Power grab at the top of the natural-food industry

From a February 13 article, “Who owns organics now?”, at the Cornucopia Institute:

“In 1995 there were 81 independent organic processing companies in the United States. A decade later, Big Food had gobbled up all but 15 of them.”

At Cornucopia, you can view Philip H Howard’s monster chart (updated) depicting the Big Food owners and the companies they’ve bought.

http://www.cornucopia.org/who-owns-organic/

Some of those Big Boy Buyers? Nestle, Coca Cola, Pepsi, M&M Mars, Campbell Soup, ConAgra. These are also companies who put up money to defeat GMO-labeling ballot measures in California and Washington state.

Consider another big buyer. Hain Celestial. Starting in the mid-1990s, they’ve purchased:

Ella’s Kitchen; Earth’s Best, Walnut Acres; ShariAnn’s; Mountain Sun; Millina’s Finest; Frutti di Bosco; Sunspire; MaraNantha; Westbrae; Westsoy; Little Bear; Bearitos; TofuTown; Nile Spice; Blue Print; DeBole’s; Garden of Eatin’; Arrowhead Mills; Breadshop; Health Valley; Casbah; Imagine/Rice; Dream/Soy; Dream; Celestial Seasoning.

This buying spree was aided by investments from HL Heinz and George Soros.

Currently among the top shareholders of Hain Celestial: Goldman Sachs and Blackrock.

Blackrock is the world’s biggest asset manager. In 2009, the US Federal Reserve and the US Treasury Department contracted Blackrock to evaluate “distressed federal assets” worth $130 billion.

From 2010-2013, notorious corporate raider, Carl Icahn, owned 12% of Hain Celestial.

-Nothing personal, it’s just business. We just add companies to our portfolio. We consolidate our position in the industry.-

People used to think the natural-food world was a dedicated mom-and-pop operation. Not anymore.

It’s big fish eating little fish.

And what happens to the food itself, when companies buying other companies becomes the real game in town?

Jon Rappoport

Delivered by The Daily Sheeple

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Contributed by Jon Rappoport of No More Fake News.

The author of an explosive collection, THE MATRIX REVEALED, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world.

Source: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/power-grab-at-the-top-of-the-natural-food-industry_032014