Environmental for Food Justice

Changing sector involves expansions, acquisitions and concentration PEPSI AMONG THE TOP CORPORATIONS GETTING INTO ORGANIC FOOD Devon G. Peña | Seattle, WA | February 23, 2014 Professor Phil Howard of Michigan State University has been tracking the growth of corporate organics since 1997 and most recently by creating diagrams of the structure of the organic industry. These diagrams are based on the acquisitions by the top 30 food processors in the United States. Comparing the trajectory from 2003 through 2013, a very interesting set of patterns emerges from Howard’s diagrams.   There are obvious changes like the addition of Pepsico (a.k.a. Pepsi), the nation’s largest food and beverage processor. Pepsi’s direct presence in the organics market appears to have been initiated in November 2006 with the acquisition of Naked Juice; compare the 2003 and 2013 diagrams immediately below . Diagram 1. Structure of Corporate Organics (2003)   Diagram 2. Structure of Corporate Organics (Au...

Moderator’s Note: About a year ago, I posted an essay in which I criticized Whole Foods Market (WFM) for its mistreatment of workers, anti-union history, and ‘greenwashing’ of its actual ecological or carbon footprint. In the post of September 4, 2012 , I argued that: From a structural violence and social equity vantage point, there are plenty of good reasons to focus…on Whole Foods Market as an oppressive and exploitative corporation…Here are my top three reasons that Whole Foods Market is really just another capitalist corporation with more interest in the bottom line than in the wellness of farmers and their communities or even their own store workers and consumers: 1. Whole Foods has a long history of being anti-union. 2. Whole Foods is against universal health care. 3. Whole Foods now stocks conventional and even GMO (transgenic) products and is failing to support the campaign for labeling of GE-foods. There are, of course, many other reasons to object to the labor-management, su...