Has Your Favorite Independent Organic Food Company Sold Out to a Large Corporation?

Throughout my own journey, it has become clear that it is increasingly important to know where my food comes from. Ideally, I want to know who exactly is making the food, and what their values are. I want to know that the eggs I buy come from ducks or chickens who live on a farm where they are free to roam and eat all the bugs they want, and also are fed good organic feed.

This is also coming back to the idea of food as energy, and the question of nourishment. I love myself so much that I want to consume high energy (ideally fresh or alive) sources of nourishment, and then I am so nourished with positive energy that I can then nourish others with. This is a beautiful cycle if we work it that way.

The other end of this spectrum is consuming (through products made without a foundation of positive values that support life) negative energies like fear, sadness, lack, greed and scarcity. When we do this, on an energetic level, we do not have extra to give, and we may have the worry that there is never enough. This can result in continually consuming, and never being full. This is similar to what in Buddhism is call the "hungry ghost". So many of the food products on the market are simply full of chemicals that please our senses yet breed addiction and deplete our bodies to the point of malnutrition.

Back to Business though... It is not only important to me to constantly check the ingredient labels of what I consume, but it is also important to know the values and integrity of the companies or farms that make the food I am consuming. But what happens when the people you trusted for years sell out to a company that has a history of not only manufacturing products that are not healthy, using harmful chemical compounds and participating in counter-efforts to things like transparent labeling of GMOs?

Normally, the formerly independent company swears that nothing is changing, that everything will stay the same, including the quality of ingredients. Then there are situations like Silk soy milk, where a company who had been high integrity and organic quietly started using GMO soy.

These shifts in the way things are being manufactured and the changes in the quality of ingredients are inevitable eventually in many cases simply because one of the reasons the independent chooses to do this is to manufacture on a bigger scale. Let's keep in mind that manufacturing on a bigger scale in many cases means using more machinery, paying more attention to dollars and less attention to details like the quality of ingredients. 

One of the reasons I continue to check the ingredient label even if I have been buying a product for years is because of the fact that many of my favorite organic companies are selling out to big food. I don't blame them...big corporations can do so much for their growing businesses when it comes to marketing and distribution, but is this belief that they just can't do it on their own standing in the way of staying in integrity to their customers? The answer is sometimes yes. 

The good news is that big corporations like General Mills taking an interest in organic product companies says a great deal about the demand of organic food and other low toxicity products growing to a point where it is financially interesting. We are making choices with our dollars, and apparently making a statement that is being heard on some level.

So basically, I am providing these lists of company acquisitions to provide a clearer picture of who exactly is making your food. I have done some of the work for you, and you can make empowered decisions on your own, based on your own values!