Vegan Brands Owned by Corporate Ag
Which would you buy?
Imitation food from industrial corporations or real food from ethical and sustainable farms.
The following are popular vegan brands that were acquired by very profitable corporations.
Earth Balance and Gardein are owned by Pinnacle Foods, whose portfolio includes meat brands such as Hungry Man, Armour, and Celeste Pizza.
Vega, Silk, and So Delicious Dairy Free are owned by yogurt giant, Danone, whose dairy products represented over 50% of their Q4 2017 sales growth.
Daiya is owned by Otsuka Pharmaceutical, a company that conducts laboratory testing on animals.
Sweet Earth Foods is owned by Nestle, parent company to popular dairy and processed meat brands.
Beyond Meat is 5% owned by Tyson Foods, their investment raised recently, and could possibly become an outright acquisition down the road.
Morningstar is owned by cereal giant, Kellogg's, which sells Moe's Southwest Grill Breakfast Bowls.
Kite Hill received an $18MM investment from Yoplait parent, General Mills.
Field Roast and Lightlife are owned by Maple Leaf Foods, Canada's largest distributor of packaged meats.
Sweet Earth Foods, owned by the makers of Hot Pockets
Are we contributing to the unethical and unsustainable practices of these corporations?
Lightlife, owned by the makers of Canada's number one canned meat brand
Since we can't follow where the money goes, why would we buy such products that could potentially contribute towards the cruel practices of intensive farming?
There is no indication these corporations plan to transition their other products to plant-based, not if the market still consists of 98% non-vegans. So why would we want to benefit the company's bottom line? If responsible options are available, like Tofurky and Follow Your Heart, why not boycott?
Somewhere in the future, the demand for cheap meat and the need to save the planet from climate change might be met with healthy plant-derived alternatives mandated in schools, fast-food chains, and other large institutions, requiring corporations to shut down animal factories and adopt a more sustainable system, and ethical farms will rise to restore our soil and ecosystem using regenerative methods, while supplying the market with clean, pasture-raised products.