topic What company owns the food you eat in Community Chat

What company owns the food you eat

meloncholy — Sat, 06 Feb 2016 19:35:47 GMT

http://244z4035563zsv8dq301c242m4.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Organic-chart-Jan-2016.jpg

Re: What company owns the food you eat

Goldengate8361 — Sat, 06 Feb 2016 19:44:39 GMT

Interesting industry and interesting chart. I care about the quality of food I eat, but I honesty don't care what company owns the company that it's coming from.

Re: What company owns the food you eat

HappyDaze — Sat, 06 Feb 2016 19:47:42 GMT

I enjoy information like this. Nerdy, I know, but I find it interesting. As much as possible I buy from local, small business. I shop alot at farmers markets too.

Re: What company owns the food you eat

GingerPeach — Sat, 06 Feb 2016 22:01:38 GMT

That's exactly why Whole Foods stopped carrying Dagoba chocolate.

Re: What company owns the food you eat

hennypenny — Sat, 06 Feb 2016 22:20:38 GMT

meloncholy, I received the same email this am. I spent quite a time going through all the info. What interested me was the chart with the organic milk and milk products. It is so hard to know wht to buy these days. We go every sat to the local farmer's market and only buy from the certified organic vendors.

Re: What company owns the food you eat

sandraskates — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 01:09:45 GMT

@GingerPeach wrote:
That's exactly why Whole Foods stopped carrying Dagoba chocolate.

Hi @GingerPeach. I couldn't find Dagoba on that chart. Who owns them? (I never liked that brand but I'm curious). Some of the connections are quite interesting yet not surprising. I think consumers are seeking healthier products and traditional producers are aligning to get a toehold in that area.

I buy a lot of products under the Hain-Celstial group. I should probably buy stock in that group.

Mondalez now produces Orea cookies; they closed a 75-year-plant in the States and moved production to Mexico.

Re: What company owns the food you eat

GingerPeach — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 01:30:11 GMT

Hi @sandraskates

Dagoba is now owned by Hershey, in the lower right third of the chart. (Just the one connection.) Dagoba used to have very high environmental and welfare standards (not to mention that the chocolate was absolutely delicious -- at least I thought so).

I am not too worried about the Hain-Celestial company. Just because a company has a lot of divisions, isn't always such a bad thing. But I haven't looked into them lately.

Re: What company owns the food you eat

sandraskates — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 16:56:25 GMT

Thanks @GingerPeach! I haven't bought anything produced by Hershey in years and I don't even eat the freebies that pop up each year at the holidays like Kisses. The quality has just decayed so much over the years.

You may want to try some of the bars with the Endangered Species label. Some of their proceeds go to preservation of the animals on their labels. And the chocolate is good stuff with lots of variations. You can find the brand in Whole Foods.

Re: What company owns the food you eat

Mominohio — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 17:23:35 GMT

@Goldengate8361 wrote:
Interesting industry and interesting chart. I care about the quality of food I eat, but I honesty don't care what company owns the company that it's coming from.

This is a super dangerous point of view, from a standpoint of food safety, knowing your food source (if a parent company has bad practices, or doesn't align with your values, the subsidiaries may as well), and keeping informed about where your food is coming from, how it is handled, processed, etc.

Re: What company owns the food you eat

Mominohio — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 17:28:01 GMT

Another thing to consider is that as bigger companies buy up smaller companies (organic or not) you technically have fewer choices. Yes, they may maintain the brands, but the sources of those foods are no longer as varied, as well as their processing plants, procedures etc.

I, personally, don't want all my food coming from the same source, unless it is my own backyard, which is where a significant portion of mine does actually come from.

Re: What company owns the food you eat

GingerPeach — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 21:55:46 GMT

@sandraskates wrote:
Thanks @GingerPeach! I haven't bought anything produced by Hershey in years and I don't even eat the freebies that pop up each year at the holidays like Kisses. The quality has just decayed so much over the years.

You may want to try some of the bars with the Endangered Species label. Some of their proceeds go to preservation of the animals on their labels. And the chocolate is good stuff with lots of variations. You can find the brand in Whole Foods.

Hi @sandraskates

I have had a few of the Endangered Species chocolate varieties - actually, I've tried many of the chocolate brands Whole Foods carries (not all at once!).

I'm glad so many of us care about these things, @Mominohio and @sandraskates