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Kellogg Company's (NYSE: K) second quarter earnings may not be as great as they first appear.

The company reported net earnings for the quarter were $301 million, or 75 cents per share, a 13% increase from last year's $267 million, or 67 cents. It reported that net sales in the quarter increased by 9% to $3.0 billion. Wall Street had expected profit of 71 cents on revenue of $2.93 billion.

North America is still most of the company's revenue. The topline hit $1.98 billion, up 4%, but operating income for the region was up 12% to $365 million.

Growth in the Latin America and Asia regions went nowhere. Operating income in Latin America fell to $55 million from $58 million. In Asia, it fell to $20 million from $24 million.

Kellogg would like investors to think of the company as an international operation, but that is hardly true. It is the largest cereal company in the U.S. and its growth opportunities here are limited by the growth of the market and its substantial penetration.

Kellogg needs to get overseas action moving.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall At.

I've been in love with natural foods grocers since I was a little girl, when Fred Meyer opened a little mini-store dedicated to raw peanut butter, tofu, wheat germ and a dozen different kinds of bulk grains. The store had candy bars made out of honey and I loved it. Since then, my understanding for and appreciation of the natural grocer has grown up with the industry; from the cute little small-town co-op where I shopped in college, to the Fresh Fields (acquired, and already assimilated by, Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:WFMI)) I fell in love with in Philadelphia during business school, to the discovery of the Portland, Oregon New Seasons chain when I moved "back home" in 2001. I noshed at every quick-service franchise that jumped on the healthy foods wagon, from spirulina-spiked smoothies to bagels loaded with sprouts and hummus.

Natural and organic grocers always seemed like the nice (if a bit militant) guys, interested in supporting the local farmer, providing non-toxic food and diapers for our babies, striving to make sure our bodies were healthy and our baths were perfumed with chamomile and lavendar. And then 2005 happened.

Suddenly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc (NYSE:WMT) was in the organic grocery game. Safeway Inc. (NYSE:SWY) started its own line of "O" organic foods. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) created a line of herbal-infused babycare products and Kellogg Company (NYSE:K) launched organic Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes. Big business had figured it out and suddenly it wasn't smelling much like chamomile and patchouli. No. It smelled more like war.

With the news yesterday that Whole Foods was set to acquire Wild Oats Markets (NYSE:OATS), the war seems ever more bitter.