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