Who Owns Organic Food Brands?

I've been hearing a lot of muttering about "big organics" -- that's usually code for

Wal-Mart -- and "Chinese organics" -- usually used as a short-form expression to

mean the opposite of locally grown organics.

What I've not been hearing much about is the corporate ownership of many

familiar American organic brands. So I was fascinated to see Michigan State

University Assistant Professor Phil Howard's chart of organics ownership.

Howard is in the department of community, agriculture, recreation and resource

studies.

Until 2005, Heinz appears to have had the most holdings. The 24th largest food

processor, Heinz has a stake in Hain Celestial Group, the 85th largest food

processor. Hain Celestial, in turn, owns the following brands: Millina's Finest,

Fruitti di Bosca, Walnut Acres, Mountain Sun, ShariAnn's, Tofu Town, Westbrae,

Bearitos, Westsoy, Little Bear, Celestial Seasonings, Imagine/Rice Dream/Soy

Dream, Breadshop, Casbah, Health Valley, Arrowhead Mills, DeBole's, Garden

of Eatin', Spectrum Organics, Nile Spice and Earth's Best. According to research

by Paul Glover and Carole Resnick of the Greenstar Food Co-op in Ithaca, N.Y.,

Hain's largest investors include Philip Morris, Monsanto, Citigroup, Exxon-Mobil,

Wal-Mart and Lockheed Martin.

Here are the owners of the other brands Howard studied:

The number in parentheses is the company's rank in North American food sales.

Kraft (No. 2): Boca Foods, Back to Nature. Kraft is owned by Phillip Morris.

Pepsi (No. 3): Naked Juice

Dean Foods (No. 6): Alta Dena, Horizon, The Organic Cow of Vermont. Glover

and Resnick say that Dean Foods main investors include Microsoft, General

Electric, Citigroup, Pfizer, Philip Morris, Exxon-Mobil, Coca Cola, Wal-Mart,

PepsiCo and Home Depot

General Mills (No. 7): Cascadian Farm, Muir Glen. Glover and Resnick report

that General Mills' stockholders include Philip Morris, Exxon-Mobil, General

Electric, Chevron, Nike, McDonald's, Monsanto, Dupont, Dow Chemical and

Pepsico

ConAgra (No. 9): Lightlife

Kellogg (No. 14): Kashi, Morningstar Farms/Natural Touch

Coca-Cola (No. 15): Odwalla

Cargill (No. 19): French Meadow

M & M Mars (No. 21): Seeds of Change

Hershey Foods (No. 23): Dagoba

There are a couple of companies on that list whose business practices I don't

support philosophically, and knowing the ownership of the brands helps me make

better-informed buying decisions. – Now you can too.

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“The Stew” TheChicagoTribune.com Posted by Robin Mather Jenkins at 9 a.m.