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To the shock and disappointment of many health-conscious consumers across North America, General Mills purchased beloved organic brand Annie’s Homegrown in an eye-popping deal valued at $820 million, or $46/share.
This is just the latest in a long string of acquisitions of small, natural food companies by huge, multinational corporations in recent years.
The purchase of Annie’s Homegrown, a 25-year-old company whose trademark motto is “Real Food Tastes Better” is particularly hard to take for parents because Annie’s products are focused and targeted to children.
John Foraker, CEO of Annie’s Homegrown (not to be confused with the privately held company Amy’s Kitchen), said the following of the acquisition:
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.
To those customers greatly concerned that Annie’s product quality will tank due to the new affiliation with frankenfood titan General Mills, Foraker went on to say that:
Annie’s will remain dedicated to our mission: to cultivate a healthier and happier world by spreading goodness through nourishing foods, honest words and conduct that is considerate and forever kind to the planet. Authentic roots, great tasting products, high quality organic and natural ingredients, and sustainable business practices will continue to be the cornerstones of the Annie’s brand.
Quick to take action, many enraged consumers have labeled Annie’s a traitor company and vowed to boycott Annie’s products as a result of the news, primarily motivated by the fact that General Mills contributed $2.1 million to defeat California GMO labeling initiative Prop 37 in 2012 and I-522, a similar measure in Washington State.
In addition, General Mills is a member of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) which not only spent millions to defeat GMO labeling across the United States but arrogantly went so far as to sue the state of Vermont for its successful passage of a GMO labeling bill. Moreover, GMA supports and even helped draft a federal bill in Congress that will deny states the right to pass their own GMO labeling initiatives.
The Organic Consumers Association is in support of the Annie’s Homegrown boycott, calling for consumers to sign a petition to CEO Foraker that states the following:
Dear Mr. Foraker,
I am disappointed that Annie’s has sold out to a company like General Mills.
General Mills has so far spent $2.1 million to defeat GMO labeling initiatives, in California and Washington State. The company is a member of the Grocery Manufacturers which also has spent millions to defeat GMO labeling laws, has joined other groups to sue the state of Vermont to overturn the mandatory labeling law passed there earlier this year, and helped draft the bill, sponsored by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan), that would deny states the right to pass mandatory GMO labeling laws and make it legal to label foods containing GMOs as “natural.”
General Mills shareholders recently overwhelmingly rejected a shareholder’s resolution to remove GMO ingredients from the company’s products. While the company says it supports a uniform federal approach to GMO labeling, what it really supports is a “voluntary” scheme that would preempt states’ rights to pass labeling laws.
As a conscious consumer, I can no longer purchase Annie’s Homegrown products. If Annie’s wants to match its parent company’s donations against GMO labeling, by contributing an equal amount to support labeling initiatives in Oregon and Colorado, and if General Mills agrees to pull out of the GMA and publicly support state and federal mandatory GMO labeling laws, I may reconsider.
Until then, I will not be buying anything under the Annie’s brand.
This chart put together by Phil Howard, Associate Professor of Michigan State University, aptly illustrates the acquisition problem being experienced in the organic food industry and why consumers are concerned enough to be resorting to boycotts with the hope of altering the trend.
Why I Don’t Plan to Join the Annie’s Boycott
While I certainly sympathize with those in support of Annie’s boycott for the reasons listed above, I am not planning to join in at this time.
The primary reason I will continue to buy Annie’s brand on occasion as I have done for years is that this seems to be a classic case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
While it certainly would be easier in the long run for Annie’s to maintain its commitment to quality, organically produced food if it remained an independent company, it is not necessarily a done deal that quality will fall from an acquisition by General Mills.
The owners of Annie’s have a right to sell, after all. The company has been around for 25 years and maybe this is the right choice for the founding family. Who are we to judge their reasons?
This is a free country and threatening the company with an organized boycott when it has not yet deviated one whit from its original mission for something that is completely within its legal right and the founding family’s choice for the pursuit of happiness as they see fit seems very un-American to me.
It’s a “you’re guilty until proven innocent” mentality.
In addition, many Americans only have a choice to buy food at a Super WalMart or some other large supermarket chain. For these people, Annie’s represents a very good option and targeting a company with a boycott unintentionally harms these people too who have so few food choices as it is.
It is certainly very important for consumers to keep a close eye on Annie’s in the coming months and years to see if the quality and commitment to the nonGMO Project does indeed begin to suffer from becoming an arm of Big Food. If it does, you can be sure that I will be among the first to drop it like a hot potato and will not spend another dime on their products.
If, however, Annie’s continues to produce quality items, I see no reason to not continue buying their products as they fit the budget and eating philosophy.
There are some of Annie’s products I never buy, but there are some that I like well enough and buy occasionally especially when I am traveling and having difficulty finding decent food. I have no plans to alter my buying patterns in any way.
However, if the opportunity presents itself, I would certainly prefer to buy from another independent company if it has a similar product to Annie’s – most especially if this company is local! But, given that Annie’s isn’t a local company no matter if it remained independent or becomes part of Big Food, the choice to buy from them doesn’t really change due to the acquisition plans.
In my view, we should support quality food wherever it is produced, big corporation or a small independent company with local businesses always taking precedence if at all possible. A dollar spent on Annie’s products is not supporting General Mills, in my opinion. It is supporting quality food, and big corporation or not, General Mills will produce more of it if we demand it as consumers.
The bottom line is that where you spend your food dollar matters. If you spend it on quality foods that are nonGMO and produced in a sustainable manner, this is the type of food that will become more available – big company or small, GMO labeling or not.
What is your view? Are you going to boycott Annie’s because it will be acquired by General Mills? Why or why not?
2019 Update
Five years after the General Mills acquisition, I am happy to report that I am still buying Annie’s products. While not as good as what I make at home, they are still of high enough quality that I occasionally purchase some of Annie’s items for lunchboxes and snacks.
I will not buy Annie’s….profits from sales of Annie’s products will now support big corporate General Mills who opposes GMO labeling. If they didn’t think GMO labeling would affect their sales, they wouldn’t spend so much money fighting it!
I am surprised you wouldn’t vote a different way with your food dollar. I think the focus on quality of Annie’s products going forward with General Mills pales in comparison to focusing on the greed of Annie’s to sell out to a company that is not synergistic with their value and mission!! In fact, you could say they are polar opposites! This is no partnership!! Yes, it is their right to sell but I think they could have selected a company that shared in its core mission statement and had the goal of providing nourishing foods! I hope that you reconsider your position to continue to buy Annie’s products. I encourage you to at least take a second look at why it makes sense not to buy from General Mills/Annies.
I think Annie’s product is processed junk food anyway. The glut of products got worse as the years went on. I feel people buy ANNIE’S because of the name, with little regard to the multitude of ingredients that become miss mosh, certainly not “health food” in my opinion. The “pledge” the CEO gave to continue yadah yadah is like a Presidential speech – no way going to believe there’s much truth in it. Don’t care to watch the degrading with this or that ingredient – who’s got time to waste? There’s better choices out there – ingredient list should be short, when close to 20 as in many of her products, you’re not much better off than the average Joe eating Wendy’s.
Amen to that. If you’re into real food, products like Annie’s are just a stop along the way to eating whole, unprocessed, fresh foods, not boxed and bottled pre-made products.
Yes, agreed. But the fact is that most Real Foodies that I know, including myself, buy packaged foods at least occasionally to fill the gaps when homemade doesn’t happen at a smooth and consistent rate for whatever reason … family illness, stress, overscheduling and whatnot. I am grateful for companies like Annie’s that are out there as my Plan B as I have no domestic help and many other parents don’t either.
I’m an absolute ‘no’ on this one. I don’t support the reasoning that the more we buy organic and sustainable products from the BIG corps, the better those products will be, the more they will produce, the better our world. They have clearly and intentionally been co-opting the organics industry, because there are large profits to be made there. They actively and aggressively work to dilute organic standards, so that their short-cutting, cheaper, and always less healthy practices can still get the ‘organic’ label. (It does not surprise me a bit to hear that they have already removed the non-gmo designation on their label. It’s General Mills, folks.) All that the consumer has fought for, regarding those standards is slowly being chipped away by industry. General Mills is one of the biggest in that industry, and they are no stranger to these tactics. I don’t trust what they tell the public I don’t trust their practices, and when a company transparently undermines the freedom and will of the people to simply KNOW what they are eating….then they deserve NONE of my support. Of course Annie’s has the right to do whatever they want…..and when they make the decision to sell to an entity like General Mills, then the boycott is a perfect tool—one of the only ones we consumers have—to show our opinions of such a decision. Even beyond the protest nature of a boycott, one should suspect that General Mills will indeed be meddling with the product, and they will NOT be racing to let us know the truth about that.
I’m inclined to agree with Sarah though rather than the baby/bathwater I think the boycott would be more akin to cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face. There are few enough sources of decent food and if the brand continues to prosper then it may be allowed to stay it’s course. Remember that GM is only interested in making money and if the product happens to be good they really won’t give a damn.
just wait. their ingredients will change. frito lay bought barely naked pita chips and they went from 3 ingredients to about 10 and yes i can taste and feel the difference. so sad.
Buying their product only supports the enemy. They are a smart business. They want both markets so they can make more money. More money is more power. Power to defeat GMO labeling. Why put your money into their hands?
Sarah,
I am dissapointed nin your decision to spend another dime with General Mills…I live in Oregon and it is so upsetting to see all the no 92 ads on the airways and in mailboxesnthat are outright lies…if Annie’s soldnout to GM, I agree that is thier rignt.but why put even a dime in GM’s pocket to help them win another gmo labeling campaign? Annie’s founder has his money now, why do you care if GM tanks when they take it over? This feels very hypocritical to me…love 95% of what you write or post but this has me rethinking staying with your blog..very, very sad day….
Every time a big food buys up an independent organic company it is a concern. These companies are always looking for ways to lower the standards of the USDA organic label. Dean foods and Organic Horizen Milk comes to mind. Walmart comes to mind. They are always on the lookout to increase their bottom line. Not saying small organic companies should not make money, but again these big companies will cut corners anyway they can. Also small farmers are going to fare worse the more these big companies take over organics. I am truly surprised you have this opinion.
I generally agree that it is worth seeing what General Mills does with Annie’s going forward. Big Food is recognizing that there’s a real market for natural foods, though they don’t necessarily recognize the market in doing the right thing. That said, you said:
“This is a free country and threatening the company with a boycott for something that is completely within their legal rights seems very un-American to me.”
This I disagree with. Producing terrible food products is actually within the legal rights of Big Food, and a boycott is a good approach as long as the laws stay the same. “Vote with your dollars.”
A boycott strikes me as possibly premature but certainly not un-American.
no way! i don’t buy any of the big food brands (cascadian farms, kashi, honest tea, etc). i will not support companies that are hellbent on defeating any effort toward GMO labeling and ultimately hiding what’s in our food. our dollars spent with these companies go toward defeating propositions like 37 in california. no. friggin. way. there’s always another choice. i do just fine and i’m no supermom.