General Millss Influence On US Food Culture

I support organic and heirloom farming for their stewardship of the land and concern for biodiversity. Organic and heirloom practices are more aligned with the needs of the environment and human beings. GMOs may reliably produce sizable, uniform crops but in my opinion, a misshapen tomato tastes far better than the largest, most perfect-looking GMO version in the shop. But, the world’s population is growing and GMOs may offer solutions to hunger. They are tested as nutritionally equal to non-GMOs and have potential for enhanced nutrition and humanitarian uses, as with the Golden Rice Project. GMOs fit in with the bigger, better, faster western way of life, which is spreading around the world. Even though Monsanto claims it will not go after

FOOD CULTURE

General Mills (GM) is one such food giant with brands that include both GMO and non-GMO ingredients. Some of their familiar ready-to-eat cereals include Fiber One™, Wheaties™, Chex™, Lucky Charms™, Cheerios™, Cocoa Puffs™ and Trix®. (General Mills, 2018)

General Mills story (GM, 2018) began in 1866 when Cadwallader Washburn, a former Major General under Abraham Lincoln, opened a flour mill along the Mississippi River in St. Anthony Falls, Minneapolis. Flour milling was an unstable business at that time and people thought he was doomed to fail. He nearly did. After an explosion and fire caused by flour dust killed 14 workers, Washburn worked on developing safer practices which included mill ventilation.

When Washburn died in 1882 the company he built continued to grow and evolve and eventually became publicly-traded. It thrived even throughout the Great Depression. GM gathered a team of experts who gave meal advice under the fictitious character, Betty Crocker. It was around then that GM developed a puffing gun that would literally shape the way we eat breakfast with the launch of the first of many ready-to-eat cereals:

The Statistics Portal (2018) shows that in 2015 GM held 31.3% of the U.S. cereals market share. Two foods sold by GM are Cheerios™ and Gold Medal Flour®. Cheerios™ was first introduced in the early 1940s when it was called Cheerioats. GM food scientists had experimented with hundreds of formulas and nearly a dozen different shapes before deciding on the now famous cereal. During World War II the name was changed to Cheerios™ and is the first ever oat-based ready-to-eat cereal. (General Mills, 2018)

General Mills has gotten into hot water in the past with Cheerios’™ health claims which had promised to “lower cholesterol by 4% in 6 weeks.” In 2009 the FDA issued General Mills a warning letter stating that its language was tantamount to an “unapproved drug” and advised them to make corrections. Even though General Mills contended that its claims had been clinically proven, they eventually broadened the scope of the language to “can” help lower cholesterol and “may” reduce the risk of heart disease. (USDA,