General Mills Will Join the Organic Food Movement

Leaping into the hot arena of organic foods, General Mills said Wednesday that it is launching an organic breakfast cereal called Sunrise that is expected to be in stores nationwide by early spring.

“We’re hoping this thing will take off like a rocket,” said Scott Lutz, vice president of new enterprises for the company, based in Minneapolis. “Our customers spoke and we listened.”

The cereal will have the biggest launch in the company’s history. General Mills Inc., the nation’s No. 2 cereal maker behind Kellogg Co., will give away 17 million trial samples of the corn and wheat cereal, “orders of magnitude higher than previous efforts,” Lutz said.

General Mills’ conventional brands include Wheaties, Cheerios, Total and Chex. The company has $6.8 billion in annual sales.

Organic-industry representatives welcomed the entry of a second big mainstream producer--after Gerber Products Co., with its Tender Harvest organic baby food line--into the fast-growing organic arena. Organic food sales have soared in recent years, to an estimated $4 billion to $4.5 billion in 1998.

“In the short term, this is very exciting,” said Bob Scowcroft, executive director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation in Santa Cruz. “It means there will be more diversity and selection for consumers.”

Scowcroft said the organic industry will keep a watchful eye to ensure that General Mills pays farmers what their crops are worth and not try to drive down prices by using its clout. Lutz vowed that the company will be fair to the organic farmers who supply its grain.

Organic farming, which for the most part avoids the use of synthetic chemicals, is often costlier than conventional farming, and growers usually charge higher prices.

Industry sources said General Mills worked for two years to earn its organic certification from Oregon Tilth, a prominent certifying organization.