General Mills Purchases Lara Bar: Raw Foods Movement for Sale?
Big news in the world of raw food today: Lara Merriken, creator and former owner of Humm Foods which makes Lara Bars, sold her company to General Mills. Katrina and I read the news on Heidi and Justin Ohlander's site:
http://rawfoodrightnow.blogspot.com/2008/06/larabar-bought-by-gener...
Coca-Cola bought Odwalla a few years ago, remember that?
For starters, I have a lot of things I could say about Lara Bar's new ownership, and what it means in the context of creating a movement. Katrina and I are going to watch to see what the general reaction among the raw food community is to this news over the next day or so, and then decide whether a long discussion about the Raw Foods Movement from our perspective will be a helpful addition to the conversation.
We do want to say something to place our view in the initial days of conversation. So, in short, this is a poor decision from the perspective of maintaining the integrity of the Raw Foods Movement, regardless of how economically or business savy this may have looked internally to Lara Merriken and crew. We are creating new economies, new thoughts, new Life Practices - not merely gaining enough success to improve the image and bottom line of companies which have helped create the multitude of health problems and social problems and economic problems we now have - all stemming from a poor food environment.
As far as this spreading raw foods? Some people have suggested that this sale will further the awareness of the RFM. That is a non-starter. Lara was already in nationwide U.S. grocery store chains, without General Mills' ownership of her company, Humm Foods.
Let's create a new economy. We will not be buying Lara Bars anymore, which will only feed a corporation that advertises Boo Berry, Betty Crocker, Trix, Count Chocula, Pilsbury, and Totinos. Here is even more information about General Mills, including a continuation of the atrocious list of so-called foods already mentioned:
General Mills on Wikipedia
Don't let General Mills' efforts to buy up better products and market them color your vision. Buying a Lara Bar, in terms of food and health, will be nearly identical to buying something wholesome from a subsidiary of Philip Morris, the infamous tobacco company. It still benefits a company that is harming our nation, and we know this is true. Did you see the latest data out on diabetes? Here it is from an article in the June 25, 2008 New York Times:
The number of Americans with diabetes increased by 15 percent in two years to 24 million, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 8 percent of the population now has the disease, mainly Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity and sedentary living, the agency said in a report using data from 2007. A quarter of people ages 60 and older had diabetes, the agency said. The number of people worldwide with diabetes will double to 366 million by 2030, according to the World Health Organization, which calls the disease an epidemic [read: pandemic]. The C.D.C. report was its first update of the prevalence of diabetes since 2005, when it reported that about 21 million Americans had the disease.
We in the Raw Foods Movement have all worked too damn hard:
- on ourselves
- helping others transcend this nonsense,
- and in putting together books, websites, blogs, and even businesses that move beyond such empty and harmful baggage as that created by General Mills.
Updates on this commentary will come, if appropriate and/or necessary. Let's see what our visionary community thinks...
In mourning for Lara Bar, and in hopes that this is a good lesson in what we in the RFM don't want at any price,
David Rainoshek, MA in The Green Room
www.JuiceFeasting.com
Tags: lara bar, rainoshek, raw food, raw foods movement
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by David and Katrina Rainoshek on -
Even not 100% raw, but 100% plant-based and nearly raw, is part of the RFM in my book. Many raw foodies eat 80-90% raw and I consider them part of the RFM. Definitely not wanting to start another percentage discussion here - a red herring for this topic. Lara Bars are raw food treats, successful, and a precedent could be set here for things which are 100% raw and radiantly lovely. Let the discussion begin.
I know you are not jaded! Thanks for the great response!
David Rainoshek
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Permalink Reply by Kendra on -
I love lara bars, and so does my 4 year old. Maybe not the most ideal snack in the world, but considering all the options out there, I'm thrilled. (Fortunately, she likes fruit more than anything). This news was pretty shocking and depressing to me - I feel like I need to stock up now before they are ruined. :(
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Permalink Reply by Sarah on -
What a coincidence - before I found out about this I wrote a post about Larabars this morning!
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
Larabars haven't been a part of my diet for awhile now anyway, but this new piece of info certainly gives me even more motivation to stay away from them altogether! Thanks for the alert.
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Permalink Reply by Valine on -
Wicked post - very enjoyable to read Sarah, thanks for the link.
Some Larabars (only had them once, didn't rate them so thought why bother risking getting used to them) are labelled raw and others uncooked. Not that I think we all agree they're strictly raw BUT it was a comfort to know i if you were out and about, missed lunch and were in town, away from anywhere where you could get decent organic fruit, you could pop in a supermarket and get one. Then again Brazil nuts are my 'in case of emergency break glass'.
Shame they sold out as I agree with Suvine, the fact raw products are being put into mainstream is a good thing, as long as the integrity is kept. We need some sort of 'raw' legislation, some sort of minimum standards that something has to be to be legally labelled RAW.
In other news on that - Similar to when they lanched Pepsi Raw here in the UK (http://www.pepsiraw.co.uk/) a few months ago, there have been adverts for Red Bull Cola - and the marketing campaign? 'Natural and Strong' (http://www.redbull.co.uk/en/ColaPage/htmlColaPage.action#page=Cola) - AS IF ANYTHING NATURAL went into that can!!! Note how the 'natural extracts' have not been listed.
As much as I won't be drinking them myself - at least mainstream manufacturers are realising its only an amount of time before their chemical laden products aren't sold anymore.
Sorry for going off topic a bit here.
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Permalink Reply by CleverGrl on -
Suvine, the problem is that not everyone knows better. I don't eat Larabars, but I've read about them in a few raw food books that said they were ideal raw treats. All you need to be sucked into food traps by giant food companies like GM is to be misinformed...
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Permalink Reply by CleverGrl on
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I'm disappointed to hear this. Lara really helped herself here, but she pretty much went against everything she said her company stood for. According to her site, she says that her passion for healthy living "continues to be a driving force behind everything I do professionally and personally." Nuh-uh, sweetie, not if you just sold your soul to General Mills.
This woman is not naive nor an idiot. She knows GM doesn't care about the raw, natural or health food movement. They're just into capitalizing on what they view as a food trend, much like they did when folks became obsessed with eating low fat, or more fiber, or less sugar. She also knows GM will eventually alter her product so that it's no longer natural, but will unscrupulously continue to market it as such. The fact that she most likely knows all this, and yet, went ahead and sold out to them anyway makes me think that a healthy bank account is the driving force behind everything she does. I hope she can sleep at night.
I'm all for bringing the raw food movement mainstream, but getting into bed with crap-peddling giants like GM is not the answer. Perhaps, an extremely large coalition of small organic, raw or natural food merchants working together, a group of business folk unwilling to sacrifice quality or the health of the nation to make a profit...
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Permalink Reply by David and Katrina Rainoshek on
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"They're just into capitalizing on what they view as a food trend, much like they did when folks became obsessed with eating low fat, or more fiber, or less sugar."
Excellent. Well said!
David Rainoshek
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Permalink Reply by april on -
That's a pretty big bummer that GM bought out the company, though, I'm sure Lara herself had good enough reasons for allowing her company to be purchased by them...I don't eat larabars anymore, and it looks as though a lot of the raw foodies on here don't eat them frequently either, so that being the case, I don't see it as being such a big deal. And especially since now Larabars are starting to pop up all over more mainstream grocery stores, at least the general public is being offered a substantially more nutritious snack aside from the Trix the next aisle over, even if the money IS going to the same company.
Besides that, there are a million other raw bars available on the market for purchase if there were ever concern with contributing money to General Mills by purchasing a Larabar.
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Permalink Reply by David and Katrina Rainoshek on
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The larger issue is whether we want to see other great products that have been created in the Raw Foods Movement sold to companies that operate contrary to the best interests of people and planet.
The better choices are going to be there... we are creating them. Who is going to control them? I would rather it not be a company that sells Coca-Cola, Colgate fluoridated toothpaste, and Boo Berry cereal.
What would the reality of David Wolfe selling Sunfood Nutrition to Pepsico be? I think we as a community and as individuals should use this Larabar event as an opportunity to re-evaluate and re-commit to what we are really about as raw foods hits the mainstream. Are we for sale, are we to be taken by the flow of the mainstream?
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