Aurora Organic Dairy, a major organic-milk producer with two Texas farms, said it has agreed to settle a five-year-old consumer lawsuit over alleged deceptive-marketing claims for $7.5 million.
The Boulder, Colo.-based producer, which said its organic certifications were not challenged by the consumer-class action suit at the end, admitted no wrongdoing but settled Friday to avoid the cost and distraction of prolonged litigation. Spokeswoman Sonja Tuitele said Saturday that legal costs alone could have run $10 million if the drawn-out case continued.
The suit was filed after the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Aurora signed a 2007 consent agreement that required the producer to adopt more stringent practices or risk losing its organic certification.
During a monitored, one-year probationary period, Aurora agreed to give its cows daily access to pastures but not to over-graze them. It also agreed to eliminate cows that had not been properly transitioned from conventional herds while implementing a more stringent transition process.
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