Community Corner

Food Co-op Moves to Ban Milk Brand Over Politics

Members of the co-op want to ban Eden Foods' products because the brand's CEO is suing the Obama administration over a mandate forcing companies to cover employee-birth control.


Members of the Clinton Hill food co-op are making moves to ban a brand of soy milk after actions of its CEO did not align with their political views, the New York Post reported.

Michael Potter, ceo of Edens Food, a typically-popular brand of organic food stuffs, filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration last month over a mandate forcing companies to cover employee-birth control.  

"I don’t care if the federal government is telling me to buy my employees Jack Daniel’s or birth control," Potter told Salon news. "What gives them the right to tell me that I have to do that? I’m not trying to get birth control out of Rite Aid or Walmart, but don’t tell me I gotta pay for it.”

And that viewpoint isn't sitting well with members of the Greene Hill Food Co-op. 

"The question for me: Do we as a coop want to buy from vendors from whom we have reasonable evidence that they treat their workers fairly?" Mary V-x wrote on the co-op's Facebook page. "The willful exclusion of insurance coverage for an entire class of items that is [basic health care] for many women constitutes inequitable treatment of workers at Eden."

Though an official hearing on banning the brand has not been set, an administrator of the co-op's Facebook page addressed members' concerns, saying: "I've forwarded all the comments to the merch committee. Although there isn't consensus on what to do we will certainly make sure that we have alternates in store for any eden products and will try to further spread the information to those not on [F]acebook."

This could be the first time the 1,225-member Greene Hill has staged a boycott since opening in 2011, the Post noted.


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