Comments on: Honest Tea on Honesty: Q&A with Seth Goldman, TeaEO

By: Honestly in VA

Honestly in VA — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 04:31:15 +0000

it’s hard not to view Honest (surething, pal) Tea’s deal with the guys who sell the Real Thing as anything but pure and blatent profiteering. socially responsible maybe. but run of the mill businessmen first. it’s like larry wildman exposing gordon gecko all over again. shucks, mom…so it aint so. puhleez. so who are the owners of the first to be certified organic tea company. businessmen. nothing more. fair trade. ride a bike. recycle. blank off. the clear upshot of this deal is that the owners are stripped of any and all credibiilty on matters of environmental and social importance to this planet. so let’s collectively shift our faith America to companies that truly care about the environment. i’m voting for hummer. at least from them we get trust in marketing. honestly in va

By: Ketzirah Carly

Ketzirah Carly — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:56:23 +0000

I’m not sure how I feel about this. I’m a big fan of HonestTea and I’ve always loved that they are small and local (they are based just out of DC, where I live). I understand a business’s desire to grow, but selling a large stake to a company like Coca-cola?

I was unthrilled by Coke’s purchase of Odwalla, but it doesn’t seem to have effected the products.

The problem is that Coke is solely driven by market demands and the bottom line. As an entity, Coke doesn’t care about sustainability. It’s just not in their mission statement.

By: invisible_hand

invisible_hand — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:16:03 +0000

the concerns regarding coke are not limited to corporatism and all the evilness that comes along with that.
coke is accused of participating in the murders of labor organizers in Colombia and in water extortion as well as polluting in India. the Unites Students Against Sweatshops have taken up a campaign to kick coke off campus. info can be found here: http://www.killercoke.org.
(to show how sneaky coke is, check out http://www.killercoke.com)

Unilever buying ben and jerry’s is unfortunate, but there should be absolute intolerance for treating with an int’l corporation that has and continues to be ruining people’s lives.

By: Rabbi Shmuel

Rabbi Shmuel — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:59:28 +0000

Leah - I agree with you - most of these aquisitions took place discreetly but one very public buyout - Unilever buying out Ben and Jerry’s shed some interesting light on the discussion. It seems folks were worried that Unilever would discontinue some of B&J’s local practices (putting $$ back into community, etc.) Unilever pointed out very candidly that it was precisdely those things which gave B&J that edge and it was in their own best interests to retain those practices which promoted the brand enhancement and that they had no intention of otherwise “going green” - they get credit for their honesty and foresight.

That being said, yes, everyone wants to get their picture taken with the foodie of the month and greenwashing is something to be concerned about. But there will always be some uneasy balance as the oxymoronic “industrial organic” finds it’s voice.

The again there’s always the really small microproducers like Sweet Whisper Farms. . . any takeover bids??

By: Leah Koenig

Leah Koenig — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:19:06 +0000

I’m definitely interested in the sustainable business concept - it seems to be where the sustainble movement is shifting, though in the case of bigger corporations (and perhaps even some smaller, independent companies) there’s undoubtedly as much greenwashing going on as there is genuine change.

On a related note, here’s a chart that if you haven’t yet seen, you should take a look at. It links all the smaller, organic companies to the larger corporations that own them (including Odwalla and Coke)

http://www.edenfoods.com/artic.....les_id=109