General Mills

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Corporate PR

Early History

General Mills was an early client of Corporate PR (public relations) industry pioneer Ivy Lee, whose other clientele included American Tobacco, Standard Oil, and the Rockefellers. [1]

Lee's work first attracted national controversy in the Ludlow Massacre of the families of striking coal workers, after which he was dispatched by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to cover up what subpoenaed documents revealed to be a deliberate assault by his hired mercenaries, at the direct orders of Rockefeller, to suppress the Ludlow strike via mass murder.[2]

To General Mills, Lee made such enduring contributions as the creation of Betty Crocker and the "Breakfast of Champions" slogan that adorns the Wheaties box. [3]

Recent Ad Spending

As of 2003, the food industry’s global advertising budget was $40 billion, a figure greater than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 70 per cent of the world’s nations. The industry outspends the World Health Organization 500-1 promoting vs. preventing unhealthy diets. [4]

At the time, General Mills was the #7 adspender compared to other US food companies promoting a particular MegaBrand, having spent $265 million to advertise Big G Cereals, a sum only lower than Pepsi-Cola, Burger King, Kraft/Altria, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart and McDonald's (which led the list with $655 million spent). [5]

Sugary Cereal & Public Health

By the 2000s, many industrializing countries such as Russia, China and India began suffering a rising tide of diet-related diseases as multinational food companies increasingly exported their products and their advertising practices.[6]

While obesity has been misclassified as a problem of individual responsibility, not least by the food industry, the rising epidemic of obesity in low-, middle- and rich-income countries is repositioning it as a question of public health and social impact. [7]

By 2002-2003, leading financial, political, scientific, and public health instiutions had clearly recognized the production of sugary food commodities as the greatest dietary contributor to the obesity epidemic.

Financial Risk

A 2002 global equity research published by UBS Warburg reported that the share prices of many of the world's biggest food companies are at risk because of "consumers" exposure to exposure to "unhealthy" foodstuffs,' specifically "risks associated with obesity that have not yet been factored into share prices."

As the Warburg report concluded: "If the [obesity] epidemic is to be tamed, the major purveyors will have to see sales of many of their traditional product lines fall."

In April 2003, a JP Morgan Chase equity research report explored this risk further, drawing up a list of the product portfolios of the companies most exposed to the 'obesity risk' (based on percentage of total revenue).

In JP Morgan's accounting, General Mills was the U.S. food company whose commodities posed the 8th highest obesity risk, due to 1/3 of its foods posing demonstrated health risks and being ranked "not so healthy," ranking only behind Wrigley, Kellogg, Kraft, Pepsi-Cola, Coca-cola, Cadbury, and Hershey. [8]

Childhood Marketing

The International Association of Consumer Food Organizations (IACFO), reported in "Broadcasting Bad Health" (2003) that the health of the children around the world is put at risk by the marketing of junk food. This has been identified as the weak spot for the food industry in relation to its marketing practices, and since 2003 the World Health Organization has urged governments to consider restricted TV ads for 'sugar-rich items' to children. In many industrialized countries, food advertising accounts for around half of all advertising broadcast during children’s TV viewing times. [9]

Kath Dalmeny, co-author of the report, disclosed that "Junk food advertisers know that children are especially susceptible to marketing messages. They target children as young as two years old with free toys, cartoon characters, gimmicky packaging and interactive websites to ensure that children pester their parents for the products."[10]

Spin & Denial

On the heels of this growing financial and legal pressure in 2003 and the U.S. dietary guideline and food pyramid update in 2005, General Mills announced the launch of reformulated "whole grain" versions of its cereals.

Cereal boxes were plastered with huge "whole grain" banners as well as the revamped food pyramid, called MyPyramid. Everything from Reese's Puffs to Cookie Crisps, Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms were labeled as "whole grain," despite other ingredients such as canola oil, corn syrup, dextrose, gelatin, artificial flavors and various dyes. To explain away the contradiction, General Mills denied that the high sugar content in their cereal mattered and claimed there was no healthier breakfast a child could eat: "Even with presweetened cereals, there really is no better breakfast your child eat in the morning."[11][12]

To promote its denial, General Mills launched a television campaign dubbed "Choose Breakfast" to portray itself as a champion of children's health. Launched in June 2005, the campaign purports to "communicate the benefits of breakfast to children."[13] General Mills tried to give the campaign "public service" respectability by claiming the campaign is "non-branded," but the ten-second spots are paired with twenty-second commercials for the company's cereals, including Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs, and Trix. The Trix rabbit and Lucky Charms leprechaun also appear in ads touting the benefits of physical activity, misdirecting from the sugar found in their cereal bowls.[14][15]

Advertising as Fake News

In March 2006, a video news release (VNR) produced for General Mills / Bisquick by the PR firm Medialink Worldwide aired on at least four television stations, disguised as "news." The stations who aired the VNR were KYTX-19 in Tyler, Texas; WBOC-16 in Salisbury, Maryland; WFXW-38 in Terre Haute, Indiana; and WILX-10 in Lansing, Michigan.

The VNR featured new ideas for pancake dishes, such as Mexican corncakes, orange toffee pancakes, banana split pancakes, and PB&J shortstacks. The VNR coincided with "National Pancake Week," created in 1985 by General Mills and Bisquick. [16]

Greenwashing

The Nature Conservancy

There is a close and longstanding relationship between General Mills and The Nature Conservancy, which is funded and governed by the biggest corporate polluters in the U.S.

General Mills' Nature Valley granola bars have displayed the Conservancy logo since 1998. "There is nothing more environmentally friendly" about the product, Rangan said. "We have a big problem with that." There is also no disclosure on the snacks that, until last fall, a General Mills Inc. corporate director sat on the Conservancy's board.

[17]

Agroecology

Shauna Sadowski, head of sustainability for the natural and organic operating unit at General Mills: "Our current model is an extractive one that has left our environment in a state of degradation — eroded soil, polluted water. We have to change the entire paradigm to use natural ecological processes to gather nutrients and build the soil."

Regenerative Grazing

White Oak Pastures

As a major supplier for General Mills, White Oak Pastures is "not just a small local farm, but actually part of a powerful and massive multinational company, and an important arm of its branding and marketing." [18]

In a 2019 report on White Oak Pastures' carbon footprint, funded by General Mills and published by Quantis, the ranch's importance to rebranding & consumer psychology was made explicit:

Regeneratively grazed beef can likely escape the stigma of extremely high carbon emissions attached to conventional beef. General Mills, Epic and WOP should consider how to tell this story to ensure brand enhancement[19]

According to this Quantis report, White Oak Pastures application of Allan Savory's brand of Holistic Management was so effective that the ranch was producing "carbon-negative beef!" Yet this bold claim was refuted only a year later by a second study also funded by General Mills, which reported that while White Oak Pastures may reduce carbon emissions relative to other cattle operations, it was still a net emitter of carbon.[20]

Despite General Mills' second study refuting the "carbon-negative" assertions of its previous study, both the ranch and the Savory Institute have continued to cite the erroneous findings of Quantis' report, claiming the beef is "carbon-negative."[21][22]

Yet even General Mills' new study was found to have "significant lapses that grossly exaggerate or misrepresent the true SOC sequestration capacity of their farming techniques" despite finding that "“Beef cattle account for about 95% of animal and 52% of land emissions on the ranch.[23]

The study also only used a 100-year timescale to evaluate the heating impact of Methane, minimizing its impact by at least 2.5x over the next 20 years. This short-term timeframe is key for analyzing the non-linear dynamics of climate collapse and stopping feedback loops from triggering runaway global heating.

Jason Rowntree, the principal investigator in the new study, had erroneously declared he had no conflicts of interest, despite sitting on the board of the American Grassfed Association and having received research grants from corporations such as McDonald's also seeking to rebrand their beef as 'regenerative.'[24] Other contributors to this new study include individuals associated with EPIC provisions, a "frontier founder" of the Savory Institute, an employee of General Mills, and a contributor to the previous Quantis study in 2019.[25]

Such industrial conflicts of interest in this new study have also been implicated in its dependence on other industry-funded research (funded by the Beef Checkoff program and based on information and direct participation from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association) for its low estimate of emissions: 17 CO2e/kg, compared to "non-industry studies that show 29 CO2e/kg, especially those which factor land use impact that have a mean global average of 60 CO2e/kg."[26]

Grain Cartel

Two multinational corporations, Cargill and ContiGroup Companies, each account for 25 percent of the grain trade - making half between them. Together, five companies control 75 percent of corn and four have a lock on 80 percent of global soybean processing.[27]

When it comes to the concentration of terminal grain handling and flour milling, General Mills is one of the top four companies which control over half of global operations:

Flour Milling

As of 2004, 61% of flour milling worldwide was concentrated in the multinational corporate hands of Cargill, ADM Milling, ConAgra, and General Mills.[28]

Terminal Grain Handling

As of 2004, 60% of terminal grain handling facilities worldwide were concentrated in the multinational corporate hands of Cargill, Cenex Harvest States, ADM, and General Mills. [29]

Cereal Cartel

Since 1990, General Mills has developed and distributed more than 50 breakfast cereal and bar products in its joint venture with Nestle, Cereal Partners Worldwide (CPW).[30] CPW operates in more than 140 countries outside the US and Canada.[31] At least 60% of CPW's top products were high in sugar, and nearly all marketed towards children.

By 2000, the Canadian National Farmers Union reported that the big three cereal companies – Kellogg’s, Quaker Oats, and General Mills – were 500 times more profitable than cereal grain farmers. These companies made an average return on equity of 147% compared to 0.3% for farmers.[32] Together, these three companies control over half of the world cereal distribution.[33] This illustrates the distribution bottleneck through which companies such as Nestle and General Mills exploit farmers, "dictate the terms of supply to (their) growers, millers, exporters and importers" and control the corporate food system.[34] The systematic impoverishment of small farmers is a fundamental barrier to establishing food sovereignty and leading cause of world hunger.

It's about time the cereal cartel got its comeuppance

- Crain's Chicago Business, June 15, 1996 [35]

Ownership

Brands

Cascadian Farms and Muir Glen are both owned by Small Planet Foods, which is owned by General Mills. [36]

Other brands include Annie's Homegrown, Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Chex, Fruit Roll-Ups, Gardetto's, Gogurt, Green Giant, Häagen-Dazs, Hamburger Helper, Old El Paso, Pillsbury, Pizza Rolls, Progresso, Toaster Strudel, Totino's, and Yoplait. [37]

Investors

According to the Vegetarian Myth in 2009, General Mills was primarily owned by Alcoa Aluminium, Chevron, Disney, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Exxon Mobil, General Electric, Mc-Donald’s, Monsanto, Nike, Pepsico, Philip Morris, Starbucks, Target Stores, and Texas Instruments (producer of weapons and George W. Bush). [38] However, our review has only been able to confirm some of these findings.

Sources

  1. ↑ "The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty," Collier & Horowitz, 1939, p. 117
  2. ↑ "The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty," Collier & Horowitz, 1939, p. 123-124
  3. ↑ "The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty," Collier & Horowitz, 1939, p. 117
  4. ↑ Food Wars: The Global Battle for Mouths, Minds, and Markets, Tim Lang and Michael Heasman, p. 206; citing IACFO report: "Broadcasting Bad Health"
  5. ↑ Food Wars: The Global Battle for Mouths, Minds, and Markets, Tim Lang and Michael Heasman, p. 202
  6. ↑ Food Wars: The Global Battle for Mouths, Minds, and Markets, Tim Lang and Michael Heasman, p. 205-206
  7. ↑ Food Wars: The Global Battle for Mouths, Minds, and Markets, Tim Lang and Michael Heasman, p. 203
  8. ↑ Food Wars: The Global Battle for Mouths, Minds, and Markets, Tim Lang and Michael Heasman, p. 204-5
  9. ↑ Food Wars: The Global Battle for Mouths, Minds, and Markets, Tim Lang and Michael Heasman, p. 205-206
  10. ↑ Food Wars: The Global Battle for Mouths, Minds, and Markets, Tim Lang and Michael Heasman, p. 206
  11. ↑ Marybeth Thorsgaard, General Mills spokesperson, quoted in Michele Simon Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back (Nation Books, 2006) pg 95
  12. ↑ The Center for Media and Democracy, "General Mills," https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=General_Mills
  13. ↑ FindArticles - "General Mills Launches New Children's Advertising Initiative" Business Wire, June 22, 2005
  14. ↑ Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back (Nation Books, 2006) pg 120
  15. ↑ The Center for Media and Democracy, "General Mills," https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=General_Mills
  16. ↑ https://www.prwatch.org/fakenews/vnr33
  17. ↑ https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-2003-05-18-0305170044-story.html
  18. ↑ https://plantbaseddata.medium.com/the-failed-attempt-to-greenwash-beef-7dfca9d74333
  19. ↑ https://blog.whiteoakpastures.com/hubfs/WOP-LCA-Quantis-2019.pdf
  20. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20210710172431/https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2020.544984/full
  21. ↑ https://medium.com/@unpopularscience/the-regenerative-ranching-racket-fe6cce917a42
  22. ↑ https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/climatecollaborative/mailings/1633/attachments/original/PPT-FINAL-Regenerative_Mapping-min_compressed.pdf?1579205603; p. 41
  23. ↑ https://plantbaseddata.medium.com/the-failed-attempt-to-greenwash-beef-7dfca9d74333
  24. ↑ https://medium.com/@unpopularscience/the-regenerative-ranching-racket-fe6cce917a42
  25. ↑ https://plantbaseddata.medium.com/the-failed-attempt-to-greenwash-beef-7dfca9d74333
  26. ↑ https://plantbaseddata.medium.com/the-failed-attempt-to-greenwash-beef-7dfca9d74333
  27. ↑ The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability, Lierre Kieth, 2009, p. 114
  28. ↑ Food Wars: The Global Battle for Mouths, Minds, and Markets, Tim Lang and Michael Heasman, p. 146
  29. ↑ Food Wars: The Global Battle for Mouths, Minds, and Markets, Tim Lang and Michael Heasman, p. 145
  30. ↑ https://www.nutraingredients-latam.com/Article/2019/05/17/General-Mills-breakfast-cereals-nutrition-Cereal-Partners-Worldwide-venture-with-Nestle
  31. ↑ http://www.tradearabia.com/news/HEAL_223829.html
  32. ↑ https://grain.org/article/entries/293-lords-of-poison-the-pesticide-cartel
  33. ↑ https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Nestle-being-allowed-to-sell-Cheerios-owned-by-General-Mills/answer/Manish-Kumar-1016?ch=10&oid=39682213&share=bb41c6be&target_type=answer
  34. ↑ "Stuffed and Starved" by Raj Patel, p. 12-15
  35. ↑ https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/19960615/ISSUE01/10007097/getting-milked-by-cereal-prices
  36. ↑ The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability, Lierre Kieth, 2009, p. 115
  37. ↑ https://www.nndb.com/company/720/000053561/
  38. ↑ The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability, Lierre Kieth, 2009, p. 115
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