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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
C+P: Taking another look at your favorite brands
I know that this topic comes up often on this board. If you link to the original article, it goes beyond the Burt's Bees/Tom's discussion and into the look into parent companies of food products as well.
Your Favorite Brands: Take Another Look
Re: C+P: Taking another look at your favorite brands
What I think I find most interesting about the article is that the author speaks about Trader Joes as if they are a group of small, affiliated neighborhood markets with a concious when TJs is owned by German supermarket giant, Aldi. Hello pot--this is the kettle!!
And I'm disappointed that the article still doesn't tell us anything new--at least by this boards' standards. While I think the discussion on this board always goes back to a locally sourced product is always the best option, it doesn't actually delve into the discussion--ARE any of these small, earth-friendly companies that are being bought out by the monster-megas making any impact on the parent company (besides just beign money makers?) Are any of the smaller companies allowed to continue their small company ways with more access to marketing tools and distribution or are they all really just "sell outs?" Maybe it's just my mood this morning, but those are some topics that I would have prefered to read about in this article, and not just the same old, same old.
I mean, thank you for posting the link--I really don't mean to come off as ungrateful or snippy--I'm just curious when the journalists will delve into the stories a little more and give us more information than just surface "sound bites."
Well this board may know this stuff, but I don't think most people do! I think its pretty frustrating how many 'good', at least on the surface, brands are owned by large, totally non-EF and often unethical companies. I was really disappointed when I found out Kashi was a Kellogg company, and I'm curious now that Kelloggs has decided to switch from conventional sugar to GMO beet sugar if that will also happen in the Kashi line.
*gasp* Green & Black is owned by Schweppes, and my precious Dagoba by Hershey?? Now these are news to me and I consider myself pretty 'up' on who owns what. Holy cow!!
"Judy Wickes from the Social Venture Network describes corporate takeovers of socially responsible businesses as "a threat to democracy when wealth and power are concentrated into a few hands." Agreed!!
"And it is time to find products more in tune with our values, which include thinking small. At least until they, too, get bought out by some large conglomerate." Yes!
I wish it had mentioned Morningstar, Boca and Gardenburger, but I thought this was a great article with information that many don't know and can influence people toward better choices.
Great piece. It's so easy to forget to check things out, particularly in cases like Burt's Bees and Kashi seem to market themselves so well as independent, responsible small businesses.
I knew about Dagoba because I went on a tour of the Scharffen Berger plant that used to be in Berkeley, where I learned that Scharffen Berger had also been bought by Hershey. Hershey since closed the Berkeley plant where it has originated, which really ticked me off. That is seriously the best chocolate ever and I loved having it made locally. Clorox is also based locally, so I knew the Burts Bees thing.
The Kashi thing was a surprise, though I'm not really a fan of their products. Have you ever looked at the ingredients list on some of their stuff? It's just as processed as any other granola bar or cracker.
Also, apparently Niman Ranch is owned by a larger conglomerate now..they bought it a couple years ago, Bill Niman got pissed at the way they started running things, and left to start his own ranch (but can't use his name on the product). It's still far, far better than most companies, but it's not the small scale family farm that many people believe it to be.
Finally, many wineries have started to get bought by huge liquor conglomerates...extremely annoying, because those really have such a history of being small, family and/or local operations.
Similar story in the furniture industry. Bob Timberlake, a local legend here in NC had a furniture line that he sold to Lexington Home Brands (a bigger furniture conglomerate) under the pretense that LHB would still keep production local and that he would still have the final say on things. Time passed and the conglomerate took away all the power, moved his furniture production overseas, so he told LHB to basically eff-off--that he couldn't sit next to a guy in a diner and know that that guy didn't have a job because of his company. The large conglomerate still uses and sells his name, but folks here know that for a quality piece of REAL Bob Timberlake furniture, made locally and proudly in Lexington, NC, to buy under the Linwood Furniture brand name.
This I've known for years, so I don't generally buy those brands (I did purchase G&Bs chocolates when I purchased PCC's "Halloween Mix" bag of candy... but all the proceeds went to a good cause, so I made an exception
.)
Stick to Theo for tasty, unique chocolate bars! Or, for non-local and more widely available, Endangered Species chocolate bars. (But you knew this!)
I sent Theo Chocolates in my mom's Christmas box.
I LOVE Theo chocolate, but Dagoba was my, so I thought, best choice for cocoa powder. I did find that Hershey didn't intend to change anything there. Still...
I love the Endangered Species chocolate too. Yum!!
What if Hershey IS local to me? Barely, because they almost decided to ship all their production out to Mexico a couple years ago.
So much of our local industry is in food production. My area is practically known as the snack capital of the US. That means most of the the food grown locally gets processed and sent away. It's kind of depressing to think about.
Good article! I feel like I pay attention and consider myself to be "in the know" about these sorts of things, but I definitely learned some things from the article.
It reminds me of the scene in Food, Inc., when they're walking around the Organic expo with the Stoneyfield CEO and he points to every booth and tells us which big corporation owns it now...lol. I remember hearing the Kashi/Kellogg thing and being surprised.
PS. I didn't see it in the article, but another one is Bear Naked Granola. It was acquired by Kellogg a couple of years ago.
Well its still processed and unethically-sourced. I loved Dagoba because it was organic and fair-trade. I prefer Theo Chocolates for sure, but they don't make cocoa powder. Oh well, cocoa makes me hyper and agave nectar is crap anyhow.
Are you ever visiting out here again? We could tour Theo!
Derky, I was simply posting because this topic is talked about a lot. I didn't even comment on whether or not I liked or disliked the article.
FWIW, I thought it was interesting to see what was out there in terms of info. I too learned some new things (Green & Blacks... no!!). It's also really interesting to see the food industry monopoly that's happening, even with the "natural" brands. And I like that this is part of a conversation that seems to be prevalent and relevant.
Thanks for posting this! It also reminded me of that part in Food Inc. It's so sad! This part in bold makes me particularly mad:
"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," said Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association. "They're getting in because they want to make a lot of money -- they want to make it fast." He said the companies couldn't care less about "family farmers making the transition to organic farms."
LOL, don't worry Ali, I was kidding. I mean, they are local, but I know Hershey doesn't follow ethical business practices. Milton Hershey was all about local farming and supporting the local economy. The current company's board of directors: not so much.
I'm sure I'll be visiting again at some point. Touring Theo would be great! Mmm, chocolate.