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Seth from Honest Tea responds
Here's a response from Seth, cofounder of Honest Tea, to What's better: pure or big?
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Hi Everyone,
Not trying to crash the party, and I appreciate/agree with most of the opinions but did want to comment on two points. The first is the opening assumption that Honest Tea is compromising "just a little bit, we promise." I know it's early in our partnership with Coke, but I challenge someone to find a way that Honest Tea has compromised its product or behavior since the deal was finalized with Coke. There has not been any discussion about us making our product less organic, sweeter than our 17-50 calories taste profile or less Fair Trade certified. In fact, this year we're introducing new Fair Trade varieties, two new 17-calorie teas (which is on the lower end of our spectrum) and also introducing two new "Green Energy" teas where we pay offsets to support wind power in exchange for the energy we consume to produce those drinks.
The other question that was raised was whether there was precedent for a big company being made better after swallowing a smaller fish. For me the most immediate example that comes to mind is when Groupe Danone (Dannon) bought majority control of Stonyfield Farm. I am most familiar with what happened there because Stonyfield's CE-Yo, Gary Hirshberg, is on Honest Tea's board. Danone is now launching more organic products around the world, and my conversations with Danone's top management make it clear that they have swallowed not only Gary's yogurt but also his vision for sustainability. Last year Danone announced a major partnership with Grameen Bank and Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus to invest in microenterprise in Bangladesh (more this page.)
Finally, it's also important to recognize that Stonyfield has continued to drive change in the natural foods industry since their deal with Danone -- they were the first to reduce packaging by eliminating plastic lids, and in 2007 they converted their entire product line to USDA Organic certification.
- Seth from Honest Tea
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(Please post comments on the original column's comment board.)
