Read
a very interesting article on "green" products from E Magazine July/Aug
2011 issue about corporate takeover of companies making organic
products. Here is an exerpt: "The corporate appetite for organic and natural brands in recent years has prompted some hard questions about what happens when a small eco-company sells to the likes of Coke, ConAgra or Clorox. Can the new corporate parent be trusted to continue the ethical and environmentally sustainable practices that earned its new subsidiary a loyal following in the first place? While corporations generally preserve brand names and folksy advertising styles, what’s to guarantee that the stuff inside the box, bag or carton hasn’t changed? WAVES OF MERGERS The world’s largest consumer goods companies first set their sights on organic and natural product brands more than a decade ago. Keen observers trace the trend back to the late 1990s, as federal regulators at the U.S. Department of Agriculture were drafting the organic standards that became law in 2002. Besides Honest Tea, Burt’s Bees (which sold to Clorox) and Ben & Jerry’s (now part of Unilever), the list includes such brands as Cascadian Farms (General Mills), Kashi (Kellogg), Stonyfield Farm (Groupe Danone - Dannon Yoghurt), Tom’s of Maine (Colgate-Palmolive), Odwalla (Coca Cola), Naked Juice (PepsiCo), Dagoba Chocolate (Hershey’s), Green & Black’s (Kraft Foods), The Body Shop (L’Oréal) and Silk soymilk (Dean Foods)." Here are some of the companies that have resisted takeovers: Organic Valley (dairy) Bob's Red Mill (grains) Amy's Nancy's Nature's Path (cereal) Lundberg (rice) Eden Applegate (deli meats) Interestingly, we have been buying products from these companies because they taste better than some of their competitors For further information: "Green Inc - How a Good Cause Has Gone Bad" by Christine Macdonald www.emagazine.com Food & Water Watch Cornucopia Institute Ceres Center for Science in the Public Interest |
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