Who Owns Your Favorite Organic Brands?

by Dr. Phil Howard, 25 July 2007

As the $20 billion organic marketplace continues to expand, major corporations continue to take over many of the most familiar organic brands. Dr. Phil Howard, an Assistant Professor at Michigan State, has provided a new update on his popular chart "Who Owns Organic." Are you supporting corporations like Kraft, M&M, or Pepsi with what you thought was a purchase of your old familiar brand?

A few examples of the organic industry structure:

• Heinz owns Hain, Breadshop, Arrowhead Mills, Garden of Eatin', Farm Foods, Imagine Rice and Soy Dream, Casbah, Health Valley, DeBoles, Nile Spice, Celestial Seasonings, Westbrae, Westsoy, Little Bear, Walnut Acres, Shari Ann's, Mountain Sun, Millina's Finest, etc.
• Kraft owns Boca Foods and Back to Nature.
• Coca-Cola owns Odwalla.
• Pepsi owns Naked Juice.
• Hershey Foods owns Dagoba.
• M&M Mars owns Seeds of Change
• Kellog owns Kashi and Morningstar Farms
• General Mills owns Cascadian Farm and Muir Glen
• ConAgra owns Lightlife

View this chart to see acquisitions of the top selling organic brands

View this chart to see the top selling INDEPENDENT organic brand