Starbucks Campaign Concerning Genetically Engineered Ingredients

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• "March 20th - Day of Action"

February 14, 2001

Orin Smith, CEO Starbucks
PO Box 34067
Seattle, Washington 98124-1067

Dear Orin Smith,

On behalf of the organizations listed below -- Friends of the Earth, Organic Consumers Association, Center for Food Safety, Pesticide Action Network, Sustain, and Rights Action -- we would like to give you advance warning of a significant public relations issue which your company will soon be facing, not only in the United States, but also in many of the 18 other nations where you are currently conducting business.

We believe that Starbucks may be subjecting itself to unnecessary business and reputation risk by using genetically engineered ingredients in its products (milk and dairy products, baked goods, chocolate, soy milk); by refusing to brew and serve Fair Trade coffee in its cafes (as opposed to just selling the beans in bulk); and by not following through completely and transparently to implement a code of conduct for its suppliers, starting with a pilot project in Guatemala.

Conversely, we believe that Starbucks has the opportunity to enhance its brand equity by eliminating genetically engineered ingredients and meeting public expectations with respect to environmental and social responsibility.

As consumer concern over genetically engineered food increases, we believe Starbucks may face financial and reputational risks from product recalls or from consumer protests outside your cafes, boycotts, shifts to other brands, and shareholder protests. This is clearly the case in the recent genetically engineered StarLink corn contamination scandal that has embroiled Kraft Foods, Safeway, Taco Bell and other food companies - a scandal which was brought to light by Friends of the Earth, Organic Consumers Association, and several of the other organizations signing this letter.

And as you have also undoubtedly noticed, since the Seattle protests at the WTO meeting in Seattle in 1999, there is diminishing tolerance among a significant proportion of Americans, and others around the world, for transnational corporations who use the rhetoric of social responsibility and environmental stewardship while continuing to outsource products from global sweatshops -- whether in the factory or the field.

We have thoroughly reviewed the current scientific literature on genetically engineered food and crops and are gravely concerned about the effects of these products on human health and the environment. We are especially concerned that Starbucks does not have a policy banning the use of milk and dairy products derived from cows being injected with Monsanto's recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), a controversial hormone associated with higher cancer risks and greater antibiotic residues which is banned in every other industrialized country in the world, except for the USA.

While some of the nation's Starbucks cafes (in San Francisco, for example) are using rBGH-free dairies as their primary milk suppliers, most are not; and of course your bottled coffee drinks are not labeled as "rBGH-free." This is unacceptable to us, and we believe many of your customers will feel the same way once they are informed that their latte, frappachino, or ice cream is not certified rBGH-free.

There are ample supplies of rBGH-free milk available in the US, at competitive prices, as with other ingredients such as soy lecithin, corn sweeteners, and cooking oils which are contained in the products which you manufacture or purchase from vendors.

We applaud you for starting to sell certified Fair Trade coffee beans in your cafes. However our volunteers all across the country have pointed out to us that you are not brewing this coffee and featuring it as a coffee of the day, nor are Starbucks employees telling your customers about it. Your public excuse for not brewing Fair Trade coffee and highlighting it (you say there's not a big enough supply), does not correspond to the facts (over half of all shade-grown Fair Trade coffee in the world has to be sold on the conventional coffee market every year), nor is it morally acceptable for a company that claims to be socially responsible.

Similarly, with respect to Starbuck's promise to improve the wages and working conditions for Guatemalan coffee plantation workers, the public needs clear evidence that your company is implementing your agreement with the US/Guatemala Labor Education Project (now called US/LEAP).

We would like Starbucks to undertake the following:

1. Make a public statement that you are removing rBGH and all genetically engineered food ingredients from your brand name products and all products sold in your cafes, on a global basis. The statement should be backed by:
   
   
   1. A written pledge that you will never use genetically engineered coffee beans (the biotech industry is currently field-testing decaffeinated genetically engineered coffee beans).
   2. Labels on your ice cream (similar to the labels on other rBGH-free dairy products such as Ben & Jerry's) and your bottled drinks.
   3. Written assurances to customers who contact you that your beverage ingredients, dairy products, baked goods, and chocolates are not made with genetically engineered ingredients.
      
      
2. Start brewing, highlighting, and promoting Fair Trade coffee in all of your cafes.
   
   
3. Provide clear and transparent evidence that are taking satisfactory steps to implement a code of conduct for your suppliers, especially with regard to a pilot project in Guatemala.

If you are unwilling to contact us and begin negotiations that will result in a time-line for implementation of these three demands, you leave us no choice but to launch a national and global campaign highlighting Starbuck's unwillingness to address consumer demands for safe foods sustainably produced.

Among other tactics we would launch a publicity and media campaign nationwide and begin staging protests at your cafes as well as at retail outlets that sell your products, including universities. We would also contact our coalition partners all over the world and help them initiate a similar campaign in their countries. We can guarantee you that this would be the largest and most sustained grassroots and media campaign which you or any other gourmet coffee company has ever faced.

On the other hand if you decide to do the right thing, we would be the first to publicly congratulate you. We would love to see Starbucks join the ranks of other major food companies (Gerber, Heinz, Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Frito-Lay) who are starting to remove all genetically engineered ingredients from their products. We would love to see Starbucks lead the way in putting your admirable stated intentions into concerted action by starting to brew and promote Fair Trade coffee and improve the wages and working conditions of coffee producers and workers in Guatemala and the developing world.

If you want to talk about these matters, you can reach us by contacting Ronnie Cummins at 218-226-4164 or Larry Bohlen at 202-783-7400 x251.

Sincerely,

Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association
Larry Bohlen, Friends of the Earth
Ellen Hickey, Pesticide Action Network
Joe Mendelson, Center for Food Safety
Grahame Russell, Rights Action
Jim Slama, Sustain

MARCH 20 -- Day of Action

For more information about this campaign, and to find out about leaflet/protesting at Starbucks locations, starting on March 20 - the initial day of international action on this campaign, please contact Simon Harris, National Coordinator of the Organic Consumers Association SBUX Campaign, at simon@organicconsumers.org or tel: 510-525-7054.

To subscribe to the free monthly newsletter, BioDemocracy News, go to the website: www.organicconsumers.org