Group urges changes to Starbucks’ milk
Mar 5, 2014, 7:43 AM | Updated: Mar 7, 2014, 1:39 pm
According to Elizabeth O'Connell, director of the GMO Inside campaign, pushing Starbucks to make this change means they would have to remove GMOs from their supply chain and switch all food sources for their cows to non-GMO. (AP Photo/File)
(AP Photo/File)
A group has launched a campaign to change what Starbucks serves in your latte.
If Green America gets its way, your Starbucks drink would be made with organic milk. The group kicked off its campaign this week to convince the coffee giant to stop using milk from cows fed with GMOs (genetically modified organisms.)
According to Elizabeth O’Connell, director of the GMO Inside campaign, pushing Starbucks to make this change means the coffee company would have to remove GMOs from the supply chain and switch all food sources for its cows to non-GMO.
“Starbucks actually has gotten the RBGH (a genetically engineered artificial hormone injected into dairy cows to increase milk production) out of their milk, thanks to consumer pressure, so we think this is the best next step,” said O’Connell.
According to Green America, most cows providing non-organic milk are fed corn and soy, which are dominated by GMOs. They also add that “the overuse of antibiotics in industrialized farming is contributing to the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, putting us all at risk.”
The group is hoping consumers step up to ask for the change. O’Connell said they want Starbucks patrons to raise their voice, “to tell Starbucks that this is something they want and will buy so we’re asking them to sign our petition online.”
“We hope that the consumer pressure will continue to mount and that Starbucks will realize this is something consumers truly do want. And they’ll begin to start thinking how they can make this change,” said O’Connell.
In the first six hours that the campaign was launched, over 6,000 people had signed the petition.
Currently, Starbucks serves soy milk that is organic and non-GMO.
This certainly isn’t the first time Starbucks has come under fire for what goes in their drinks. In 2012, we learned that the Starbucks strawberry Frappuccino was full of bugs – and that it was OK with the FDA.
The ingredients in the Frappuccino included ‘cochineal extract,’ or dried out, ground up bug bodies, which was used to give the drink its rosy color. Less than a month after the recipe leaked, Starbucks removed the bugs from its recipe.
