General Mills is a Fortune 500 corporation and the #2 U.S. cereal maker, with only its rival Kellogg ahead of it in the ranking (General Mills, Inc. Company Profile, 2007). General Mills is a brand leader in several categories:
             Baking Mixes-Betty Crocker and Bisquick
             Branded yogurt-Yoplait and Colombo (General Mills, Inc. Company Profile, 2007).
             General Mills acquired Pillsbury and added its refrigerated dough products and frozen vegetables to its line in 2001, thus doubling the company's size and making General Mills one of the world's largest food companies (General Mills, Inc. Company Profile, 2007).
             Despite its undeniable market presence, however, General Mills is subject to the seven environmental forces, just as any other company is. The political, legal, cultural, economic, demographic, ecological, and technology forces can exert a powerful impact on the company within the next five years. A political/ecological issue that could affect General Mills is that of global warming, a topic recently brought under closer scrutiny and to greater public awareness by Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth. Like all manufacturers, if the global warming political football resulted in legislation requiring wholesale changes in the way goods are manufactured, General Mills would be impacted heavily by being forced to retool its manufacturing processes at substantial cost to the company.
             Another hot political issue is that of the labeling of genetically modified foods, one that would dramatically affect General Mills if it were brought to action. General Mills produces a number of genetically modified products already, one of which are labeled as genetically modified, including many Betty Crocker and Bisquik branded mixes, Pillsbury quick breads mixes, Hungry Jack Buttermilk Waffles, Nature Valley granola bars, Pop Secret po
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