I do boycott KRAFT for one reason alone: Republican donations.

http://www.boycottbush.net/consumers.htm also info at opensecrets.

I know its largely symbolic, but if I can make even a miniscule statement with my buying power, I'm going to do it.

I like this piece. I think it's really about the hypocrisy of parents who consistently lecture others about how to raise children on a higher moral plane and then go home and feed them mac 'n cheese which they justify because it was a dollar more for the box. I know these people. If I babysat their kids and fed them Kraft, I'd get dirty looks. Snarky? Hell yeah, because the behavior in question is ridiculous.

Every so often I run across the phrase "colors not found in nature" (usually in the context of a food-related article such as this), and am totally at a loss as to WHAT THE HECK THE WRITER MEANS BY THIS!!!

The bright orange color of Kraft M&C? How about checking out a marigold this summer - pretty bright shade of orange, right? Fire-engine red? A feature of several varieties of roses.

Get the picture? Virtually any color, or shade thereof, can be found somewhere in "nature" - just look a little harder...

When my elder daugther was two, I trotted off to the local natural store and dutifully purchased my first box of Annie's Mac.

I had my doubts when I prepared it, because it neither looked nor smelled anywhere near appetizing. My daughter, who like me, puts the V in "voracious," promptly spit it out. I took a taste. I did likewise.

In the subsequent five years, I have made easily hundreds of quick, nutritious meals from scratch, and I have as well made peace with the occassional visits from iconic, orange bowl of love from Kraft.

If there are children out there happily scarfing up the Arthur shapes, they can knock themselves out. In our house, vegetables and sometimes Velveeta peacefully coexist. Virtue doesn't come in a box.

Talk about a straw man. I have purchased Annie's mac and cheese. I happen to prefer the taste to Kraft. I also prefer the lack of coloring and the higher quality of cheese. I don't ever feel smug about feeding my kid from a box, and I can't imagine who would. Why denigrate parents for trying to do a little better for their kids when they have so little time or energy at the end of the day? As for the rest of the snark fest - yawn.

Also a note to the smug grammar police: acquired is a verb.

Mouthfeel: that's the difference between mac 'n cheese made from scratch and the stuff made from fairy, er cheese, dust. Kids are all about how something feels in their mouth. So while I mostly agree that what separates Annie's from the blue box is the dyes, one shouldn't underestimate the power of powder. So if you really want to help us kick the bunny habit, publish an article telling us how to make our own cheese powder and we'll drive them all out of business.

YOU MEAN MAC AND CHEESE IS JUST MAC AND CHEESE, NO MATTER WHAT BRAND YOU BUY????

How will I break the news to Gabriel?

Altria owns Kraft, not vice versa. So it is not like Kraft took the money from macaroni and cheese and started pushing cigarettes with it.

Additionally, Altria is spinning off Kraft since owning a food company is HURTING the share price. So don't blame mac and cheese for cigarettes, they do quite well as a moneymaker on their own.

I have no issues at all with the article, but would like to add a point. One can feel virtuous, I suppose, by buying organic, fair trade, etc, but should really understand that they aren't necessarily making themselves healthier or saving the world (although they might be). In general, marketers have figured out that people are much less price sensitive when presented with organic/fair trade products and mark them up appropriately. When you buy fair trade coffee, you make a farmer slightly (very slightly) better off in the short run and Whole Foods or whatever VERY much better off.

I do not understand why the author expects us all to gasp in horror that a woman with a bonofide feminist forelock of gray hair has successfully made a lot of money in business - TWICE! The pernicious and self-defeating assumption that only poor people can be morally pure is slathered all over this article. The author sneers not only at Annie, but at the affluent progressive parents attempting to feed their children nutritious food. Why, pray, do we assume that people willing to pay extra money for organic food are merely assuaging their guilt? Perhaps they understand that in a consumer society the power of the purse is no small thing and they are voting with their dollars to build a healthier and better future.

--Kate

Ingredients and nutritional values are one thing, but has the author actually bothered to compare the quality of these two products? Once prepared, Kraft Mac & Cheese has a life of approximately ten minutes, after which the cheese sauce becomes dry and pasty. It becomes inedible, quite frankly. I've never found this to be the case with Annie's. That alone makes it a more desirable product than Kraft.

Another thing that makes Annie's more desirable is that the company making it isn't owned by Altria, the same parent company that owns Phillip Morris. Therefore, my purchase of Annie's doesn't embolden people who are directly responsible for marketing cigarettes to children.

The author's suggestion that "real" mac & cheese from scratch is a viable alternative to the boxed stuff is just absurd. This is convenience food, remember? "Real" mac & cheese does, in fact, take longer to prepare (duh). It produces a bigger mess. It is more expensive. And if you believe that it's better for you than the boxed stuff, I'm sure that Altria would love to talk to your kids about not smoking.