The food giants quickly realized there was a high demand for organic products, which also meant there was an enormous amount of money to be made selling it, so they set out to take over the industry – one cool company at a time. As a result, over 80% of organic companies are now owned by mega corporations.

What should be of most alarming to consumers about the “Big Organic” takeover (think Big Ag and Big Pharma), is the shrewd ability of these corporations to control labeling or lack thereof – as evidenced in the epic battle over GMOs. Equally frightening is their power to effectively water down the standards of organics across the country. Think about it…

Backroom lobbying deals, a corrupt FDA system, and corporate greenwashing will result in fewer, more expensive and less responsible choices. Simultaneously, this will allow Big Ag and Big Organic to completely degenerate the entire organic market. What we know to be a harmful pesticide, may now be reclassified as an “organic pesticide” because it contains some “organic” substance. The loopholes these mega corps seek to instill in the organic market are truly frightening and a major setback in our evolution towards clean, healthy, sustainable farming.

The more we know about who owns and controls our food, the more we can support trustworthy companies. Save this page as a quick reference guide for when you’re out shopping.

Here are some of the companies whose sell-out came at quite a surprise:

1. Annie’s (known for their mac-n-cheese) was bought by General Mills in late summer 2014. This company uses a lot of non-organic cheese products and does not state whether the cheese comes from cows that were fed GMOs.

2. Applegate Farms, the top distributor of organic meat to the U.S., was sold to Hormel (one of the most egregiously pro-GMO meat companies out there) in 2015.

3. Cascadian Farm has been around for so long, you can’t help but think it’s a trusted source of organic products, but it was actually bought out by General Mills in 1999. They were quick to triple the sugar content in their once “no added sugars” cereals.

4. Silk, although found in the health food section of most stores, they are not exactly organic… When the company was acquired by WhiteWave, a spin-off company of the massive pro-GMO corporation Dean Foods, they actually switched from non-GMO to GMO soybeans without telling their customers!

5. Earthbound Farms, the largest supplier of organic produce in the U.S., was also purchased by WhiteWave back in 2013.

6. R.W. Knudson’s  is another one of those companies who has been around forever, but what most don’t realize is the organic juice maker is owned by Smucker’s, who publicly supports the use of GMOs.

7. Dagoba Chocolate is branded to look like a cool, independent company, but it’s actually owned by the chocolate giant Hershey’s.

8. Stonyfield Organic Yogurt Yes – Stonyfield! They are owned by the Danone Group of France, makers of Dannon yogurt, Brown Cow yogurt, and Evian water.

9. Honest Tea & Odwalla Honestly, I could not believe either of these companies sold-out to Coca Cola.

10. Horizon was scooped up by WhiteWave and are now subject to many complaints and investigations alleging they’re more of a factory farm type of operation than an “organic” company.

11. Dave’s Killer Bread is the latest great company to sell out for a whopping $275 million dollars. Basically Dave Dahl handed over his baby to the pro-GMO food corporation Flowers Food (owners of Wonder Bread) so he could “sit back and relax”. When asked in a recent interview: “What do you tell the folks who say Killer Dave sold out?” He responded:  “That’s what I did,”  “That’s what we did.”

12. Morning Star, Kashi, and Bear Naked  are all owned by food giant Kellogg’s.

13. Boca and back to Nature are both owned by Kraft

14. Tom’s of Maine is actually under Colgate.

15. Burt’s Bees was once as independent as independent could be – that is until the company was sold to Clorox.

16. Garden of Eatin’, Arrowhead Mills, Spectrum Organics, Earth’s Best, Health Valley, Casbah, Imagine/Rice Dream/Soy Dream, Tofu Town and Westsoy all belong to the Hain Celestial/Heinz corporation.

17. Naked Juice has sadly been owned by Pepsi since 2006.

18. Humboldt Creamery sounds like a charming Northern California independent company, but no…it is owned by none other than Foster Farms.

19. Erewhon, with its organic sounding name, is actually owned by Post Foods.

20. New Chapter, a very popular maker of natural vitamin supplements, was taken over by Proctor and Gamble. This is a real shock and a huge concern for the future of the brand’s quality control.

Here is a broader list of organic and non-organic companies who have all sold out:

BRAND	OWNED BY	DATE
Aidell’s Sausage	Hillshire Brands	2011
Alexia Foods	ConAgra	2007
Alta Dena	Dean Int’l.	1999
Annie’s Naturals	General Mills	2014
Applegate Farms	Hormel	2015
Arrowhead Mills	Hain Celestial	1998
Attune	Post Foods	2013
Back To Nature	Heinz/Kraft	2003
Barbara’s	Wheatabix Food Co.	1986
Bearitos	Hain Celestial	1997
Bear Naked	Kellogg	2007
Ben & Jerrys Organic	Unilever	2003
Boca Foods	Heinz/Kraft	2000
Bolthouse Farms	Campbell Soup	2012
Breadshop	Hain Celestial	1999
Breyer’s Organic	Unilever	2006
Brown Cow	Dannon/Danone	2003
Campbell’s Organic	Campbell Soup	2003
Casbah	Hain Celestial	1999
Cascadian Farm	General Mills	1999
Coleman Natural	Purdue Farms	2011
Dagoba	Hershey Foods	2006
Dave’s Killer Bread	Flower Foods	2015
DeBole’s	Hain Celestial	1998
DiGiorno Organic	Heinz/Kraft	2006
Dole Organic	Dole	2001
Dove Organic	M&M Mars	2006
Draper Valley	Purdue Farms	2007
Earthbound Farm	WhiteWave (Dean Int’l)	2013
Earth’s Best	Hain Celestial	1999
Ella’s Kitchen	Hain Celestial	2013
Erewhon	Post Foods	2013
Food Should Taste Good	General Mills	2012
French Meadow	Rich Products Corp	2007
Fruitti de Bosco	Walnut Acres	2001
Garden of Eatin	Hain Celestial	1998
Gerber Organic Baby Food	Nestle	2007
Gold Medal Organic	General Mills	2005
Golden Temple	Post/Hearthside	2011
Green & Black’s	Cadbury Schweppes	2005
Happy Baby Organic	Dannon/Danone	2013
Happy Family	Dannon/Danone	2013
Health Valley	Hain Celestial	1999
Heinz Organic	Heinz/Kraft	2002
Hershey Organic	Hershey Foods	2007
Honest Tea	Coca Cola (40% stake)	2008
Horizon Organic	Dean	2004
Humboldt Creamery	Foster Farms	2009
Hunt’s Organic	ConAgra	2005
Imagine	Hain Celestial	2002
Kashi	Kellogg	2000
Keebler Organic	Kellogg	2006
Kellogg’s Organic	Kellogg	2006
Kettle (chips, etc.)	Diamond Foods	2010
Knudsen R.W.	J.M. Smucker	1984
Kraft Organic	Heinz/Kraft	2008
Larabar	General Mills	2008
Late July	Snyders (minority stake)	2007
Lightlife	ConAgra	2000
Maranatha	Hain Celestial	2008
Millina’s Finest	Walnut Acres	2001
Millstone	J.M. Smucker	2008
Morningstar Farms	Kellogg	1999
Mott’s Organic	Cadbury Schweppes	2004
Mountain Sun	Hain Celestial/Walnut Acres	2001
Muir Glen	Cascadian Farm	1998
Nabisco Organic	Kraft	2007
Naked Juice	Pepsi	2008
Nantucket Nectars Organic	Cadbury Schweppes	2004
Natural Touch	Kellogg	1999
Nature’s Farm	Tyson	2001
Nile Spice	Hain Celestial	1998
Odwalla	Coca Cola	2001
Organic Cow of Vermont	Horizon	1999
Orville Redenbacher’s Organic	ConAgra	2005
Pace Organic	Campbell’s	2005
PAM Organic	ConAgra	2006
Peace Cereal	Post/Hearthside	2011
Peet’s Coffee & Tea	Sara Lee/JAB/D.E. MasterBlenders	2011
Planters Organic	Kraft	2007
Plum Organic Baby Food	Campbells	2013
PowerBar	Nestle	2006
Prego Organic	Campbell’s	2005
Pria Grain Essentials	Nestle	2006
Ragu Organic	Campbell’s	2005
Rice Dream (Imagine)	Hain Celestial	2002
Santa Cruz Organic	J.M. Smucker Co	1989
Seeds of Change	M&M Mars	1997
ShariAnn’s	Walnut Acres	2001
Silk	White Wave Foods	2013
Soy Dream (Imagine)	Hain Celestial	2002
Spectrum Organics	Hain Celestial	2005
Stone Mill	Anhueser-Busch	2006
Stonyfield	Dannon/Danone	2001
SunSpire	Hain Celestial	2008
Swansons Organic	Campbell’s	2005
Tostito’s Organic	Pepsi	2003
Tropicana Organic	Pepsi	2007
V8 Organic	Campbell’s	2005
Van’s	Hillshire Farms	2014
Walnut Acres	Hain Celestial	2003
Westbrae	Hain Celestial	1997
Westsoy	Hain Celestial	1997
Wholesome & Hearty	Kellogg	2007
Wholesome Sweetners	Arlon Group	2012
Wild Hop	Anhueser-Busch	2006
Willamette Valley Granola	Post/Hearthside	2011
Wolfgang Puck Soup	Campbell Soup	2008

 

 

Now for the good news! There are some companies who are holding strong. We need to do our best to support their efforts. Here’s the list:

 

•  Alvarado Street Bakery

•  Apple and Eve

•  Artisana Nut Butters

•  Bearded Brothers

•  Betty Lou’s Bars

•  Bionaturae

•  Bob’s Red Mill

•  Bragg Foods

•  Bueno Foods

•  Carla Lee’s Nut Burgers

•  CB’s Nuts

•  Clif Bar

•  Core Foods

•  Crofter’s Organic Fruit Spreads

•  Eden Organic

•  Edward & Sons Brands

•  Farmer’s Market Organic Pumpkin and Squash Products

•  Feridies Peanuts

•  Fiordifruuta Organic Fruit Spread

•  Grindstone Bakery

•  Grown Right

•  Healthy Times

•  Helios Organic Kefir

•  Late July

•  Let’s Do Organic

•  Lotus Foods

•  Lundberg Family Farms / Wehah Farms

•  Mary’s Free Range Turkeys

•  Murray’s Chicken

•  My Grandpa’s Farm

•  Napa Valley Naturals

•  Native Forest

•  Nature Factor

•  Nature’s Legacy / VitaSpelt / Purity Foods

•  Nature’s Path

•  Newman’s Own Organics

•  NOW Foods

•  NuGo Nutrition bars

•  Nutburgers

•  Nutiva

•  Once Again Nut Butter

•  One Degree Organic

•  Organic Food Bar

•  Organic Valley

•  Organicville

•  Pacific Beach Peanut Butter

•  Pascha Chocolates

•  Pure Bar

•  Que Pasa

•  R.W. Garcia Tortilla chips

•  Rapunzel Naturkost

•  Raw Revolution

•  Road’s End Organic

•  Rudi’s Bakery

•  Sambazon

• SOL Cuisine

•  SquareBar

•  Sunshine Burger

• Teddie Peanut Butter

•  Theo’s Chocolates

•  Uncle Matt’s Organic

•  Shiloh Farms

•  Starwest Botanicals

•  Sweet Creek Foods

•  Tasty Brand

•  Two Moms in the Raw

• Vermont Village Applesauce

•  VitaSpelt

•  Vivapura

•  Wild Friends Foods

•  Yogi Tea

•  YummyEarth / YumEarth

• Zulka

 

***If we’ve missed anyone, please let us know. The information we’ve collected on all of the companies for this post was through public record and any errors in facts should be brought to our attention.

 

» Source