not so organic after all? we been hot tricked!

andrea whitfill wrote this article for alternet about the different 'alternative' organic products on the market and how they're actually owned by ginormous corporations.

obviously big corporations are going to cash in on the organic/alternative trend but it's interesting to think how blindly we just accept these products without tracking down this kind of information.



people might argue that it doesn't matter if large corporations own these brands as long as the ingredients don't change--buying 'organic' is still beneficial even if it is from a corporation, right?

wrong. most of these corporations have disgusting track records in regards to their environmental, farming, and labour practises. dean foods, for instance, supplies wal-mart with the majority of their 'organic' or soy products but have been accused in the past of setting up production in places where there are no standards for such products--basically they slap an organic label on something but don't have to prove it.

the national director of the organic consumers association says that "what's important to keep in mind is that these big corporations are getting into organics not because they have doubts about their prior business practices or doubts about chemical, industrial agriculture, they're getting in because they want to make a lot of money -- they want to make it fast."

maybe if these companies were actually abiding by the practices that we claim to be dedicated to when we buy these products, maybe if they replaced their traditional products with these alternatives, maybe if they paid their employees well and didn't union-bust, maybe if they didn't continue to pump toxic chemicals into the environment, maybe if they didn't dodge health and safety standards, maybe if they even did one of these things then it would be alright to continue buying these products.

they don't. my tom's of maine love affair is over!!

burt's bees:

owned by clorox. burt's bees wasn't developed by clorox, but the bleach company bought it in october, 2007 for over nine hundred million dollars.
clorox is also behind products like liquid-plumr, pine-sol and armor all.

tom's of maine:
owned by colgate-palmolive (other products include ajax and speedstick)

stoneyfield dairy:
danone has a majority holding

horizon organic milk:
owned by dean foods.

silk soy products:
owned by dean foods.

odwalla:

owned by coca-cola.

r.w knudsen and santa cruz organic:
owned by smuckers.

kashi cereals:

owned by kellogg's.