The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is a consumer protection and organic agriculture advocacy group based in Finland, Minnesota. It was formed in 1998 in the wake of the mass backlash by organic consumers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture's controversial proposed regulations for organic food. The OCA is an online non-profit public interest organization that has over 850,000 members in its database. The members include subscribers, volunteers, supporters, and 3,000 cooperating retail co-ops, such as in the natural foods and organic marketplace. The OCA is one of the only organizations in the U.S focused on promoting the interests of the nation's estimated 50 million organic consumers.
The OCA deals with wide range of current crucial issues for health, justice, and sustainability. The campaigns are issues of food safety, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering, children's health, fair trade, environmental sustainability and other crucial topics.
One of OCA's positions is that large corporations are undermining the intent of "organic" as an identifier by influencing the legislation and implementation of government standards, or by directly failing to meet existing standards. Through the OCA's Safeguard Organic Standards (SOS) Campaign and other organizations' cooperation, the organic community has been able to mobilize a great many consumers to pressure the USDA and organic companies to preserve organic standards. One of their campaigns in this regard is a call to boycott Dean Foods' Horizon Organic and Aurora Organic Dairy; as well as Dean Foods subsidiaries Silk and White Wave Foods, and private label milk supplied by Aurora.
Read more about Organic Consumers Association: Charity Efficiency, Similar Organizations
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