Dean Foods, maker of Silk Soymilk, may have jumped the organic ship, but customers have not wanted to follow—some customers, at least, including the entire chain of Whole Foods stores.
The Cornucopia Institute claimed victory against the largest soymilk producer in the country this week, after a landmark deal with Whole Foods:
Saying that its relationship with Dean Foods had "chilled," Whole Foods indicated it was bringing in a new branded organic soymilk partner, Earth Balance...
"Dean Foods has been roundly criticized for taking the organic out of Silk, and now the marketplace and consumers are passing their judgment," said Mark Kastel, Cornucopia's senior farm policy analyst. "They took what once was a pioneering 100% organic brand, before they acquired the company in 2003, and cheapened the product at the expense of American farmers and consumers. Now they are paying a price for their naked profiteering," Kastel added.
In addition, Whole Foods wants Earth Balance's soymilk products to be made strictly from soybeans grown in the U.S. That stipulation likely comes as a direct response to Silk's initial shift—even before it gave up on organic—away from domestic soybeans when it started sourcing (organic, at first) from China.
Whole Foods and Earth Balance aren't the only challengers to Silk, of course, which the NY Times reports spent $29.1 million on advertising in major media last year. The challenge by 8th Continent is the focus of The Times' story, but Edensoy and Organic Valley are both easy to find in most major grocery stores, and both say they make soymilk only from organic beans grown on American family farms. And, of course, you can always buy the beans and make the soymilk yourself.
