The Food Co-op, spurred by store members, has joined an international boycott of Coca-Cola products and has stopped selling Odwalla juices and snack bars. The Co-op has made about $80,000 annually from Odwalla-related products.
A committee from The Food Co-op plans to set up an information booth at the store this Friday to discuss its decision to boycott Coca-Cola products.
The decision by the Product Selection Guideline Committee to boycott Coke came after recent encouragement from store members, who also helped provide information regarding an international boycott of the company, said merchandising manager Deb Shortess.
The boycott is in response to Coke's suspected human rights violations and contamination of ecosystems, according to The Food Co-op's press release.
Co-op member responses to the local boycott are mixed, and many haven't noticed, said Shortess.
"I don't really mind. There is always something else," said Paul, a local business owner and Co-op member who declined to give his last name.
Although some embraced the alternative offered by the Co-op, Organic Columbia Gorge juices, others have started looking for vendors that are willing to sell Odwalla juices, said Shortess.
"I kind of disagree. They could boycott a lot of things," said Co-op shopper Veda Clark. "Does Pepsi treat its employees any better than Coke?"
Shortess said no problems with PepsiCo have been brought to the Co-op's attention.
The Co-op, the second largest grocery outlet in Port Townsend, does not sell many mainstream products such as Coca-Cola soft drinks.
Although the boycott began in June, it's difficult to say if the alternative juice product will be able to make up for the $80,000 in annual sales the Co-op made from Odwalla products, said Shortess.
She said people haven't had enough time to respond to the change and that the store is still working with Columbia Gorge's distributor to get the right amount of juice in order to fill the gap.
In a press release, the Co-op emphasized that Columbia Gorge juices cost less and are 100 percent organic, whereas Odwalla beverages are not.
The Co-op plans to offer samples of the alternative beverages at the Aug. 3 presentation, along with the opportunity for people to sign a Teamster's Union petition in support of the boycott.
Although there has been no direct opposition to the practices of Odwalla Inc., Coke, its parent company, collects profit from Odwalla as well as from more than 300 other Coca Cola products.
The Co-op committee offered specific reasons for its decision to boycott Coke. One of the major accusations in the Co-op's press release is the intimidation and abuse of unions, which includes the alleged murder of eight Colombian union leaders and the beating of about 100 workers by paramilitary units.
However, in a company statement, Coke says the Colombian attorney general and a Colombian court cleared the case.
Claiming more than 30 percent of its employees to be union workers, Coke also reports that it is above par. In Colombia, 31 percent of Coke workers are unionized, whereas the population has an average of only 4 percent.
Co-op also argues that Coke's waste practices are detrimental to the environment, employees and even consumers. They say that in addition to dumping toxic waste, its product contains unsafe levels of pesticide residue, including the neurotoxin DDT.
Co-op also argues that Coke is exhausting water reserves in Third World countries such as India, which leaves farmers unable to irrigate their crops and makes it even more difficult for the poor to gain access to safe drinking water. (About 20 percent of the world's population doesn't have access to potable water.)
However, some sources blame India's water problems on the egregious use of water by farmers, pointing out that Coke pays for its water, unlike the farmers who use wells on their own properties and often have so much they sell it by the tanker.
(Contact Celeste Flint at celesteflint@gmail.com.)
Reader Comments
Posted: Thursday, August 02, 2007
Article comment by:
Duane Albert
Ridiculous boycotting Coke. Better to boycott SUV owners. The pollution and damage done by those are tremendously more than Coke.
Posted: Thursday, August 02, 2007
Article comment by:
Lew Friedman
The 30 percent union-member figure that Coke claims is a maniputlation of statistics. Coca-Cola considers the vast majority of Coke workers in Colombia to be "flexible" workers employed through various subcontracting schemes, not employees.
These workers have no chance of union representation, receive low pay and meager benefits (if any), have no job security and often are mired in poverty. Due to Coke's lobbying efforts in Colombia and the campaign of terror directed at union leaders, only about 4-5% of Coke's workers in Colombia belong to unions, if you include the "flexible" workers who work for Coke as employees.
Recently, two groups of flexible workers tried to unionize and they were fired from their jobs.
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