Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) doesn't break its expenses out by food group, but if it did, "dairy" would certainly be on the top of the list. It may be a coffee company, but milk makes up a large percentage of most of its beverages.Since the company has switched to trans-fat free pastries, the next item on its list of consumer health phobias: hormones in milk. Artifical growth hormones fed to cows improve milk production; naturally, their use is rife with controversy. Some activists blame artificial growth hormones, known as rBGH, for a wide number of public health problems, from early onset of puberty for girls to interference with a woman's healthy pregnancy.
Starbucks, not one to sit on the sidelines of a potential PR benefit, has announced that all its U.S. stores will switch to rBGH-free dairy products (milk, half-and-half, whipped cream and egg nog). The company hasn't noted when this changeover will occur, although a spokesman said that the percentage of hormone-free milk had gone up from 27% to 37% since the end of 2006.
Sure, ten percentage points in two weeks is a huge jump; but with 63% of the company's dairy products left to go -- and no way to know whether your local shop is hormone-free without raiding its fridge -- activists are reserving their celebrations. And no patting Starbucks management on the back for being proactive. The company has been targeted by the Food and Water Watch, among others, in a campaign to eliminate hormones for several months.



Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-16-2007 @ 4:17PM
Jonathan Berr said...
Though I shudder at the thought of joining the food police, I plan to serve my newborn son organic milk once he's allowed to drink moo juice. I think there is a difference.
1-16-2007 @ 6:16PM
Patricia Shaver said...
No doubt money will be made from the hormone free milk hype. All milk has hormones because all female mammals produce them. There is actually no way to test milk for the presence of injectable hormones. Farmers are required to sign a waver that they are not using injectables,then the hauler has to do seperate trucking, on to seperate processing etc. It will not be cheap and its all based on a lot of sensationalism and few hard facts.