Diane Robertson
It seems like the food business has suddenly become interested in politics. As it turns out their values are not my values.
It actually started with my beloved Ben and Jerry’s ice cream nearly three years ago. To celebrate when the state of Vermont legalized gay marriage, Ben and Jerry’s renamed their famous “Chubby Hubby” ice cream to “Hubby Hubby” for the month of September 2009. This past March in order to support gay marriage in Britain, Ben and Jerry’s renamed an apple pie flavored ice cream to “Apple-y Ever After”. Both containers showed a picture of two men on top of a wedding cake. So my husband and I decided that we could stop cuddling up with a carton of “New York Super Fudge Chunk” and a movie.
Now this month, General Mills, the Box Tops cereal company, has taken a position against the marriage amendment ballot measure in Minnesota. This amendment, like in 30 other states, would amend Minnesota’s Constitution to state that marriage is to be only between one man and one woman. Ken Charles, General Mill’s Blog author, made General Mills position quite clear when he said, “Obviously, there are strongly held views on both sides. We acknowledge those views, including those on religious grounds. We respect and defend the right of others to disagree. But we truly value diversity and inclusion – and that makes our choice clear.”
Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), rightly stated, that the General Mills Corporation is effectively declaring a “war on marriage” with its own customers. General Mill’s products: cold cereals, granola bars, fruit roll-ups, Yoplait yogurt, etc. are mainly bought and consumed by families with children. The families that are having children are the traditional families with a mother and a father.
And now, Oreo, the famous childhood cookie, put out a rainbow picture of an Oreo in support of Gay Pride Month (June) on their Oreo Facebook Page. According to LifeSiteNews, “Kraft Foods, the company behind the Oreo cookie, has defended a promotional image of the cookie stuffed with rainbow filling as “a fun reflection of our values,” even as the gay rights endorsement triggered boycott threats within hours of appearing on the Internet.” Oreo’s values apparently do not reflect my values.
I think my family can do without the processed foods tainted with politics. We will join the thousands of other traditional families boycotting these companies, so society can be a whole lot healthier and so can we.