Starbucks Campaign Leaflet (text format)

CONSUMER WARNING: If you are concerned about Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) and other genetically engineered ingredients in your beverages and food... If you support fair wages and working conditions for coffee plantation workers... If you care about Shade-Grown, Organic, and Fair Trade Coffee...

HERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT STARBUCKS

Despite rising consumer concerns, Starbucks refuses to guarantee that the milk, chocolate, ice cream, and baked goods they are selling are free of recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) and other genetically engineered ingredients (including soy derivatives and corn sweeteners).

Most Starbucks outlets are still using milk coming from dairies which allow cows to be injected with Monsanto's controversial Bovine Growth Hormone, a hormone often associated with higher risks for cancer in humans. rBGH is a powerful drug which cruelly damages the health of dairy cows, forcing them to give more milk. Milk from rBGH-injected cows is also likely to contain more pus, antibiotic residues, and bacteria.  rBGH is banned in every industrialized country in the world - except for the United States and

Mexico.

Although Starbucks has recently bowed to consumer pressure and begun selling certified Fair Trade, Shade Grown (organic or transition to organic) coffee beans in bulk, they are refusing to brew and seriously promote Fair Trade coffee, unlike a number of other gourmet coffee shops or companies.

Despite promises made since 1995 to improve the wages and working conditions of impoverished workers on the coffee plantations of its suppliers in Guatemala and other nations, Starbucks has done little or nothing.

Although biotechnology corporations are currently field testing genetically engineered decaffeinated coffee beans, Starbucks has not taken a public stand on whether or not they intend to sell these GE coffee beans in the future.

Turn over this leaflet to see what you can do to get Starbucks to change its policies...

STARBUCKS OR FRANKENBUCK$?

Go into a Starbucks coffee shop and talk to the manager or the person in charge. Show them this leaflet and ask them for a verbal and written assurance that they will change their policies (i.e. that they will remove rBGH and other genetically engineered (GE) ingredients from their coffee beverages and their foods; that they will start brewing and seriously promoting Fair Trade coffee; that they will fulfill their pledge to improve the wages and working conditions of coffee plantation workers; that they will pledge never to use GE decaffeinated coffee beans).

Ask Starbucks to show you what brand of milk they are using in your coffee and take note of whether or not it is labeled as rBGH-free (sometimes called rBST. If you're ordering soy milk with your coffee, make sure it's labeled organic or free of GE soy and soy derivatives. Ask if their baked goods are free from GE soy, soy derivatives, corn sweeteners, and cooking oils.

If you order a coffee from Starbucks, ask them to brew your coffee with Fair Trade coffee beans. If they won't, take your business elsewhere.

Ask Starbucks for a written assurance that they will cooperate with international human rights monitors to guarantee their pledge to raise the wages and working conditions of the coffee plantation workers of their suppliers.

Patronize socially responsible businesses and products. If one of Starbucks' competitors is brewing Fair Trade coffee or avoiding GE ingredients, give your business to them instead of Starbucks.

Join the Organic Consumers Association and the growing Fair Trade Movement across the world Talk to the person who handed you this leaflet to get involved locally. Keep informed by visiting our web site at www.organicconsumers.org

Call, write, fax or email Starbucks. Tell them to send you a written guarantee that they will change their policies on GE foods, Fair Trade coffee, and wages and working conditions of coffee plantation workers, or else you will no longer buy their products.