That the food supply is contaminated with corporate politics and chemicals, we know. That advertising is often deceitful, especially when it comes to the faddish "natural," we know. Why, then, was it so disappointing to read a recent article from the Chicago Tribune about Big Food quietly and insidiously buying up small organic food companies?It turns out that the big companies go to great lengths to hide their ownership of their organic brands. The packaging remains the same, the "story" remains poignantly the same (as the article points out, the story behind a farm or family is a carefully crafted marketing pitch), and the buyer is none the wiser. While the corporate invasion has served to boost the organic industry and to make organic foods more affordable, it has also further blurred the definition of organic, making it all a matter of semantics rather than safe ingredients.
Here's a list of some commonly found organic brands, and their big business parents:
Pepsi: Naked juices
Kraft: Back to Nature; Boca Foods
Nestle: Tribe Mediterranean Foods
Dean Foods: White Wave/Silk; Alta Dena; Horizon; Organic Cow of Vermont
General Mills: Muir Glen; Cascadian Farm
Conagra: Lightlife; Alexia Foods
Kellogg: Kashi; Morningstar Farms; Gardenburger; Bear Naked
Coca-Cola: Odwalla juices
M&M/Mars: Seeds of Change
Hershey Foods: Dagoba chocolate
You can read the entire article on the Reading Eagle website.
...I was reading the connection chart that I found on a different blog and was amazed at the connection. It just goes to show you that you really really have to be careful about what you buy and where, which is why so many of us now prefer to grow as much of our own food as possible.
ReplyDeleteYour title says it all. I knew most of them, how I missed my beloved morningstar, I'm not sure. That saddens me.
ReplyDeleteWe just uploaded a document into our SCRIBD library that has the charts that you mention Steve (I think). In the article, the charts show the consolidation of the Organic Industry.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.scribd.com/doc/20183496/Consolidation-in-the-North-American-Organic-Food-Processing-Sector-1997-to-2007
It's only a matter of time until the "newbe" organic people start to care about what they are eating and where it comes from. Cheap organic food is not the answer. Not when the consequences are big business determining the new rules on what constitutes "organic."
ReplyDelete