Consumer, environmental, and social justice activists in 300 US cities and seven other nations (England, Scotland, Israel, Austria, Canada, Australia, & Japan) leafleted and stage protests in front of Starbucks coffee shops from February 23 to March 2. These protests were timed to coincide with Starbucks' annual meeting in Seattle on February 26. Protesters, including shareholders in Seattle, called attention to Starbucks' use of genetic engineered ingredients in their foods and beverages, as well as Starbucks' refusal to brew Fair Trade, shade-grown coffee as its "coffee of the day" at least one day a week. Events were scheduled for Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis, New York, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Albuquerque, Dallas, Houston, San Diego, Vancouver, London (UK), and scores of other cities as part of an ongoing international campaign against Starbucks which began last year. Starbucks, the largest coffee shop chain in the world, has recently begun to give in to at least some of the demands of this global campaign, but remains under pressure from activists and some of its shareholders, for full implementation of the campaign's demands. Orin Smith, Starbucks CEO, admitted last year that Fair Trade, shade-grown coffee represents only one tenth of one percent of Starbucks' total sales, and that most of its beverages and foods contain GE ingredients. "Starbucks must do more than just greenwash themselves. Unless they remove rBGH and all GE ingredients from their product lines, brew Fair Trade and organic coffee as their `coffee of the day' at least one day a week, and guarantee a living wage to coffee farmers, they run the risk of further damage to their reputation and their bottom line," stated Ronnie Cummins, National Director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA). The OCA is a nationwide network of 250,000 organic consumers, which works with public interest groups worldwide to oppose GE and industrial agriculture and to promote organic farming. The OCA's national office is located at 6101 Cliff Estate Road, Little Marais, Minnesota 55614 CORPORATE FRIENDLY AMERICAN COUNCIL ON SCIENCE AND HEALTH SEEKS TO DISCREDIT STARBUCKS ANTI-GE CAMPAIGN PRNEWSWIRE/ : Caveat Emptor. Consumers and journalists beware ---- Anti-biotechnology activists engaged in a week of "direct action" at Starbucks Coffee shops this week aim to target you over the next few days with false and misleading information about food safety, nutrition and the environment. The same people who brought you a long list of other false health and environmental scares --- including the infamous Alar in apples scare, the Dow-Corning breast implant campaign --- and dozens of other debunked fears are at it again. This time the scaremongers are targeting such safe foods as milk and other dairy products in your local Starbucks. Like the misleading Alar in apples scare, activists often use products associated with children --- like milk and ice cream --- and falsely link these products with horrible ills such as cancer to evoke the greatest fear among parents and the consuming public. The harm and cost to consumers and farmers alike can be significant. In 1989 environmental activists and their public relations firm Fenton Communications claimed that the use of the plant growth regulator Alar by apple growers was causing cancer in children who eat apples and drink apple juice. The claims made national headlines and were highlighted on news programs like "60 Minutes." They turned out to be false, but they cost apple farmers (particularly those in Washington State) hundreds of millions, increased consumer food costs, and caused a significant spike in consumer purchases of organic produce. Conveniently, this public relations firm also represented the benefiting organic food industry interests, who also conveniently funded the environmental activists. When the science and health community responded and showed that the offending "cancer-causing" chemical was, in fact, less carcinogenic than bacon, tap water or peanut butter (Bruce Ames, University of California Berkeley), it was too late. The public relations firm had celebrated achieving their goal; "the PR campaign was designed so that revenue would flow back to the (client) from the public." (Source: Fenton Communications memo published in the Wall Street Journal, 10/3/1999). And when confronted over a decade later when the false "cancer in children" fears failed to materialize, the PR firm referred inquiries to their client, the Natural Resources Defense Council, which stated, "The message of that report might have been muddled by the media, and the public might have over-reacted, because we never said there was an immediate danger from Alar . . . " (Source: PR Central's Inside PR Monday, September 4, 2000) Today, more than a decade later, the same public relations firm and the same activists are in Seattle and at local corner coffee shops across the country spreading false fears about the safety of milk from cows supplemented with bioengineered bovine growth hormones (rbST). This time Fenton Communications represents ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry's and a variety of other "organic" and "natural" products companies whose sales benefit from these scares. Fenton is also representing the activists coalition Genetically Engineered Food Alert attacking the safety of dairy products derived from cows that are supplemented with rbST. Once again, these activists are receiving funding from the benefiting organic industry interests. These slick public relations professionals promote false claims by evolutionary ecologist Michael Hansen, Dr. Samuel Epstein (ranked by the American Association for Cancer Research as the least credible scientist on issues of environmental cancer), or fired Fox journalists turned activists Steve Wilson and Jane Akre. These supposed experts proclaim that such dairy products cause cancer, harm cows, and hurt small dairy farmers. But check the facts from the hundreds of real experts who have published and commented on these issues . . . . . So, next time you look at a pint of eco-friendly Ben & Jerry's or the premium-priced organic milk option offered by Starbucks, remember, all milk contains bovine growth hormones [Ed Note: manufactured by Monsanto Corp.] --- they are naturally produced by all dairy cows. Supplementing dairy cows to help them maintain their natural peak levels of this hormone does not change the milk in any way --- but it does help protect our environment by enabling family dairy farmers to produce more milk with fewer cows. This results in significantly less water and fuel use, less grain and land under the plow, and less animal waste. This safe product --- used by more small dairy farmers than large --- also helps family farmers remain profitable and ensure they can afford to pass along their farms to future generations. Biotechnology helps farmers produce more safe and nutritious food, using less land and less input. This is good for consumers, good for the environment and good for farmers --- misleading fear campaigns, on the other hand, are not. The American Council on Science and Health is a consortium of more than 350 scientists and physicians dedicated to consumer education on public health issues, such as the environment, nutrition, and pharmaceuticals. ACSH differentiates between real health risks and hypothetical or trivial health scares.:
