OMAHA, Neb.—Federal regulators say Promiseland Livestock may lose its organic certification because it kept inadequate records and refused to let inspectors review the records it did have.
The livestock company has five ranches in Nebraska and Missouri. The U.S. Department of Agriculture filed a formal complaint against Promiseland earlier this month.
No one answered the phone at Promiseland’s Bassett, Neb., headquarters Friday. And several numbers listed for Promiseland’s main owner, Anthony Zeman, had been disconnected.
The Promiseland problems were uncovered as part of an investigation of milk producer Aurora Organic Dairy of Boulder, Colo., because Aurora had bought more than 12,000 cattle from Promiseland.
Last year, Aurora signed a consent agreement to change some of its practices after complaints were raised, including that cows didn’t have enough access to pasture. The USDA later said that they reached deal with Aurora without a final determination that the dairy had violated the Organic Foods Production Act.
The Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute has filed several complaints against large-scale dairies that promoted their milk as organic, including Aurora.
Mark Kastel, co-director of the Cornucopia group, said Promiseland abused the trust of consumers who want to buy organic food and made it harder for small organic dairy farmers to compete.
“Unscrupulous cattle suppliers like Promiseland are the crutch that have made these factory farm operations possible,” Kastel said.
Consumers typically pay more for organic food because they believe it is free of hormones or pesticides and produced with greater respect for the environment.
Large corporate farms say they can farm organically on a large scale, while sustainable family farms and the Cornucopia group complain that such operations are not really organic. The critics say the large farms contribute to surpluses that drive down prices.
The USDA said its investigators repeatedly requested records from Promiseland during the first half of 2007. But Promiseland officials did not provide the records and refused to let federal investigators review records during an unannounced review, according to the federal complaint.
The USDA said Promiseland has ranches or feedlots near Bassett, Neb.; and Falcon, Lebanon, Elkland and Grant City, Mo.
The company also has about 12,000 dairy heifers and 10,000 slaughter cattle, the USDA said in its complaint.
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