market safety testing, nor labeling; and that even federal judges have repeatedly ruled that so-called government “oversight” of Frankencrops such as Monsanto’s sugar beets and alfalfa is basically a farce. At the end of its email, WFM admits that its surrender to Monsanto is permanent: “The policy set for GE alfalfa will most likely guide policies for other GE crops as well  True coexistence is a must.” Why Is Organic Inc. Surrendering? According to informed sources, the CEOs of WFM and Stonyfield are personal friends of former Iowa governor, now USDA Secretary, Tom Vilsack, and in fact made financial contributions to Vilsack’s previous electoral campaigns. Vilsack was hailed as “Governor of the Year” in 2001 by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and traveled in a Monsanto corporate jet on the campaign trail. Perhaps even more fundamental to Organic Inc.’s abject surrender is the fact that the organic elite has become more and more isolated from the concerns and passions of organic consumers and locavores. The Organic Inc. CEOs are tired of activist pressure, boycotts, and petitions. Several of them have told me this to my face. They apparently believe that the battle against GMOs has been lost, and that it’s time to reach for the consolation prize.  The consolation prize they seek is a so-called “coexistence” between the biotech Behemoth and the organic community that will lull the public to sleep and greenwash the unpleasant fact that Monsanto’s unlabeled and unregulated genetically engineered crops are now spreading their toxic genes on 1/3 of U.S. (and 1/10 of global) crop land. WFM and most of the largest organic companies have deliberately separated themselves from anti-GMO efforts and cut off all funding to campaigns working to label or ban GMOs. The so-called Non-GMO Project, funded by Whole Foods and giant wholesaler United Natural Foods (UNFI) is basically a greenwashing effort (although the 100% organic companies involved in this project seem to be operating in good faith) to show that certified organic foods are basically free from GMOs (we already know this since GMOs are banned in organic production), while failing to focus on so-called “natural” foods, which constitute most of WFM and UNFI’s sales and are routinely contaminated with GMOs. From their “business as usual” perspective, successful lawsuits against GMOs filed by public interest groups such as the Center for Food Safety; or noisy attacks on Monsanto by groups like the Organic Consumers Association, create bad publicity, rattle their big customers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Kroger, Costco, Supervalu, Publix and Safeway; and remind consumers that organic crops and foods such as corn, soybeans, and canola are slowly but surely becoming contaminated by Monsanto’s GMOs. Whole Foods’ Dirty Little Secret: Most of the So-Called “Natural” Processed Foods and Animal Products They Sell Are Contaminated with GMOs The main reason, however, why Whole Foods is pleading for coexistence with Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, Syngenta, BASF and the rest of the biotech bullies, is that they desperately want the controversy surrounding genetically engineered foods and crops to go away. Why? Because they know, just as we do, that 2/3 of WFM’s $9 billion annual sales is derived from so-called “natural” processed foods and animal products that are contaminated with GMOs. We and our allies have tested their so-called “natural” products (no doubt WFM’s lab has too) containing non-organic corn and soy, and guess what: they’re all contaminated with GMOs, in contrast to their certified organic products, which are basically free of GMOs, or else contain barely detectable trace amounts. Approximately 2/3 of the products sold by Whole Foods Market and their main distributor, United Natural Foods (UNFI) are not certified organic, but rather are conventional (chemical-intensive and GMO-tainted) foods and products disguised as “natural.” Unprecedented wholesale and retail control of the organic marketplace by UNFI and Whole Foods, employing a business model of selling twice as much so-called “natural” food as certified organic food, coupled with the takeover of many organic companies by multinational food corporations such as Dean Foods, threatens the growth of the organic movement. Covering Up GMO Contamination: Perpetrating “Natural” Fraud Many well-meaning consumers are confused about the difference between conventional products marketed as “natural,” and those nutritionally/ environmentally superior and climate-friendly products that are “certified organic.” Retail stores like WFM and wholesale distributors like UNFI have failed to educate their customers about the qualitative difference between natural and certified organic, conveniently glossing over the fact that nearly all of the processed “natural” foods and products they sell contain GMOs, or else come from a “natural” supply chain where animals are force-fed GMO grains in factory farms or Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). A troubling trend in organics today is the calculated shift on the part of certain large formerly organic brands from certified organic ingredients and products to so-called “natural” ingredients. With the exception of the “grass-fed and grass-finished” meat sector, most “natural” meat, dairy, and eggs are coming from animals reared on GMO grains and drugs, and confined, entirely, or for a good portion of their lives, in CAFOs. Whole Foods and UNFI are maximizing their profits by selling quasi-natural products at premium organic prices. Organic consumers are increasingly left without certified organic choices while genuine organic farmers and ranchers continue to lose market share to “natural” imposters. It’s no wonder that less than 1% of American farmland is certified organic, while well-intentioned but misled consumers have boosted organic and “natural” purchases to $80 billion annually-approximately 12% of all grocery store sales. The Solution: Truth-in-Labeling Will Enable Consumers to Drive So-Called “Natural” GMO and CAFO-Tainted Foods Off the Market There can be no such thing as “coexistence” with a reckless industry that undermines public health, destroys biodiversity, damages the environment, tortures and poisons animals, destabilizes the climate, and economically devastates the world’s 1.5 billion seed-saving small farmers. There is no such thing as coexistence between GMOs and organics in the European Union. Why? Because in the EU there are almost no GMO crops under cultivation, nor GM consumer food products on supermarket shelves. And why is this? Because under EU law, all foods containing GMOs or GMO ingredients must be labeled. Consumers have the freedom to choose or not to choose GMOs; while farmers, food processors, and retailers have (at least legally) the right to lace foods with GMOs, as long as they are safety-tested and labeled. Of course the EU food industry understands that consumers, for the most part, do not want to purchase or consume GE foods. European farmers and food companies, even junk food purveyors like McDonald’s and Wal-Mart, understand quite well the concept expressed by a Monsanto executive when GMOs first came on the market: “If you put a label on genetically engineered food you might as well put a skull and crossbones on it.” The biotech industry and Organic Inc. are supremely conscious of the fact that North American consumers, like their European counterparts, are wary and suspicious of GMO foods. Even without a PhD, consumers understand you don’t want your food safety or environmental sustainability decisions to be made by out-of-control chemical companies like Monsanto, Dow, or Dupont – the same people who brought you toxic pesticides, Agent Orange, PCBs, and now global warming. Industry leaders are acutely aware of the fact that every single industry or government poll over the last 16 years has shown that 85-95% of American consumers want mandatory labels on GMO foods. Why? So that we can avoid buying them. GMO foods have absolutely no benefits for consumers or the environment, only hazards. This is why Monsanto and their friends in the Bush, Clinton, and Obama administrations have prevented consumer GMO truth-in-labeling laws from getting a public discussion in Congress. Although Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Democrat, Ohio) recently introduced a bill in Congress calling for mandatory labeling and safety testing for GMOs, don’t hold your breath for Congress to take a stand for truth-in-labeling and consumers’ right to know what’s in their food. Especially since the 2010 Supreme Court decision in the so-called Citizens United case gave big corporations and billionaires the right to spend unlimited amounts of money (and remain anonymous, as they do so) to buy media coverage and elections, our chances of passing federal GMO labeling laws against the wishes of Monsanto and Food Inc. are all but non-existent. Perfectly dramatizing the “Revolving Door” between Monsanto and the Federal Government, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, formerly chief counsel for Monsanto, delivered one of the decisive votes in the Citizens United case, in effect giving Monsanto and other biotech bullies the right to buy the votes it needs in the U.S. Congress. With big money controlling Congress and the media, we have little choice but to shift our focus and go local. We’ve got to concentrate our forces where our leverage and power lie, in the marketplace, at the retail level; pressuring retail food stores to voluntarily label their products; while on the legislative front we must organize a broad coalition to pass mandatory GMO (and CAFO) labeling laws, at the city, county, and state levels. The Organic Consumers Association, joined by our consumer, farmer, environmental, and labor allies, has just launched a nationwide Truth-in-Labeling campaign to stop Monsanto and the Biotech Bullies from force-feeding unlabeled GMOs to animals and humans. Utilizing scientific data, legal precedent, and consumer power the OCA and our local coalitions will educate and mobilize at the grassroots level to pressure giant supermarket chains (Wal-Mart, Kroger, Costco, Safeway, Supervalu, and Publix) and natural food retailers such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s to voluntarily implement “truth-in-labeling” practices for GMOs and CAFO products; while simultaneously organizing a critical mass to pass mandatory local and state truth-in-labeling ordinances – similar to labeling laws already in effect for country of origin, irradiated food, allergens, and carcinogens. If local and state government bodies refuse to take action, wherever possible we must attempt to gather sufficient petition signatures and place these truth-in-labeling initiatives directly on the ballot in 2011 or 2012.  If you’re interested in helping organize or coordinate a Millions Against Monsanto and Factory Farms Truth-in-Labeling campaign in your local community, sign up here: http://organicconsumers.org/oca-volunteer/ To pressure Whole Foods Market and the nation’s largest supermarket chains to voluntarily adopt truth-in-labeling practices sign here, and circulate this petition widely:http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_22309.cfm