Title: Five Reasons to Boycott Starbucks
Headings: Five Reasons to Boycott Starbucks
Five Reasons to Boycott Starbucks
Boycott Starbucks

Content: Starbucks is negotiating “free trade” in secret
¬Starbucks isn’t content to just make up its own “fair” trade standards. The company is also working behind the scenes to finagle corporate-friendly (as in, not worker-friendly) conditions for global trade. A representative from Starbucks has a seat at the table of the highly secretive negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership, a global trade deal being negotiated behind closed doors. The public and most of Congress have been shut out of the negotiations—but nearly 600 corporations, including Starbucks, have full access. When a representative from the OCA’s Fair World Project contacted Starbucks to ask what role the company is playing on the negotiating team, and what policies the company is advocating, she was referred to the company website for its “policies on free trade.” Surely, a company as profitable as Starbucks can do better. But if it won’t, it’s time for Starbucks to own up to the fact that, despite its purported concern for society, the company worships exclusively at the altar of profits. Katherine Paul is associate director of the Organic Consumers Association. Ronnie Cummins is national director of the Organic Consumers Association.