California’s unremitting food fight takes on the farm

The legal battle over the definition of “all natural” foods is turning its attention from the courtroom to the farmland. On June 10, Judge Andrew J. Guilford, in the Central District of California, denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss in In re Hain Celestial Seasonings Products Consumer Litigation, and allowed the case to proceed based on a definition of “all natural” that looks at the pest control methods used in the crops from which the “all natural” products ingredients were harvested.