Annie’s Sells Out to General Mills: Watch Out for GMOs in this Popular ‘Natural’ Brand
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:
Annie’s was still a processed food in a box or bag or can. Though I like their way of doing business with no GMO, I prefer to eat what I can cook at home.
Amen! Processed “food” is processed “food”…with or without GMOs.
I would be very, very wary of using any product that is now part of General Mills. I am so sorry to hear that Annie sold out!
Ditto John Summertime. Actually i barely trusted that many of Annie’s products were something i could trust to feed my family and friends. However, I do buy their ketchup, every week, to use for various purposes and reasons, . Now that i see this sell out in print, i am going to start making my own ketchup from scratch. I would imagine that this won’t affect Annie’s or GM ‘s current marketing strategy… however, what they don’t know is the countless people i advise on what to eat and how to make it palatable. Goodbye Annie…your ketchup will be missed by many. Much as all we all miss the wonderful Naked juice when it went south.
No good rotten traitors!!! I guess I will have to find another brand..
Bye, bye Annie’s. Nice knowing you. Not anymore.
Instead of buying that “stuff” (because you can’t call it food), I’ve started baking and cooking my food myself. I can use the same amount of time doing that, cooking and baking, instead of reading labels. Labels telling me there’s “stuff” in the product that doesn’t eve remotely qualify as food!
Thanks for the heads up
NOOOO…I was wondering why we couldn’t find the Annie’s Bunny Patch snacks. Know why now. It was really the thing we liked by Annies and I hope GM leaves them alone, but I doubt they will. Anyone have a homemade gummy snack recipe?
Well that ends my buying of Amys….another one bites the dust. You organic companies better fight off these beasts, you have more power! We ONLY WANT CLEAN FOOD. We will support you, tell us what you need ! Amy’s was my favorite go to food.
I agree with John. They cannot be trusted. Annie’s off the list too. A company having a “stance” on GMO does not have to reflect what is actually in the product. And now hearing that wheat may be sprayed with Roundup right before harvest. What? My Kansas wheat farming grandfather would be shocked if he were still alive. That is not needed and doesn’t make any practical sense either. So one of the primary ingredients in lots of GenMills products, “wheat”, is now on the can’t be sure so don’t eat list. What can we do? Let the large companies plummet. We started buying Organic Flour and are now baking our own Bread. We found a Peasant Bread recipe which doesn’t need kneading. Reallly easy to make in glass pyrex dishes and tastes spectacular. We bought some organic regular loaf bread last week and ended throwing it out. Tastes strange. So we all vote with our dollars and return to a more natural life by making simple things.