Saturday Shorts: Honest Tea's TeaEO Weighs in…

Seth Goldman’s Reflections on Being a Member of the Coke Family

A couple of posts ago I reported on CA Prop 37, which calls for mandatory labeling of all genetically modified food sold in California. I included some graphics which show the major players for and against the measure.

The Organic Consumers Association has called for a boycott of a number of well-known organic product lines owned by the opposition. One of those targeted is Honest Tea, owned by Coca-Cola for the past 15 months. Honest Tea was the first tea company to introduce a USDA-certified organic bottled tea, as well as the first to make a Fair Trade Certified bottled tea. The company’s Honest Kids products do not contain any high fructose corn syrup. In fact, Honest Tea refused to yield to pressure from parent company Coca-Cola to remove the “no high fructose corn syrup!” language from the Honest Kids packaging.

Proposition 37 and the call for a boycott have prompted some interesting discussions at Honest Tea. Co-Founder Barry Nalebuff alerted me to an article just published by co-founder Seth Goldman, the company's current TeaEO. 

Before you go cold turkey on your Honest Tea habit, you might want to consider what Seth has to say on the subject. 

I propose an alternative to the boycott – Continue to buy the organic products sold by the opposition, but be sure NOT to buy any of their other lines. And let the corporations know exactly how and where you are (or are not) spending your money.

If you have time, continue on to Seth's next post to read what he had to say about Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on large, sugary drinks. It is good to be reminded that there is usually more than one side to any story.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).