Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
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bels Cascadian FarmandMuir Glen have been owned by General Mills since
2000 (Halweil 2001; Sligh and Christman 2003). The product labels care-
fully omit listing this corporate giant, and according to a
Wall Street Journal
article, General Mills is well aware of the importance of organic brand iden-
tity (Helliker 2002). A marketing report called Supermarket Strategic Alert
(2003, 2) notes that large corporations realize how natural food shoppers
“are leery of the national brands” and “the parent company may actually be
a negative, which is why it may not be named on the package.” Along these
same lines, organic milk and soy beverages are following the conventional
path of concentration, as Horizon Organic Dairy now controls about 70
percent of organic milk distribution (Brewster 2002). In early 2004,Hori-
zon was acquired by Dean Foods, the largest fluid milk producer in the
United States, which already owns White Wave (Silk and Sun Soy) products
(Sligh and Christman 2003; Standard and Poor's 2003). To continue with
my earlier recommendation for product labeling: we should push for “truth
in corporate ownership” legislation so that food companies must disclose
the corporate giants that own many organic brands. Such labeling would
help consumers make informed choices in both the supermarket and the
natural foods store.
Much of the research that discusses the problem of Big OAg is fromCal-
ifornia, where organic farming is more accepted and where there is much
greater availability of organic foods. This contrasts with the U.S. Midwest,
where organic farming is still viewed as a fledgling alternative approach that
needs to be protected by organic farming advocates. For example, when I
visited a friend in northern California, she took me to an average neighbor-
hood grocery store that was stockedwith four kinds of organic apples in bulk
and multiple other organic fruits and vegetables, plus a full array of organic
dairy and meat products, and a huge variety of organic packaged foods.
I was amazed! I live in a university town in southern Illinois (population
27,000 plus 20,000 students). In our biggest, most “upscale” supermarket
there
might
be a few three-pound bags of organic apples, a few heads of
organic broccoli, and a few two-pound bags of organic carrots (but not
always, and this has only occurred within the past few years). There is also a
small section labeled “Specialty Foods,” but this is not all organic; much of
it is “natural” food, whatever that means. Luckily, we also have an excellent
cooperative grocery store in town that sells a variety of organic items, but
this is not frequented by “mainstream” shoppers whose only experience
with organic products is seeing those few items at the local supermarket.
The supermarkets in most smaller towns or nonuniversity towns in the
Midwest and South stock zero organic products. Research indicates that
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