Organic foods: Big companies swoop in to capitalize on lucrative market

Today the big players in organic foods include such companies as Dean Foods and General Mills, Kellogg's and Cargill, although you might not see their names on the labels.

"The large companies go to great lengths to hide that they're the owners," Potter said from his company's headquarters in Clinton, Mich. "There's a great deal of effort that goes into shielding that from the public. There's smoke and mirrors in the marketing of organic foods."

What's more, some companies import their ingredients, undercutting the organic ideal that the food is grown close to home and making it more difficult to ensure that organic practices are followed -- a crucial issue for those consumers who see buying organic as a social movement. Cascadian Farm, for instance, uses vegetables from Mexico in some products. Woodstock Farms, owned by the large distributor United Natural Foods Inc., uses some vegetables from China.

Though some companies have increased their commitment to organic principles, Howard worries that some firms are working to cut costs by merging operations and using fewer organic ingredients; those tend to be more expensive than their non-organic counterparts.



Organic foods: Big companies swoop in to capitalize on lucrative market