Starbucks Serves Fake Ingredients

EVERY DOLLAR SPENT AT STARBUCKS SUPPORTS GMO’S, EMPOWERS MONSANTO AND HURTS GRASSROOTS GMO LABELING EFFORTS. HERE’S WHAT THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW…

If  you take the time to examine your personal buying habits closely, it’s rather obvious that those buying habits are based on decisions – informed or not.  Most would agree, decisions are one of the more familiar ways we create our personal world. Yet somehow, there is often a big disconnect between how our little world decisions interface with and help create the larger world we share with others.

Often we are forced to reexamine our habitual choices in the light of new information or based on negative experience. Thankfully we all have the ability to redirect our power of choice by simply reconsidering the decisions we have made including where we spend our dollars. If Starbucks is on your favorites list, it's time to reconsider that choice and perhaps redirect your dollars elsewhere.

In the past 2 years alone, Starbucks has been a part of a GMA-led coalition that has donated more than $70 million dollars to defeat GMO labeling efforts in California and Washington State. By opposing GMO labeling, Starbucks has willingly climbed in bed with Monsanto and the GMA and is intentionally misleading customers about their commitment to “sustainability” and “ethical sourcing”.

On March 4, 2014, Green America’s GMO Inside announced the launch of an anti-GMO campaign aimed to pressure Starbucks to stop using milk sourced from cows raised on GMO feed. So far the campaign has sent an impressive 150, 505 letters to Starbucks through the combined efforts of GMO Inside, Food Democracy Now!, Organic Consumers Association, and Friends of the Earth.

 “The days when a global company like Starbucks can hide GMOs from the customer are over. The age of transparency is here and I expect Starbucks will shortly realize it’s in its best interest to eliminate GMOs from its supply chain,” exclaims GMO Inside Co-Chair John W. Roulac..

Starbuck’s milk comes from factory farmed cows also known as CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). These poor cows are massively injected with antibiotics throughout their lifecycle, and fed an unhealthy diet of GMO feed including: corn, soy, alfalfa, and cotton seed. Cows have normally grazed on grass in open fields until CAFOs came along.

Back in 2007 the OCA successfully pressured Starbucks to stop using Monsanto’s rBGH growth hormone milk. However, Starbucks cleverly turned OCA’s victory into a disingenuous advertising claim by touting the fact that “since it stopped using milk that contains Monsanto’s rBGH growth hormone, it uses ‘GMO-free’ milk.” Nice try Monsanto!

Worth noting is the exponential rise in the use of antibiotics by Big Agribusiness, which is undoubtedly a hidden factor behind the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, an undeniable health risk for all of us.


Starbucks and GMO Food Labeling

Starbucks is partnered with Monsanto and does not support those who want all GM foods labeled. “As a dues paying member of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), Starbucks has helped bankroll efforts to defeat GMO labeling in the US for the past two years. It’s time for Starbucks to commit to transparency and the highest quality ingredients for their customers,” states Dave Murphy, founder and executive director of Food Democracy Now!

Starbucks is one of approximately 300 companies that are dues paying members of the GMA. Their website states: they [GMA] “represent [lobby for] the makers of the world’s favorite food, beverage and consumer products.” GMA and Monsanto are the biggest opponents of GMO labeling laws and have spent millions to quash all legislative GMO labeling efforts around the country.

In case you aren't aware of the good news, On April 16th Vermont passed ACT 120, the first state law requiring all foods sold in the state that contain genetically modified ingredients to be labeled as of July 2016.

Starbucks is among those teamed up with Monsanto via the GMA against Vermont. “So far, between 2012 and 2014, Monsanto and the GMA have successfully blocked GMO labeling legislation in over 30 states, at a price tag of more than $100 million! These funds were received from the 300+ members of the GMA, which include chemical/pesticide, GE seed, and processed food industries.”

SumOfUS sums it up: “There’s much more at stake here than just whether GMO foods will be labeled in a single U.S. State. Vermont is the very first state in the U.S. to require labeling. Dozens of other states have said that they will follow this path — in order to encourage this, we need to ensure that Vermont’s law stands strong.”

You can take action now by sending your own letter or the template letter to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, urging them to use only GMO-free organic milk in all their stores. Starbucks Serves ‘Monsanto Milk’ and it’s Big on overpriced fake, unhealthy ingredients!

As for Starbucks, voting with your dollars may ultimately be the best strategy to persuade them to change their Monsanto ways.


SOURCES:

1. http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/tell_Starbucks_to_dump_GMOs_and_stop_fighting_GMO_labeling/
2.  http://gmoinside.org/gmo-inside-announces-campaign-get-gmos-starbucks-dairy/
3. http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/politics/2014/06/12/gma-sues-vt-gmo-law/10389209/
4.  http://rt.com/usa/165860-vermont-gmo-labeling-lawsuit/
5.  http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/politics/2014/06/12/gma-sues-vt-gmo-law/10389209/
6.  http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/05/27/gma-monsanto-gmo-labeling.aspx
7. http://kuow.org/post/opponents-gmo-labeling-raise-record-17-million


Laurel ♥