Why No One Should Be Surprised About General Mills Buying Annie’s Homegrown

ByMeredith Bland

anniesIn a move that has caused quite an uproar among the organic/anti-genetically-modified (GM) food crew, General Mills has purchased Annie’s Homegrown for $820 million dollars. This should not be a shock to anyone. Think about it — General Mills gets into the lucrative organic food market, and Annie’s gets $820 million dollars. If you think that any food company out there would reject that much money for the sake of principles, then you have never thought about how many pygmy goats you could buy with $820 million. The answer? Welcome, pesticides! And make way for my pygmy goat farm.

Annie’s, whose popular bunny crackers and delicious mac n’ cheese my children refuse to eat because they are the wrong shade of orange, has become extremely popular based on the following promises it makes to the public about its products:

  • No artificial flavors
  • No synthetic colors
  • No synthetic preservatives
  • No GMOs
  • No growth hormones
  • No persistent pesticides

These are all great aspects of their food and ones that I would support with my grocery store shopping if I had the money and cared about it just a little bit more. It should be noted that GMOs have not been proven to be harmful, and even Annie’s says that no difference has been found between the milk of cows who have been given growth hormones and those who haven’t. However, both of those things sure do sound awful, and we don’t know the long-term effects of having these things in our food. If all things were equal, I would buy what at least sounded more likely to be on the safe side. Unfortunately, I’d rather keep my lights on and my mortgage paid. And I love Doritos.

But the many parents who have been supporting Annie’s stated goals are furious. And I mean furious as in throwing their Annie’s products in the trash and then sending the company a picture.

YOWZAH.

Annie’s insists that all this deal does is give them millions of dollars and the ability to expand their product line. I have a hard time seeing how the company can’t change, though, given that General Mills has spent a whole lot of money trying to keep GMO labels off of food. It’s hard to be a vegetarian working at a slaughter house is all I’m saying.

But Annie’s customers should try to relax. Annie’s never existed for the sole purpose of bettering its customer’s lives. It’s a food company. I have no doubt that many of the people who work there believe strongly in their company’s mission, but ultimately their goal, like every company’s goal, is to expand and make more money. It may be disappointing, but I don’t consider Annie’s to be a “sell-out,” like many are claiming. Annie’s is doing what companies do.

So we’ll see what comes from these strange bedfellows. For my part, I would like to suggest Lucky Charms Bunny Crackers. Mmmmm…tastes like green!

(photo: Twitter)

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