Who really owns some of the biggest organic brands in the country? GOOD magazine made one of their sexy graphs to show you. For instance, Coke owns Odwalla, Pepsi owns Naked, and Kraft owns Boca Burgers. The chart also shows you that these parent companies are among the top 30 food processing companies. Not like we’re talking a giant scandal or anything, it’s just interesting to know more about where your food is really coming from. Just because it’s organic doesn’t mean it was made on a happy communal love-farm .
More From Consumerist
-
Does It Matter If Organic Food Isn't Actually More Nutritious Than Conventional Products?
-
Whole Foods Organic Grapes: Now With Free Black Widow Spiders
-
Here Comes The Organic Milk Shrink Ray: One Gallon Is 96 Ounces
-
4 Things That Make You Spend Too Much Money At The Grocery Store
-
Milk, Aspirin, Broadband, And LivingSocial: Some Class Actions You Might Be Eligible For
Dear Good Magazine:
I have reformatted your two-page spread so that it fits in a few lines:
Kraft (#1)
Boca Foods
Back to Nature
Pepsi (#3)
Naked Juice
General Mills (#6)
Cascadian Farm
Muir Glen
Dean (#7)
Horizon
The Organic Cow of Vermont
Alta Dena
White Wave / Silk
Conagra (#9)
Lightlife
Alexia Foods
…
See how that works?
Sincerely,
Michael Belisle
Ben,
Please stop calling Good’s charts sexy. I hope you’re kidding. My brain wants to explode each time I see how little information they convey in such a large area.
Sincerely,
Michael Belisle
Natural, organic, or not, I drink Odwalla’s superfood because it’s a lot of sustenance for $6.50. Seriously, I can have a glass of that and stave off hunger, and I’m an Italian guy who likes to eat.
I love Naked’s OJ. Now i’m wondering who owns Bolthouse Farms
If these corporations didn’t own these companies, do you think you’d be able to find Odwalla or Burt’s Bees in your local grocery store (if you live outside of huge cities)?
My parents were hippies in the 1970′s and 1980′s – and grew/canned/froze tons of vegetables, had the chickens and the eggs, etc, but when my mom wanted to buy tofu or just plain brown rice, she had to search out the stores that carried it (this was in S.E. CT – the armpit of New England). Later, when I was in high school, I worked at a Natural Foods Center (NFC)store – it was the only place in the late 80′s where you could buy organic junk food, juices, etc. Now – you can get these things at the gas station.
And canning isn’t just something you can do by reading a book – you really need to take a class/find someone older to show you. Botulism is real. But home made strawberry jam kicks ass.
@greensmurf: yet, even that’s only 100% if you can control what gets sprayed all over them. I’d have to set up an indoor garden for that.
@TangDrinker: yes. I guess it depends on where you are, but Burt’s Bees stuff, especially, has been widely available since well before they were bought in ’04 (then, ’07).
Some are harder find, and in many cases the boyouts are win-win: megacorp makes money, people making the stuff make money, and it’s easier for you to get it, because they use the megacorps established infrastructure.
Of course, sometimes the megacorp will get in the way, and the quality will go down, as well. I wish it were easier to get stuff from good local growers. When I can, it’s awesome, but you practically have to fight off other customers when any of the health food stores get the good fresh veggies in
.
Often times, with common packaged goods, it’s just a matter of being decent quality at a slight price premium. Example time. I’m up for making quick and easy meals, and love rice, pasta, and beans…so I like to keep some broth around, especially vegetable broth, as I can work it into anything. Even the “low sodium” ones of the brands like Swanson and such taste like crap, and have too much salt—adding no more salt to the rest of the meal, it will be too salty. And what is that yellow gelatinous stuff that floats in it, anyway?
So, I’ve come to buying Pacific’s organic veggie broth. It tastes good (not as good as making some, but it doesn’t take an hour or more, either), and doesn’t have too much damn salt (940mg/C v. 440mg/C v. 140mg/C)! Being certified USDA Organic is incidental.
As time goes by, that’s getting expanded out across different types of foods I buy, as I find things that are actually better, and cases of previously good brands going south (such as Bertolli tomato sauces having more sugar than they used to—I’d rather the price have gone up a bit, or a Whole Foods open up nearby).
What matters is not who owns the “organic” company but whether the owner lets them do the right thing.