Talk:Conagra Brands/Archive 1

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Failed GA

This article lacks any references and pictures and therefore does not meet the expectations of a good article. KI 21:22, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

ConAgra slaugherhouse operations

ConAgra features extremely poorly in Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, so I have incorporated some relevant information from this best-selling book that I think the general public should know about. Ivankinsman (talk) 18:38, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

There's a difference between mentioning Schlosser discusses ConAgra and including a potpourri of miscellaneous facts. You're inserting a "corporate history" paragraph which is not located in the right place. I've removed it until it can be included in the corporate history. At the same time, NPOV is an issue when this is an anecdotal account of a writer--at the same time these conditions may not be the same for all ConAgra plants, they may also be the same for all meat-packing plants in the US (IE: singling out ConAgra one way or another). I've added disclosure to mitigate that, but I still think it would deserve further scrutiny from other editors (especially since Schlosser's book is a purpose-driven account, and not an academic source--I'm not even sure it meets WP:RS). In the meantime, I think disclosure as Schlosser's own account (and not an argument of how this is systemic) is sufficient for the time being.--Dali-Llama (talk) 19:26, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

Chun King chow mein

A couple generations ago, when no one i'd ever met knew what a wok is, but chow mein and chop suey from Chinese-American-operated restaurants were available in many cities, this company was apparently the parent of Chun King-brand shelf-stable pseudo-Chinese food. IIRC, one product was a pair of cans of the same diameter; the consumer would break whatever mechanism made them stay stacked one on top of the other, open both cans, heat the wet contents of one and serve it on top of the deep-fried "chow mein noodles" in the other can.
Stan Freberg advertised for them and WP notes the

ABC special: Stan Freberg Presents: The Chun King Chow Mein Hour: Salute to the Chinese New Year (February 1962)

One of his ads was set in an elevator. The camera is looking over heads as the doors open, and Freburg himself gets in. He starts pitching the Chun King product as a break from more white-bread-Euro-American foods, probably picking especially on spaghetti, IIRC. The elevator operator keeps asking him to face the front of the car. None of the passengers say anything. Finally the doors open, and the other camera is looking past his back into the car. All the passengers have Chinese features.
Chun King (Chung King was the WWII-era Western name for Chongqing, the KMT's wartime de-facto capital) was an institution, whose memory has some Web presence but no effective WP one. That's a shame.
--Jerzy•t 04:01, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Number of employees

According to the article ConAgra has 17 employees as of March 2009. Is this supposed to be 17,000 or if it just standard vandalism? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikizeta (talk • contribs) 04:17, 20 June 2009 (UTC)

Is there a corporate editor in the house?

Looks like some folks want all mention of ConAgra brands and ConAgra food recalls either deleted or toned down. This is my second encounter with ConAgra stealth edits -- it happened during the ConAgra "Popcorn Worker's Lung" flurry of news stories in September 2007 as well on the page about Bronchiolitis obliterans. A word to the wise is sufficient. I have added this article to my watchlist. cat Catherineyronwode 23:05, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Are you implying someone here is astroturfing for ConAgra? If so, be specific and transparent about whose edits you have an issue with. Your statement is questioning people's impartiality and motivations, so it's only fair you say who it's directed towards.--Dali-Llama 00:09, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm also unsure as to where your accusations are directed. If there are notable issues with media coverage pertaining to CA's corporate activities, by all means source and include them. The list of brands is hosted on a separate article - there is no need to begin creating a second list which a) duplicates material held on the separate list, b) adds bulletpointed items to an article which should be written in prose, and c) invites editors to make subjective judgements about what qualifies as "major". The existence of several redlinks in the duplicated section adequately underlines this point. Rest assured my administrative eye on this article is entirely impartial - if you have POV concerns about the article, I'll be happy to take a look at them but please don't make accusations of "stealth editing" without specific evidence. Deiz talk 01:00, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

I will be very specific. Back in September 2007 an editor was messing around the Bronchiolitis obliterans pages, (falsely) claiming that B.O. was not the same as Popcorn Worker's Lung -- right while the name ConAgra was in the news, due to diacetyl fumes being a cause of B.O., and some of those fumes being unleashed at ConAgra food plants. A few weeks later i ran into an editor with the actual user name ConAgra (account since deleted) who had similar intentions, namely, clearing away any bad press surrounding ConAgra. You can check out the trail of events at the B.O. history and B.O. talk page and even on my talk page.

Then i came here to find that someone had made a deletion of material about the ConAgra recall of pot pies due to Salmonella poisoning. They claimed that it was "not a recall" (see the edit history) -- but it was a recall, so i rewrote the article again.

Now i find that someone has purged two different edits (one by someone else, one by me) that had consisted of material about ConAgra food recalls in the Great Value brand. The first edit which was purged was about the Great Value / ConAgra peanut butter recall of April, 2007. The one just deleted (which i wrote) concerned the Great Value / ConAgra turkey and chicken pot pie recall of October 2007. ConAgra made both the peanut butter and the pot pies for Wal-Mart. Both edits were deleted from the only page at WP on the Great Value brand (Wal-Mart house brand), which is an obscure "List of Wal-Mart brands" page.

I edit in all kinds of fields -- occultism, music, history, religion, medicine, you name it -- and it seems like i am running into some very odd deletions when the name "ConAgra" comes up. I am not accusing anyone -- just wondering what's going on. The third incident may be more Wal-Mart related than ConAgra related, but the point of this notice is that i am now aware that news stories that are unfavurable to ConAgra are a bit of a pain to edit, due to "helping hands syndrome."

As for names -- user names are nothing. It's the pattern of editing that is of greater interest to me.

catherine yronwode, my real name and my real user name. Catherineyronwode 02:19, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

In my view, as far as Wikipedia goes, usernames do matter. Real names don't. We don't defer to someone's authority, where they work, what their PhD is in or how many years of schooling they've had on the subject. All we have to prove we're serious editors is our edit histories, talk pages, occasional RfAs and edit counts. We use them to distinguish the astroturfers from the genuine editor. And while you still haven't named me, I think it's clear you're referring to me when you talk about deletion of material regarding whether or not the recall was a recall.

For the record: the pot pie incident began as a consumer advisory on Tuesday, progressed into ConAgra issuing a retailer-voluntary recall (ConAgra asked retailers not to sell them) on Thursday morning, then late Thursday night a manufacturer-voluntary recall (ConAgra told retailers to stop selling). I edited exclusively off of the referenced AP article to reflect this progression, and to reflect the AP story stated the decision to issue the advisory (and not recall) was a joint decision by the USDA and ConAgra. At the time of my edit the manufacturer-recall had not been issued yet. This is what the article, date-stamped Thursday morning, said: "Even though the pot pies have not (my emphasis) been recalled, Childs said ConAgra asked stores to pull all the pies with the identifying "P-9" code on them from store shelves and not sell them."

So there are two issues at hand: One is you questioning my facts, which is perfectly legitimate. To be fair, by the time you checked the text the recall had been issued. This AP story explains the progression I've mentioned. So my edits were factually correct for the facts given at the time. What I did not appreciate was the second issue where you painted my edits as being part of "something fishy", which in the end is questioning my integrity as an editor. In the end, no harm, no foul. I would only advise you that the next time, be very specific--cite names and diffs: otherwise you're painting everyone with the same brush stroke. Accusing someone of astroturfing is serious, and a thin accusation like that is very easily interpreted as a personal attack without underlying evidence.--Dali-Llama 04:28, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

I am sorry if i ruffled your feathers. It was the fact that there was an editor actually calling himself ConAgra that had caught my eye. I was not making any accusations against you, merely noting for my own future reference the strange edits i had run into when working on ConAgra-related items. I understand and accept your explanation of the timeline of the edits you made here and i apologize for antagonizing you, which was not my intention. cat Catherineyronwode 11:52, 15 October 2007 (UTC

There is an anonymous edit on 00:34, 25 April 2009 from 68.227.167.98 that removes a large portion of the criticism on environmental issues, leaving only positive information under environmental "criticism". The text that was there is maybe not the best, but it is better than nothing in my opinion. ConAgra was recently ranked 497 out of 500 companies in Newsweek's ranking, which brought this to my attention. Matt13 (talk) 02:21, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

References

Neutrality dispute?

There is a neutrality-dispute tag at the top of he article, but I don't see any discussion here about the neutrality of the article. I see some mention of an "editing pattern", but that's about it. Can anyone shed light on the controversy? Thanks! Oliepedia (talk) 15:02, 27 July 2008 (UTC)
The neutrality-dispute tag should be moved to the section or sections in question, and not be posted over the entire article. Deanlaw (talk) 22:48, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

I would guess that the neutrality dispute may additionally be a result of the article's composition. Roughly three-quarters of the article address product recalls and controversy (see WP:UNDUE: "An article should not give undue weight to any aspects of the subject, but should strive to treat each aspect with a weight appropriate to its significance to the subject."). For such a massive food producer, the article sans controversy sections is little more than a stub. I would encourage the expansion of the non-alarmist sections of the article. 128.61.56.41 (talk) 01:35, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Since a lot of the controversies are product-specific, why not either just merge the controversies with whatever article covers the product and perhaps just leave a quick mention with a link? It seems like any time I view a talk page for a disputed article, there's no happy medium. So many of the articles here seem so biased, too; I do not have the time to research so much (M.S. degree programs and all), but I can tell you that this particular article could be expanded to OBJECTIVELY discuss their veterans' program or some more of the philanthropic programs they participate in. 67.54.234.200 (talk) 15:15, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Here's an idea: what if three-quarters of their history is controversial? Our local Peavey miller sold to ConAgra in the 1980s, and all the employees claimed the company had been, "bought by the Japs". They didn't know anything about ConAgra except that they made it a white male company. Only when there were threats of civil rights lawsuits did they begrudgingly hire black employees, and then in the 2000s did they cross the final frontier to hire women. They satisfy their minority hiring requirement by bringing them in seasonally for around $6.50 - $7.00 an hour for back-breaking work twelve hours a day, putting them on brooms and shovels, putting the on 20 foot ladders with no support and minimally required safety equipment (a respirator and a hard hat so you don't bust your head open when you fall off the ladder). They talk to employees like dogs, in meetings management reports one fall a week, employees are not allowed to go to the bathroom, so during flour spills employees will get disguised in a deep pile of flour for recirculation and urinate (because the flour and the sweat makes a glue that allows your pants to stand up on their own when you get home), and when management was asked by a completely anonymous party in an outside location why they relate to employees the way they do, the management member gets indignant and says, "Employees are a liability," clearly a taught and practiced company mantra. Do you really want to support and allow a company with an attitude about the employees (without whom they wouldn't operate) like that. When I read some of the quotes about big ugly brick buildings, I wasn't surprised. There is so much controversy in this article, because that is just the tip of the iceberg.--Longbow1212 (talk) 15:14, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

Charitable Activities - New Information

Hello! I'd like to provide additional information about ConAgra Foods' charitable activities to update our Wiki page. Just for clarity, many of these efforts are led by the ConAgra Foods Foundation, which is funded primarily by ConAgra Foods. In the current copy, the Foundation is referred to as the 'Feeding Children Better Foundation." "Feeding Children Better" was actually the name of a particular initiative launched by the ConAgra Foods Foundation in 1993.

Under the section titled "Charitable activities," this is the current copy:

"ConAgra runs the ConAgra Foods Feeding Children Better Foundation, a charitable organization designed to raise hunger awareness. The Foundation is also the national sponsor of Kids Cafes which provides nutritious meals to children from low-income families.[5]"

To reflect more recent efforts, here is some suggested copy.

Paragraph 1

"In 1993, ConAgra Foods and the ConAgra Foods Foundation started working with Feeding America, formerly known as America’s Second Harvest, donating both food and funds to the organization. Six years later, the company formed its Feeding Children Better initiative, focused solely on ending child hunger in the United States."

source: http://www.conagrafoodsfoundation.org/about-conagra-foods-foundation/conagra-foods-foundation-history.jsp

Paragraph 2
"In 2003, the Foundation’s Feeding Children Better initiative received a Golden Halo award for its partnership with Feeding America, then known as America’s Second Harvest. One of the initiatives included funding a public service campaign with the Ad Council. ConAgra Foods Foundation also funded Kids Cafes nationwide . Today, ConAgra Foods Foundation’s is one of Feeding America’s leading donors."

source #1: Golden Halo Award - http://www.causemarketingforum.com/page.asp?ID=77
source #2: Ad Council: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G_g9I0uUcI
source #3: Kids Cafes - http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-19454742_ITM (this reference is currently being used)
source #4: Feeding America's leading donors - http://feedingamerica.org/partners/financial-partners/leadership-partners.aspx

Paragraph 3
"ConAgra Foods Foundation is the national sponsor of Operational Frontline, a program operated by Share Our Strength to teach children and families how to prepare nutritious meals on a tight budget."

source: National Sponsor - http://operationfrontline.org/ (see bottom of page for National Sponsor info)

Paragraph 4
"In 1998, the ConAgra Foods Foundation became a founding member of the American Red Cross Annual Disaster Giving Program. ConAgra Foods Foundation also provided an additional $200,000 to the Red Cross in the wake of the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake in Haiti."

source #1: Founding member reference and $200,000 donation info - http://omaharedcross.blogspot.com/2010/02/conagra-foods-foundation-joins-ellen.html
source #2: Additional info regarding Red Cross' Annual Disaster Giving Program - http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.86f46a12f382290517a8f210b80f78a0/?vgnextoid=859131cd6206e110VgnVCM10000089f0870aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default

Stephanie Childs (talk) 18:04, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

Bit of a conflict of interest. Brumak (talk) 07:44, 8 April 2011 (UTC)

Meh, I saw the request edit on the COIN board and came to help, but there are a few issues:

• YouTube is not a reliable source
• The company website is not a reliable source
• Awards are somewhat promotional, unless the award itself is truly notable
• There are somewhat promotional copy-edits that would be easy to fix

Would you mind taking a crack at a trimmed-down, single paragraph, revised copy based only on what's available in secondary sources? I'll nix out the request edit for now, so it goes out of the queue, but you can re-activate it when you're ready. User:King4057 (COI Disclosure on User Page) 18:49, 13 May 2012 (UTC)

Note from ConAgra Foods

{{request edit}} Not done for now:

• Feedback provided for revision. Please remove "tld" in the edit request to re-activate request when ready. User:King4057 (COI Disclosure on User Page) 21:44, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

I'm Lanie Friedman and I work at ConAgra Foods.

I don't feel that I'm crossing a line when I say that this article's current state doesn't really reflect ConAgra's history. Most certainly, it's fair to say that there are some undue-weight issues here.

Since I don't want to be necessarily making work for a lot of people, this is what I propose.

• Here is a suggested intro paragraph that I've written for consideration. My rationale for expanding it is that, unlike a lot of other large food companies, people don't necessarily pair the parent company with its products in our case. It also makes the two distinct lines of business clearer.

ConAgra Food Inc. (NYSE – CAG) is a North American food company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska(1). The company serves commercial and consumer markets.(2)

The company’s consumer foods division makes and sells products for retail and offers brands such as Egg Beaters, Healthy Choice, Hunt’s, Orville Redenbacher’s and PAM Cooking Spray (3).

The commercial foods division produces specialty foods and flavorings for commercial and food service customers worldwide under the brands Lamb Weston, Angela Mia, Award Cuisine and J. Hungerford Smith among others (4).

In 2011, ConAgra was ranked #200 on the FORTUNE 500 list(5) and had revenue of $12.3 billion (6).

Sources are:

1) http://cdn.businessweek.com/conagra-foods/jobs/

2) http://company.conagrafoods.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=202310&p=aboutus

3) http://www.conagrafoods.com/consumer/brands/index.jsp

4) http://www.conagrafoods.com/consumer/brands/index.jsp#hiddenBrands

5) http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2011/snapshots/299.html

6) 2011 ConAgra Foods Annual Report, http://mobular.net/ccbn/7/3241/4526/index.html

• To be frank, there are a lot of accuracy and emphasis issues in this entry. Rather than bother people here with all of them, my plan over time is to work with colleagues to deliver what I hope to be a Wikipedia-compatible ConAgra Foods article in my Sandbox. Inasmuch as accuracy allows, we will do our best to respect the material I see here. I fully understand that you might take some of what I contribute there or none at all. Nevertheless, please take this as a good-faith effort to meet this community halfway. Many thanks. --LanieFr (talk) 22:13, 27 April 2012 (UTC)

To add references, put the link between<ref> and </ref> or just like this "[www.source.com source]" For example, "ConAgra has $12.3 billion in revenue.[1] or ConAgra has $12.3 billion in revenue

References

Hope this helps. User:King4057 (COI Disclosure on User Page) 18:53, 13 May 2012 (UTC)

Just a note: the LEAD paragraph is supposed to summarize the article, so some of the details you're proposing (Fortune 500 company, specific brands, etc.) would be better in the body of the article. A sandbox would be a good idea, as it would cut down on clutter here on the talk page. It would allow you to request an edit, using a Diff view of your sandbox to show how the article would change. ~Adjwilley (talk) 20:23, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

{{request edit}}

How is this, then?

ConAgra Food Inc. (NYSE – CAG) is an American food company that serves commercial and consumer markets . The company’s consumer foods division makes and sells food and cooking products to be sold in retail markets. The commercial foods division produces specialty foods and flavorings for commercial and food service customers.

In 2011, ConAgra had revenue of $12.3 billion. ConAgra is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska and has 39 U.S. manufacturing facilities and three international manufacturing facilities

Let me know. --LanieFr (talk) 13:39, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

Lanie, according to WP:LEAD, the lead of the article is suppose to summarize the entire thing, including and specifically all the major controversies. Improving the lead could only reasonably lead to further highlighting damaging information to the company... On the other hand, I do wonder if the article could be better balanced or if ConAgra may find overt factual errors and other issues in all this criticism. User:King4057 23:29, 1 July 2012 (UTC)

Edits & Updates Requested by ConAgra Foods

Hi! My name is Stephanie Childs. I'm the director of corporate communication with ConAgra Foods. As part of my work, I'm reaching out to the Wiki community to request some edits and updates to the ConAgra Foods Wiki page. As we have new information to share or changes are made in our business, you may also see updates and requests from other members of my team, including Shelby Stoolman.

Below are some of the requested edit and updates we'd like made to the ConAgra Foods page along with supporting information for those changes.

Update 1: Company Description

Current Copy

"From the first paragraph: “ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE: CAG) is one of North America's largest packaged foods companies. ConAgra's products are available in supermarkets, as well as restaurants and food service establishments. Its headquarters are located in Omaha, Nebraska. ConAgra also formerly had locations in Irvine, California, and Downers Grove, Illinois (which were both headquarters of the former company, Beatrice Foods).”

Recommended Copy

"ConAgra Foods makes many leading brands, including: Healthy Choice, Chef Boyardee, Egg Beaters, Hebrew National, Hunt’s, Orville Redenbacher’s, PAM, and Banquet, among others. ConAgra Foods consumer brands are found in 96 percent of U.S. households and 24 are ranked first or second in their category. ConAgra Foods also has a very significant presence in commercial food products and is one of the nation’s leading specialty potato providers to restaurants and other foodservice establishments."

Support/Rationale

This is the current company description from the ConAgra Foods website: http://media.conagrafoods.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=202310&p=aboutus

Update 2: Governance

Current Copy

“The board of directors are: Mogens Bay, Stephen Butler, John Chain, Steven Goldstone, W.G. Jurgensen, Ruth Ann Marshall, Gary Rodkin, Ronald Roskens, Andrew Schinler and Kenneth Stinson.”

Recommended Copy

“The board of directors are: Mogens C. Bay, Stephen G. Butler, Steven F. Goldstone, Joie A. Gregor, Rajive Johri, W. G. Jurgensen, Richard H. Lenny, Ruth Ann Marshall, Gary M. Rodkin, Andrew J. Schindler and Kenneth E. Stinson.”

Support/Rationale

The current copy is outdated. The accurate list of ConAgra Foods' Board of Directors is maintained online at: http://company.conagrafoods.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=202310&p=irol-govboard

Update 3: Company Website

Current Copy

From the quick info box: "Website: www.conagra.com"

Recommended Copy

"Website: www.conagrafoods.com"

Support/Rational The most accurate URL for ConAgra Foods is www.conagrafoods.com.

Thanks, Stephanie

SChilds ConAgraFoods (talk) 18:43, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

I didn't feel good about replacing the lede paragraph with company-written text, especially since it seems a bit promotional in tone. I have, however, made the factual updates you requested. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 15:59, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for making those revisions and for your feedback regarding the lede paragraph. We'll certainly take that into consideration for other recommended additions and revisions. (ps - I have a new username that is now in compliance w/Wiki's guidelines.) Stephanie Childs (talk) 18:43, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

I deleted a portion of the genetically modified foods subsection of the article:

"As a result, there is a growing boycott of their products across North America."

Conagra is primarily a North American food company, and using a european environmentalist organization as a reference to a "growing boycott" doesn't reflect the fact that conagra is still growing. If there were a growing boycott, sales would fall. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.76.113.54 (talk) 11:56, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

A suggested addition from July 2012 says, "ConAgra is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska and has 39 U.S. manufacturing facilities and three international manufacturing facilities." The "three international manufacturing facilities" qualify ConAgra as an international corporation, so a European environmentalist organization is relevant after all.

Also, information published by that organization can be valid and very relevant whether CA does business in Europe or not. To disqualify them simply because they're not located in ConAgra's primary sphere of influence is like saying The New York Times is not qualified to publish stories about China.

Your statement that "if there were a growing boycott, sales would fall" is a specious argument and begs the question (and I'm using that phrase correctly, meaning that it proves a point by declaration rather than by presenting convincing evidence).

First, your statement assumes that CA is a reliable source of information about itself, since sales numbers would come from CA. Second, it implies that, in order to be worth noting, a boycott must be so widespread that it cripples the company being boycotted. A growing boycott is not necessarily a huge boycott, but the fact that it exists and is growing is very significant information, even if its financial impact on a multibillion-dollar corporation is negligible, so far. The fact that ConAgra is so eager to suppress the information is a pretty good indicator that it is important.—Jim10701 (talk) 18:17, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

Instead of restoring the poorly-sourced original statement about the boycott, I added a new paragraph with information sourced by The New York Times.—Jim10701 (talk) 19:47, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

References

Persistent pressure from ConAgra on this article

Although bringing their concerns here for vetting is better than assaulting the article directly, it is not really appropriate for the subject of a Wikipedia article to be constantly trying to change the article through any means in ways that make the subject look better. If the ConAgra employees who are so persistent about changing this article were offering negative information occasionally, their input could be as valuable as anyone else's; but the fact that EVERY change they request enhances their corporate image in some way makes their input more intrusive and manipulative than helpful. Impartial editors are required repeatedly to filter the promotional material and language out of what the ConAgra people present, and in nearly every case what is left is practically nothing. It just makes extra work for editors who already have plenty to do.

It also casts ConAgra in a negative light that actually undermines what they're trying to do and reinforces the impression that ConAgra is, shall we say, not a nice company. First, the fact that they have assigned more than one employee to try to manipulate this article suggests that they know they have a lot of ugly stuff to whitewash. Second, the fact that they assign employees to do this dirty work and evidently keep pressure on those employees until the changes are made strongly supports the widespread claims (mentioned in earlier posts on this page) that the company does not respect their own employees as human beings.

In my opinion, ConAgra would be better served by NOT continually monitoring this article and trying to manipulate it to enhance its corporate image to Wikipedia readers. If the company has no dirty laundry to hide, then it's counterproductive for them to behave here as if they do. If the company DOES have dirt to hide (which seems practically certain just from reading this page), then the impartial Wikipedia editors who have been good-naturedly accommodating ConAgra employees here should stop wasting their time and just cut any corporate promotional crap out of the article as soon as it appears.

I have no interest in either attacking or promoting ConAgra. I know nothing whatsoever about the company except what I have read in the article and on this page today. I came here because I was eating some Hunt's pasta sauce and wanted to find out about the company that made it. What I read in the article didn't affect me particularly one way or another (although I did tag a section as unreferenced, and it was a section criticizing ConAgra, by the way), but what I read here disturbed me a lot. ConAgra shouldn't be trying to manipulate a Wikipedia article to make itself look good, and WP editors shouldn't be helping them do it.—Jim10701 (talk) 17:50, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps ConAgra's people ought to learn how to write encyclopedic versus marketing/promotional content and then they could offer changes that are constructive. I am not sure any corporation could 'legally offer self-deprecating information (as that could shoot themselves in their foot cause their stock values to drop) but if they would learn our rules (WP:NPOV, WP:COI, etc) and offer information in a way that is what WP allows then it could potentially become a mutually beneficial relationship. F6697 ^{FORMERLY 66.97.209.215} _TALK 21:27, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

Demolition of historic site

Just my first "big" minor edit & attempt at setting a more NPOV i was not able to find the 'Summer 2012 issue of Nebraska History' at first i thought that the "Big, Ugly " quote was just the title of a book or article then i found the link to the N. Y. Times....

http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/newsletr/apr12.pdf " Daniel D. Spegel’s article, “‘Big, Ugly Red Brick Buildings’: The Fight to Save Jobbers Canyon,” will appear in the Summer 2012 issue of Nebraska History,.... "

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/13/us/historic-district-at-issue-in-omaha.html " But to Charles Harper, the chief executive of ConAgra, one of the nation's large agribusiness concerns, the district, Jobbers Canyon, is some big, ugly red brick buildings. He has asked the city to tear them down so his company can relocate its headquarters." "

As the Times gives credit to Harper for the quote, and also states "He has asked ...." i felt that he should receive the credit / blame for tearing down the buildings, and with out Gov. approval the demolition would not have preceded, just my "imho"

JSo9-10 (talk) 14:38, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

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Infobox update

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Hello editors, I'm Rachel and I work for Conagra Brands. I was hoping to make some suggestions to improve the article, and I thought I would start by taking a look at the infobox. I saw there are some old revenue and other numbers there. I suggest updating those numbers with the figures from Conagra's most recent SEC filings which covers the figures from 2022.

That would mean updating the following fields:

• Revenue increasing to $11.536 billion
• Operating income increasing to $1.413 billion
• Net income decreasing to $888.2 million
• Assets increasing to $22.435 billion
• Equity increasing to $8.862 billion
• Number of employees increasing to 18,000

References

Please let me know what you think, and thanks in advance for taking a look! I won't make any changes myself because of my conflict of interest.

I have some other edits I hope to achieve, including some pretty substantial ones. I made a diff and uploaded that draft to my userspace. You can find it here if you are interested. RWConagra (talk) 19:42, 9 May 2023 (UTC)

 Done Added to article. Cheers, atque supra! Fakescientist8000 19:15, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for the help! RWConagra (talk) 21:31, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

I oppose ANYONE who has a conflict of interest from editing this article, in any way. ConAgra has been putting pressure on this article for many years now. Hopefully, people will see that and prevent them from editing in the future. This is absurd, IMHO. 174.171.71.34 (talk) 04:09, 16 May 2023 (UTC)

Early history update

Hi editors, I saw that there was a banner asking for more citations for this article so I thought I'd try my hand at locating some. Looking at the History section I saw the early history especially was light on sources, so I thought I'd start there.

In my research, I realized that the current subsection headings could be more effective, so I propose changing the current Founding and success subhead to 1919–1949: Founding and early years. That helps clearly establish the timeframe discussed in that section. Then I propose replacing the current text in that section with the following:

Conagra was founded in September 1919 as Nebraska Consolidated Mills (NCM) by Alva Kinney. The company was a conglomerate of four grain milling companies headquartered in Grand Island, Nebraska. The company moved its headquarters to Omaha, Nebraska, in 1922 following the purchase of Updike Mill. That year, NCM posted a profit of $175,000, its first profit since its founding.

In 1941, under the leadership of R.S. Dickinson, the company opened a mill in Decatur, Alabama. It was NCM's first plant outside of Nebraska.

References

This makes a few important updates to the section, including:

• Adding sources to a previously unsourced section
• Removing the history post-1949 from the section, especially related to the cake mix operations. In another request, I'll suggest adding that content back in a new section, but I didn't want this request to get too long
• Takes credit away from Frank Little as cofounder. I couldn't find a reliable source that said Little was cofounder, so to make sure this change meets the verifiability policy I cut that
• Adds more specificity about the type of mills that made up the early days of NCM and early finances as supported by the sourcing there
• Removes unsourced information about Kinney's retirement

I tried my best to keep the facts that I could and rewrote the section to hopefully have a better flow. Please let me know what you think, and if you have suggestions, I'm all ears! If you're curious about the Duncan Hines content, I have that in my full redraft of the article, which is here. @Fakescientist8000: would you be interested in reviewing this request as well? I'd really appreciate it! RWConagra (talk) 21:33, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

If the overall goal is to remove the banner, I will take a look and see if I can get it done as there is more than one section that needs it. I also took a look at this and will say that draft moves in the right direction per WP:NOCRIT but believe it would take a lot of discussion on the talk page to get it done. --CNMall41 (talk) 18:46, 2 June 2023 (UTC)

 Partly done: I removed the statement of "under the leadership....." and added the rest. I also incorporated some of the new section headings as you have them in your userspace. This will help with future COI requests as I am sure you will have them based on the userspace draft. CNMall41 (talk) 18:55, 2 June 2023 (UTC)

I added a few more references and removed the notice. There are some additional paragraphs that need references which I tagged individually. Would recommend doing a search and proposing any references that can replace them. Good luck. --CNMall41 (talk) 19:10, 2 June 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for doing that! My goal is to remove the banner and hopefully make the entire article more accurate and informative overall. I definitely understand the challenge of making the article WP:NOCRIT and welcome any additional feedback or discussion from you or other editors when it comes to those points. Ultimately I just want to make sure that the article is accurate, up to date, and meets all the guidelines so it's as useful as possible for readers. I appreciate you making those other changes as well, it will definitely make future requests easier! RWConagra (talk) 20:15, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

1950s history update

Hi editors, in my effort to update the article, I thought I'd offer some suggestions for the 1950-1970 section. My suggested text is below, and reasoning follows:

NCM expanded in the 1950s and 1960s. The company funded the establishment of the Duncan Hines brand of cake mixes, which by 1955 sold 180 million units annually. The division was sold to Procter & Gamble (P&G) in 1956 when Hines-Park Foods, which owned the Duncan Hines name, merged with P&G. In 1957, NCM built its first mill outside the continental United States, constructing a plant in Puerto Rico.

NCM began diversifying its business in the 1960s while expanding its milling operations. The company built a mill in Spain and in 1963 purchased 513 acres of land in Puerto Rico to raise beef cattle, demonstrating the feasibility of raising livestock on the island. In 1969, the company purchased Montana Flour Mills, spanning its operations from the northern to southern borders of the U.S. Faced with declining profits in the milling industry, NCM also expanded into the poultry industry during the 1960s, including shipping eggs for hatching to Puerto Rico.

References

I tried to incorporate some of the content already that CNMall41 found a source for while also sticking really closely to the information that was in the sources. Here's my thinking:

• The first sentence acts as a nice transition
• The content about Duncan Hines sticks really closely to the reference material. I couldn't find any source that specified NCM had been conducting research for new uses for flour. I don't want to suggest any claims I can't back up so I decided to cut that
  • I think the note about 180 million units sold annually is a good inclusion because it shows the significance of the mix at the time, but understand if editors prefer to omit that detail
  • The source I'm using is a story from the Lincoln Journal Star, which I haven't been able to find online. The direct quote I'm citing is "The year 1951 saw the beginning of the Duncan Hines cake mix division, which was an instant success with sales peaking at more than 180 million units in 1955."
• I cut the sentence about NCM not expanding the flour business because I couldn't find a source that directly verifies it, but perhaps it could be argued that other content about diversification during this time period covers that? I didn't want to make any claims I couldn't back up directly in a source
• The international expansion content really helps flesh out that heading and explain another big part of Conagra's early history
• Note: Source 6 is the Baghai book, so it should render the right way if the code is copied over

I know some of these sources don't appear online, so if reviewing editors would like to know specific quotes from any other sources I'd be happy to share them. Please let me know what you think! As always I won't make any changes myself because of my COI. Thanks in advance for taking the time to look! RWConagra (talk) 20:18, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

Is this text meant to replace any existing text in the article? It's not clear from your post whether that is the case. Any text which is to be removed from the article needs to be included in the request. Please advise. Thank you!  Spintendo  20:42, 30 June 2023 (UTC)

@Spintendo:, yes, in the first paragraph there is some text getting replaced. The second paragraph expands the last sentence of the first paragraph and is essentially all new content. I tried to make the differences clear in the box below. Red text is being removed, green text is the replacement/new addition:

After researching new uses for its flour, NCM funded the establishment of the Duncan Hines brand of cake mixes in 1951 as a way to market more flour. It sold its Duncan Hines assets to Procter & Gamble in 1956. NCM expanded in the 1950s and 1960s. The company funded the establishment of the Duncan Hines brand of cake mixes, which by 1955 sold 180 million units annually. The division was sold to Procter & Gamble (P&G) in 1956 when Hines-Park Foods, which owned the Duncan Hines name, merged with P&G. In 1957, NCM built its first mill outside the continental United States, constructing a plant in Puerto Rico. As American households purchased more and more prepared and instant foods in the 1950s and 1960s, NCM chose not to expand into the businesses that used its flour, instead turning in the opposite direction and focusing more on raw foods like poultry and expanding its livestock feed business.

NCM began diversifying its business in the 1960s while expanding its milling operations. The company built a mill in Spain and in 1963 purchased 513 acres of land in Puerto Rico to raise beef cattle, demonstrating the feasibility of raising livestock on the island. In 1969, the company purchased Montana Flour Mills, spanning its operations from the northern to southern borders of the U.S. Faced with declining profits in the milling industry, NCM also expanded into the poultry industry during the 1960s, including shipping eggs for hatching to Puerto Rico.

References

Does that work? Let me know if you'd like to see changes in a different way. Also of note, I had to manually set a line break, the box didn't like the color changing text for some reason. Thanks for taking a look! RWConagra (talk) 18:24, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

Reply 10-JUL-2023

Below you will see where proposals from your request have been quoted with reviewer decisions and feedback inserted underneath, either accepting, declining or otherwise commenting upon your proposal(s). Please read the enclosed notes within the proposal review section below for information on each request.  Spintendo  01:06, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

Edit request review 10-JUL-2023

The company funded the establishment of the Duncan Hines brand of cake mixes, which by 1955 sold 180 million units annually. Clarification needed. In 1957, NCM built its first mill outside the continental United States, constructing a plant in Puerto Rico.  Approved. NCM began diversifying its business in the 1960s while expanding its milling operations.  Unable to implement. The company built a mill in Spain and in 1963 purchased 513 acres of land in Puerto Rico to raise beef cattle, demonstrating the feasibility of raising livestock on the island. In 1969, the company purchased Montana Flour Mills, spanning its operations from the northern to southern borders of the U.S  Unable to review. Faced with declining profits in the milling industry, NCM also expanded into the poultry industry during the 1960s, including shipping eggs for hatching to Puerto Rico Clarification needed. ___________

@Spintendo: thanks for the detailed reply here. I'll try to show my logic by using some of these sources and give quotes from the paywalled sources. At the very end of this post, you will see I also had a question on one detail you omitted to address.

For the sentence: The company funded the establishment of the Duncan Hines brand of cake mixes, which by 1955 sold 180 million units annually.

• The company funded the establishment of the Duncan Hines brand of cake mixes,
  • Specifically, the quote in this article supporting this is "In 1951, NCM made its first foray into branded foods with the introduction of Duncan Hines cake mixes."
• which by 1955 sold 180 million units annually.
  • This clause I cited to a Lincoln Journal Star article. Initially I couldn't find an online version but was able to dig one up on LexisNexis. I know LexisNexis is paywalled (though it's my understanding that shouldn't matter) but here is the specific quote from that article I am citing: "The year 1951 saw the beginning of the Duncan Hines cake mix division, which was an instant success with sales peaking at more than 180 million units in 1955."

Reply 17-JUL-2023

Adding a minor detail about a product that was only owned by the subject company for 5 years would seem to be unwarranted. The historiography is clear: By 1953, Hines sold the right to use his name to Roy H. Park to form Hines-Park Foods, which licensed the name to a number of other businesses. The cake mix license was sold to NCM, which developed and sold the first Hines cake mixes. In 1957 (or 1956, according to the ConAgra narrative) NCM sold the cake mix business to P&G. That company expanded the business to the national market. Now the main narrative of this transaction already exists in the Conagra article. The text that you're trying to add expands upon that narrative by highlighting a certain figure that was sold while Hines was under NCM's domain ("180 million units") The highlighting of this number appears to me to be a minor aspect. An article should not give undue weight to minor aspects of its subject. A description of isolated events such as the selling of 180 million units of Hines mix may be verifiable and impartial, but would still be disproportionate to its overall significance to the article topic.

 Spintendo  21:27, 17 July 2023 (UTC)

For the sentence: The division was sold to Procter & Gamble (P&G) in 1956 when Hines-Park Foods, which owned the Duncan Hines name, merged with P&G.

• This sentence is cited to both Sue Ade/the Savannah Morning News, as well as The Spokesman-Review. I'm not quite sure what about Ade's background as a baker makes her/the Savannah Morning News "subpar" for a fairly basic fact. Wouldn't Ade's background make her more akin to a subject matter expert on cake mixes? Can you further explain your reasoning for saying she isn't credible here? This way I have a better understanding in the future.
• Here are the specific quotes I'm citing from the articles:
  • From Spokesman: "In 1951, NCM made its first foray into branded foods with the introduction of Duncan Hines cake mixes. But five years later, the company sold Duncan Hines to Procter & Gamble."
  • From Savannah Morning News: "To most folks, Duncan Hines is just a brand of cake mix owned by Pinnacle Foods, but the rights to the name were actually sold by the real Duncan Hines (born March 26, 1880) to Hines-Parks Foods in the early 1950s. In 1956, Hines-Park merged with Procter and Gamble."
  • Do you think that works? Ultimately I put those three sources at the end of those two sentences because I thought it would get cluttered with too many citations otherwise.

Reply 17-JUL-2023

The text that Sue Ade's article was meant to act as a reference for was concerning the selling and merging of business units, not the measuring and baking of food ingredients. Needless to say this information already exists in the ConAgra article under the paragraph "1950 to 1970 expansion".

 Spintendo  21:27, 17 July 2023 (UTC)

For the start of the next paragraph: The company built a mill in Spain and in 1963 purchased 513 acres of land in Puerto Rico to raise beef cattle, demonstrating the feasibility of raising livestock on the island. In 1969, the company purchased Montana Flour Mills, spanning its operations from the northern to southern borders of the U.S.

• These sentences cite the Omaha World Herald and Great Falls Tribune. I also realized I forgot a New York Times source and included it below.
  • The World Herald article is paywalled, and I see you implemented the sentence about the Puerto Rico mill using it, thanks! I'm not sure why that is an issue for these sentences that come after it. At any rate, here are the specific quotes I was referencing:
    • The company built a mill in Spain
      • From the World Herald: "1960s: The company expands to Europe with a mill in Spain."
    • and in 1963 purchased 513 acres of land in Puerto Rico to raise beef cattle, demonstrating the feasibility of raising livestock on the island.
      • I realized I made an error here! Somehow one of the sources I had didn't get added. At any rate, this portion of the sentence is from an article by The New York Times. The full citation is <ref name="NYT11">{{cite news |title=Drinking of milk up in Puerto Rico |last1=Maidenberg |first1=H.J. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/12/28/archives/drinking-of-milk-up-in-puerto-rico-fourfold-rise-noted-since.html |work=The New York Times |date=December 28, 1964 |accessdate=March 23, 2023}}</ref>
      • Specifically, the quote I am citing is: "When the Juanita Sugar Mills folded last June and sold their plant to some Philippine outfit," Mr. Becerra said, "we bought 513 acres of canefields from them at Cidra, about 20 miles south of here. Beef cattle were introduced there for a start and are thriving on a combination of local range grass plus stockfeeds. And to prove it to the local farmers, our books are always available for their inspection."
    • In 1969, the company purchased Montana Flour Mills, spanning its operations from the northern to southern borders of the U.S.
      • This is cited to both the World Herald and Great Falls Tribune
      • From the World Herald: "And with the purchase of Montana Flour Mills, NCM comes to own flour-milling operations that span the United States."
      • The Tribune quotes are a bit trickier because that article is more about Montana Flour Mills, a company Conagra purchased, as stated in this quote: "In 1969, Nebraska Consolidated Mills purchased the company, and its name was later changed to ConAgra."

Reply 17-JUL-2023

It appears that the requested text includes a claim statement which includes analysis: "demonstrating the feasibility of raising livestock." WP:PRIMARY sources are not appropriate for claims that include analysis. Correct me if I'm wrong, but is that the claim statement that is trying to be added here? Please advise.

 Spintendo  21:27, 17 July 2023 (UTC)

For the sentence: Faced with declining profits in the milling industry, NCM also expanded into the poultry industry during the 1960s,

• You said this isn't confirmed by the Tribune source. I did not cite the Tribune here. The sources I was using were the Baghai book and the Decatur Daily. Breaking it down, here's how that was cited:
  • Faced with declining profits in the milling industry,
    • Baghai, p. 176: "During the 1960s, in response to declining profits from its flour mills, ConAgra diversified for the first time by moving into the poultry business."
  • including shipping eggs for hatching to Puerto Rico
    • From the Decatur Daily, March 30, 1964: "The airplane is marked Southern Airways and a heavy part of the load is hatching eggs that Alabama Flour Mill is shipping to Puerto Rico… after the chicks are hatched they are raised, processed and distributed by the Island Poultry Company, a company that is owned and operated by the Nebraska Consolidated Mills Company."
• I was able to find this on Newspaper Archive, which is accessible via The Wikipedia Library.

Reply 17-JUL-2023

It appears that the Baghai source is being copied word for word without proper in-text attribution. If his publication is the one saying that, then the text needs to say that it is according to him.

 Spintendo  21:27, 17 July 2023 (UTC)

Anyway, I hope that explains where I got my information a bit better.

Lastly, can you clarify why you didn't add the sentence, "NCM expanded in the 1950s and 1960s." at the very beginning of the proposed rewrite? Your notes did not include any feedback on that sentence.

Reply 17-JUL-2023

The claim "NCM expanded in the 1950's and 60's", —notwithstanding the fact that describing something as undergoing expansion, is on the whole, vaguely worded—is just a restatement of what the paragraph header already states: "1950s through '70s Expansion and decline". There need not be a restating of what is already stated in the header. Now I understand that your original intention for including this sentence was probably to have this section sound more "readable", but the section doesn't really need it—these are just filler words.

 Spintendo  21:27, 17 July 2023 (UTC)

Let me know if you have any questions! RWConagra (talk) 21:16, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

References

@Spintendo: I appreciate the detailed responses again. I'll collect all my thoughts here because there isn't really a good way to reply to the boxes individually. In the interest of keeping things clear I'll respond to your latest replies.

• Responding to the first box, the early history of Duncan Hines is relevant because it is the first time the company ventured into branded products as noted by the Spokesman-Review, something that became a big part of how the company operated in later years. Conagra also purchased the Duncan Hines brand again in 2018 with the purchase of Pinnacle Foods. That means Duncan Hines has been part of Conagra for just under 10% of Conagra's existence, which seems substantial to me.
  • My thought with including the number of units was to simply explain the significance at the time of the cake mix. I don't think two sentences from three sources is giving this undue attention, but that may just be my biases showing through. Ultimately, my main goal was to change the language at the start of the section, the bit about researching new uses for flour, because that is simply not in any source I could find, and to add some additional context about Conagra's activities in the 1960s.

• For the second box, you're absolutely right, some of that information is already in the article. I was just trying to give it a little more context and an additional source for support. If you don't think it's necessary I'm okay with dropping it.

• For the third box, there is some further context for that. The reporter also spoke with Jose Usera, an agronomist running the experiment with beef cattle in Puerto Rico, and wrote in the next paragraph "Mr. Usera observed that even land considered marginal for cane could be used for dairy or beef herds." Does that change your evaluation at all?

• For the fourth box, the material as presented is not "word for word" from the source material, but was paraphrased. I can tweak the language further if necessary.

• For the fifth box, understood, thanks for clarifying!

This is becoming quite the wall of text, so I'll end there. I appreciate your diligent responses on this even if we disagree. @CNMall41:, you had reviewed one of my earlier requests, would you be willing to weigh in here? It might be helpful to have a fresh voice. RWConagra (talk) 14:49, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

This page has a lot of issues and one that I would love to clean up as I do others on a regular basis. However, being that a paid editor is involved, I am less inclined to do much work other than respond to edit requests. At this time, I trust Spintendo's thorough review of the requests so there really isn't anything I can opine on. --CNMall41 (talk) 19:06, 20 July 2023 (UTC)

@CNMall41: Understood, appreciate the quick response! RWConagra (talk) 15:03, 24 July 2023 (UTC)

1970s history update 1

Hi editors, I thought I'd break down my requests into smaller pieces and that I'd start with the first sentence of the 1971-1999 section. As it stands, that sentence (in red in the box below) is not verifiable and is not accurate. I propose replacing it with the verifiable text (in green) in the box below.

In 1971, Nebraska Consolidated Mills changed its name to "ConAgra Foods", with "ConAgra" being a portmanteau of "consolidated" and "agriculture." NCM changed its name to ConAgra in 1971. The name is a combination of the Latin words "con" ("with") and "agra" ("from the earth").

References

I'd note that the Grand Island Independent is already cited in the article, so just using the named reference "GII1" will prevent duplicate reference entries.

Please let me know what you think! As always I won't make changes myself due to my COI. RWConagra (talk) 15:04, 24 July 2023 (UTC)

Reply 24-JUL-2023

  Edit request implemented  

• I added wikilinks for the Latin etymologies, to further act as references for this claim. The second half of the term is actually agrī (genitive singular or nominative/vocative plural inflection of ager) as shown in the WikiLink.

Regards,  Spintendo  01:01, 25 July 2023 (UTC)

Thanks! RWConagra (talk) 19:32, 25 July 2023 (UTC)