So let's see...
the earth's on fire while her inhabitants are rehearsing a non-nuclear version of mutually assured destruction, and what am I bringing you? yep. You got it. Breakfast cereal.
Got your favorite seat right here at the counter. Let me pour you some coffee.
Move over granola! Good news breakfast lovers: there's a new pop for your snap and crackle. A new breakfast of global champions. Kellogg's just introduced a new organic version of old favorite
cereals and crackers that I know are going to find their way to our breakfast table.
Shall I freshen your coffee? I'll be back on the flip with some organic milk.(bows head to OC)
[Crossposted at Truth & Progress]
Now I know that you don't like to chat too much before you've had your breakfast but how about we make today an exception?
That little bowl of cereal you eat to start your day and get you (ahem) moving may look small and unassuming to you, but let me just tell you that when it comes to breakfast, this nation is completely Cuckoo for Coco Puffs. Chew on this from "Cerealizing America: The Unsweetened Story of American Breakfast Cereal", by Scott Bruce and Bill Crawford. A no-bowls-barred look at the cereal industry:
*Americans buy 2.7 billion packages of breakfast cereal each year. If laid end to end, the empty cereal boxes from one year's consumption would stretch to the moon and back.
*The cereal industry uses 816 million pounds of sugar per year, enough to coat each and every American with more than three pounds of sugar.
*The cereal with the highest amount of sugar per serving is Smacks, which is 53% sugar.
*Americans consume about ten pounds, or 160 bowls of cereal, per person each year. But America ranks only fourth in per capita cereal consumption. Ireland ranks first, England ranks second, and Australia ranks third. 49% of Americans start each morning with a bowl of cereal, 30% eat toast, 28% eat eggs, 28% have coffee, 17% have hot cereal and fewer than 10% have pancakes, sausage, bagels or french toast.
*In terms of dollar value breakfast cereals are the third most popular product sold at supermarkets, after carbonated beverages and milk. Cigarettes are the fourth most popular item followed by fresh bread and rolls.
*In 1993, more than 1.3 million advertisements for cereal aired on American television, or more than twenty-five hours of cereal advertising per day, at a cost of $762 million for air time. Only auto manufacturers spend more money on television advertising than the makers of breakfast cereal.
A dear friend who happens to be diabetic joked that commercials were trying to kill him. He may be right!
Some years ago, there was a great Saturday Night Live skit that spoofed Citibank. The Citiwide bank did nothing but make change. When asked how they make a profit at this, the response was simply, "Volume." I'm sure I butchered the skit, but you get the idea that this is not just about you and your little bowl of cereal.
Hey, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and enjoy your breakfast.
Now, Kellogg's could have introduced their own new organic brand to compete with the other organic brands, but instead they opted for a relabeling of what they refer to as "reliable friends". This marketing strategy isn't much different than putting a hybrid engine in the ever-popular Toyota Camry, I suppose. I presume the marketing departments of both corporations feel that consumers will pay a bit more for a familiar product that offers further benefits to the consumer and the earth(high gas mileage, sustainable practices, pesticide free, etc.) than if an entirely new feel-good line was introduced. With the Prius of course, Toyota did both. Mel Brooks would call that marketing strategy Engulf & Devour.
As I cautiously applaud Wal-Mart for their new organic direction, I applaud Kellogg's too. I even applaud their stated goal of bringing organic food to the market at lower cost. When your company has the GNP of a small nation, it's a realistic aspiration. I know I sound more like a cereal shill than a green consumer here, but even as I watch the world burn, I keep my eyes open for signs of change; signs of a shift to a new way of doing business that might catch on; signs of hope. Even though this isn't the end all and certainly needs watching, I see it as progress.
As with Wal-Mart's organic campaign, full-throttle enthusiam should perhaps be tempered. There are serious concerns over the recent attack on organic standards that go right to the integrity of the product that you buy, and at a premium. I hope we don't see Kellogg's and Wal-Mart on the wrong side of this one.
Others have raised concerns over the trend towards indutrializing organic farming. I can't seem to work up a head of steam over this one. Doing something good on a large scale should be, well, MORE good, right? Isn't this what we want? Instead, I see it as a demand-driven victory. Maybe our dollars really do translate into votes.
So if you're not yet sold on making the organic choice for the good of your health and environment, consider this from Kellogg's website:
Organic food production is a farming method that maintains crops and replenishes the soil without the use of pesticides or chemical fertilizers...Organic foods are minimally processed with no artificial ingredients or preservatives.
How many tons of pesticides will not be needed based on the corporate level decisions of these two giants? More personally, how many tons of pesticides and food processing chemicals will NOT end up in our bodies, our babies, and our breast milk? I ask those questions rhetorically, but the answers are quite quantifiable.
The way I see it, it's a good start and we're all better off. Fabulous.
Now pass the OJ, honeybuns.