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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 any GM products. Do you really believe that GM is looking out for anything but their bottom line? GMO labeling is a must have labeling in my opinion. I don’t call it a boycott, I call it buyer preference.
Un-American? You’re using that card? What do you mean by that? It’s your choice though and I support that. I just think your reasoning is off. Annie’s did what was right for their family and I will do what’s right for mine. I stopped buying their stuff a long time ago when I realized that just b/c something is organic doesn’t mean it’s healthy. Having kids I understand that it’s convenient and makes a good substitute for the crap out there. However, it really is just substitute crap. People wonder why their ailments don’t completely resolve when they’re still eating processed, boxed stuff like Annie’s.
Never buy their products to begin 🙂
Me neither
While we all have to make our own decisions, supporting companies that are for keeping information from consumers by opposing labeling of what’s really in your food, just fuels the corporate money pot. These companies enable abuse of animals, the people working under terrible conditions, and the largely uneducated about their food consumers. Send a message by voting with your dollars. I couldn’t sleep at night if I continued to support the status quo.
I will no longer buy Annie’s products. I will in no way support General Mills. I’m surprised that you would chose to support them after all they’ve done to the food supply. Un-American?? What does that even mean?? We are one people living together on this earth and should dedicate ourselves to the stewardship of the planet and the consumption of real food for our survival and the survival of the planet through sustainable means. General Mills is aiding in the planet’s destruction. Why would you support that? Seems like a pretty simple choice to me.
Agree. What is “American”? Profit at any cost? So tired of the “Patriot” mantra.
Bottom line is that while Annie’s was free to sell to whomever they chose, I am free to take responsibility for where my money goes, as much as I can see it in this web of deception that corporations have created now! So whether or not GM maintains Annie’s standards, which I highly doubt, I do not want to support GM in any way. Their mission is not to support organic or locally produced food, their mission is to undermine and gobble up independent healthy food options, because they want us eating what they produce…it’s business pure and simple. They bought up Annie’s because they could, and they expect that at least a portion of the customers that used to buy Annie’s and wouldn’t buy GM will now unwittingly become their customers as well.
Sarah,
Your comment “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.”
It is not un-American, actually VERY American. This is voting with your dollars. While I whole-heartily agree that this is the company’s right, it is the consumers right to voice and act on what they want from a company. If enough people do this, there will be a savvy entrepreneur who will standup recognize that there is a market for a product like this and create it. Trusting the likes of Gen Mill to do the right thing when they are one of the big franken food companies and giving them more money to defeat the anti-GMO groups is counter productive.
I disagree … I think punishing a company and boycotting them in an organized fashion .. a company which has yet to do anything wrong and is simply selling because this is their interpretation of freedom and pursuit of happiness is very much un-American.
Would it be ok to sell to Monsanto? If they are aligning themselves with someone working against us, we have every right to voice our opinions and vote with our dollars. I don’t get what being “American” has to do with it. I think you are drinking too much Libertarian tea.
You don’t think Gen Mills has done anything wrong? Once this acquisition has taken place there is no longer an Annie’s, just GM. They are fighting against labeling, they make GMO free foods for sale overseas, but they don’t care enough about Americans to do the same here. Their choice… and they will continue to make money on this until more people hit them in their bottom line.
The 1st Amendment of the constitution defends this as American. Right to assembly and right to free speech.
Convicting Annie’s without them as of yet doing anything wrong and which will operate as as a subsidiary company of General Mills … not run by GM directly is a “guilty until proven innocent” mentality and very un-American.
Love you Sarah, but I think you are missing this one. Follow the money. When you spend a dollar on Annie’s product… where does that money go? Back into the system supporting Monsanto and poisoning us.
Love u too Rick 🙂 I do feel really good about my decision though. I’ve thought it through end to end and this is the right way for me considering all the possible angles. I think we need to give this acquisition a chance and don’t shoot it down before something negative has even happened. That’s just too cynical an approach to life for me.
There is no Annie’s anymore…just food in a box made and sold by GM with the word ‘Annie’s” on the box. No one is tryin to punish the people who sold Annie’s…just the people who bought it.
I don’t see how General Mills will be able to continue selling a product with Non-GMO labeling while at the same time actively fighting against GMO labeling.
I have not bought Annie’s in 2 years because we have switched to a Paleo lifestyle. I have been on their expert panel for years(testing new products and taking surveys) and more and more in the last few years they keep pushing “natural” and when I answer that I only buy organic you don’t participate in the survey. That was my first clue that things were changing. I believe they will go the way of Burt’s Bees, Cascadian Farms and many others.
You missed the ball on this one, Sarah.
My entire family is boycotting. Not just because of the GMO labeling issue, and not just because of the GMA. But because one of the big problems this country is facing is the consolidation we are seeing in every industry, from banks, to seeds, to medicine to food.
This consolidation of power has to stop.
How do your fell about a Big Controlling Federal Government?