Natural Society – by Christina Sarich
Annie’s brand is selling out to the food manufacturing giant, General Mills, who has been known to use GMO rice, corn, soy as well as high fructose corn syrup in most of their products. Annie’s boxes of kid-friendly pasta even says ‘made with organic pasta’ on the top, but that likely won’t be the case now.
Annie’s has sold out to the GMO pusher, General Mills (GM), for a whopping $820 million.
Just in case you weren’t aware, General Mills is part of the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association (GMA), the group of companies and biotech interests which have donated millions to defeat GMO labeling. GM contributed $1,135,300 (as of 2012) into anti-GMO-labeling propaganda in California all by themselves to defeat Prop 37 which would have given state residents a chance to know what was being put in their food. The company also help shoot down the GMO labeling bill in Washington.
GM tried to win over non-GMO activists by taking GMOs out of their regular Cheerios (while leaving them in other versions), but this marketing act lost steam once CEO Ken Powell has proclaimed they will not be offering anymore GMO-free products in the future. They didn’t really ‘remove’ GMOs from Cheerios anyhow, since the original Cheerios in the yellow box was always made from whole grain oats. There are no GM oats.
GM is clearly more interested in supporting the GMO agenda and protecting their profits than making sure healthful foods are available to the public.
In a statement from the company on their decision to publicize the absence of GMOs in Cheerios, they said:
“But it’s not about safety. Biotech seeds, also known as genetically modified seeds, have been approved by global food safety agencies and widely used by farmers in global food crops for almost 20 years.
And it was never about pressure. In fact, General Mills’ position on GMOs hasn’t changed.”
Meanwhile, Annie’s says that their stance on GMOs won’t change, even while under the umbrella of General Mills. Annie’s has been a vocal proponent of requiring labels on foods that contain genetically modified ingredients, while General Mills fights GMO labeling efforts.
“There is no change in Annie’s stance on GMOs,” Keely Fadrhonc, Annie’s senior marketing communications manager, said in an e-mail. “We are committed to transparency around the topic — we know that General Mills understands our commitment and importance of our position on this issue to preserve the authenticity of this brand.”
In response to the decision, Annie’s CEO, John Foraker had this to say:
“We are excited about this strategic combination, which will enable Annie’s to expand the reach and breadth of our high quality, great tasting organic and natural products, provide new opportunities for our employees, realize greater efficiencies in our operations, and maximize value for our stockholders. Powerful consumer shifts toward products with simple, organic and natural ingredients from companies that share consumers’ core values show no signs of letting up. Partnering with a company of General Mills’ scale and resources will strengthen our position at the forefront of this trend, enabling us to more rapidly and efficiently expand into new channels and product lines in a rapidly evolving industry environment.”
Do you think such a partnership could work?
Additional Sources:
Read more: http://naturalsociety.com/annies-sells-general-foods-watch-gmos-popular-natural-brand/#ixzz3D7KTRIMD
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Its still processed food…
so organic or not it is not what i put in my body.
They are proponents of gmo labeling and say that wont change..
yeah sure it wont.
boycott their product….. These people from Annie’s only concern is the share holder not the consumer looking for good food…. These food giants just want to have total control over the food….. and you will have not choice so hit them in the pocket book now…….
The Amy’s gluten free burritoes used to be the ONLY prepackaged food I could eat without almost suffocating to death from the poison/preservatives in everything, even things that don’t say it on the label. Now there is nothing left that might not be poisoned except maybe some organic produce. Everything is poisoned. F#@K AMY’S for this crap! Sold off to satan.