Starbucks/Frankenbucks Coffee

I've never been a huge Starbucks fan even though I lived in Seattle for seven years. But here's some good news about Starbucks these days, and it could be even better, and it should be since Starbucks uses a huge amount of milk in its coffees and drinks.

After receiving pressure for the last five years to stop or decrease its use of recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBST), Starbucks has responded by stating that it will cut back on rBST milk: "We are actively engaged with all of our dairy suppliers to explore a conversion of all core dairy products - fluid milk, half and half, whipping cream and eggnog - to rBST-free [rBST is the industry euphemism for recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone] in our U.S. company-operated locations. Significant work on this front has already been accomplished, in fact 27 percent of the dairy we buy is already rBST-free and 37 percent will be rBST-free starting in January, 2007."

This will help push the industrialized dairy industry in the US to stop using rBST, and it is, hopefully, a step toward getting rid of artificial hormones in milk. Yes, there will be industry resistance--after all, higher milk yields can mean more money in the pocket of the processor and supplier and, to a lesser extent, the farmer, but Starbucks much publicized shift will send a strong message to dairy processors/suppliers, farmers, and agriculture programs at research universities (who helped develop the hormone and pushed farmers to use it) that American consumers don't want hormones in their milk.

The next fight is to get Starbucks to sell a great percentage of Fair Trade coffees--the subject of a future posting!