Coporatism at its best - and not even hidden. Love the diagram as it brings the issue home...
What you said reminded of what happened years back when many huge food conglomerates joined Monsanto's gang in an effort to defeat Prop 37 in California on November 6, 2012. ..with Proposition 37 being a ballot initiative that requires genetically engineered foods to be labeled as such, and would prevent deceptive marketing tactics of labeling GMO foods as “natural.”
What was HIGHLY ironic was that most of the companies lobbying against Prop 37 also had a stake in the organic industry...something truly telling in the global food revolution since these companies export their products across the world and can make whatever they want ..even though the public has the right to know if there is GMOs in the food they buy.
In order to know what companies and organic brands to potentially black list on your shopping list,
one can go here/see the complete chart of companies that contributed major dollars to defeat Prop 37 and also own organic brands:
- - General Mills owns organic or "natural" brands including Cascadian Farm, Larabar and Muir Glen.
- - Pepsi owns Naked Juice.
- - Nestle owns Tribe Mediterranean Food.
- - Cocacola owns Odwalla.
- - Kellogg owns Bear Naked, Morningstar Farms, Natural Touch, Kashi and Wholesome & Hearty.
- - Hershey Company owns Dagoba Organic Chocolate.
- - Dean Foods Co. owns Silk, White Wave, Alta Dena, and Horizon, which owns the Organic Cow of Vermont.
More could be said...but suffice to say, there is an entire list of companies fighting to keep us in the dark and the contributions they're making to lobby against Prop 37 - some which were shocking to say the least. It reminded me of a huge
Shell Game where the goal is to keep you distracted/guessing as long as possible via acting through sleight of hand...playing on the fact that you want to find where the mark is....and having you think it's in one place while manuevering behind the scenes occurs...and for many organic farmers, it's sad when they think Monsanto is the goal and yet they have no idea that other companies they may support are also in bed with them.
And not a surprise seeing how many already are paid SUBSTANTIALLY well...and thus, you gotta look out for whoever will make sure you get paid:
Monsanto Company = $4,208,000
DuPont Pioneer = $2,441,500
PepsiCo Inc. = $1,716,300
BASF Plant Science = $1,642,300
Bayer CropScience = $1,618,400
E.I. Dupont De Nemours & Co. = $1,273,600
Dow Agrosciences LLC = $1,184,800
Nestle USA = $1,169,400
Coca-Cola North America = $1,164,400
ConAgra Foods = $1,076,700
Syngenta Corporation = $821,300
Kellogg Co. = $632,500
Council for Biotechnology Information = $625,000
General Mills Inc. = $519,401
Hershey Company = $395,100
J.M. Smucker Co. = $388,000
Grocery Manufacturers Association = $375,000
Hormel Foods Corp. = $374,300
Bimbo Bakeries USA = $338,300
Pioneer Hi-Bred International (a DuPont business) = $310,100
Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc. = $301,553
Pinnacle Foods Group LLC = $266,100
Dean Foods Co. = $253,950
Biotech Industry Organization = $250,000
McCormick & Co. Inc. = $248,200
Rich Products Corp. = $225,537
Cargill Inc. = $202,229
Del Monte Foods Co. = $189,975
Knouse Foods Cooperative = $131,409
W.M. Wrigley Jr. Co. = $116,866
Mars Food North America = $100,243
Bumble Bee Foods LLC = $98,074
Sara Lee Corp. = $96,833
Sunny Delight Beverages Co. = $93,796
Campbell Soup Co. = $70,455
Solae LLC (Affiliated with DuPont & Monsanto = $59,215
McCain Foods USA = $50,593
Dole Packaged Foods Co. = $45,580
To see a FULL size chart on the issue, one can go here:
As
noted here, the chart shows the latest update of major corporate ownership and involvement in the organic food sector that is now out. And the chart graphically focuses on the organic brands with ties to the top 25 food processors in North America.
I am so thankful for Dr. Phil Howard, an Assistant Professor at Michigan State, who is responsible for the creation and updating of the organic food business chart. He teaches in the University’s Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies program. And it is fortunately the case that Dr. Howard has now created a new graphically animated version of consolidation occurring in the organic food sector between 1995 and 2007.
For more, you can view this by
clicking on this link . Additionally,
Dr. Howard’s first organic food sector chart, from 2002 (the date the USDA’s organic standards were implemented) gave some very interesting comparisons of the dramatic changes that have taken place with organics over the past 4 years...and for more, one can view the 2008 organic food sector chart by
clicking here. Moreover, two other revealing presentations of organic business have also been prepared by Dr. Howard. ..as the following are charts of
major independent organic companies and
private label organic brands, including supermarket chains, specialty chains and distributors.
The rabbit hole goes deep on this one...