Presently there are movements afoot, both in Ann Arbor and in Ypsilanti, to pull products by Eden Foods off the shelves of our respective food co-ops. Following is a conversation with Georgina Hickey, who is leading the charge in Ypsilanti, and Ann Rogers, who is doing the same in Ann Arbor, explaining why, in their opinion, this is the morally right thing to do, given Eden’s position on the reproductive health of their female employees.
MARK: A number of co-ops around the country have voted over the course of the past year to stop carrying the products of Clinton-based Eden Foods. And, as I understand it, you, Georgina and Ann, would like for the Ypsi Food Co-op (YFC) and the Ann Arbor People’s Food Co-op (PFC) to do the same. And, toward that end, you’ve launched petition drives, in hopes of putting the issue before the member-owners of your respective co-ops. Before we get into the specifics of your campaigns, perhaps we should start by discussing what it is about Eden that has people around the country initiating boycotts. My friend Dan Gillotte is the General Manager of the Wheatsville co-op in Austin, Texas, and here’s how they summarized the issue in a recent copy of their newsletter, after members voted 639 to 338 to stop carrying products manufactured by Eden Foods.
Eden Foods is one of the oldest natural and organic food companies in North America and has been an industry leader in maintaining organic standards, directly supporting North American family farms, and providing Non-GMO assurance on all products. The brand’s line of BPA-free canned beans, condiments, soymilk and pastas has been carried at Wheatsville Food Co-op since the 80’s.
On March 20, 2013, Eden Foods filed suit against the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, which administers the Affordable Care Act (ACA), for the right to opt out of contraceptive coverage for its employees. Eden Foods objects to a provision of the Affordable Care Act that requires companies, if they choose to offer health insurance to their employees, to include coverage of a wide array of contraceptive choices.
Is that a relatively good summary of the issue as you see it, or are there other factors that I’m not aware of that are motivating this campaign in Ypsilanti?
GEORGINA: Well, it’s a start, but much has happened since then, and it’s an issue that is still unfolding. Eden Foods’ original case argued that complying with the ACA requirements violated their deeply held religious beliefs under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Eden lost its case and its subsequent appeals. In the opinion of the court, the ACA obligated only the company, and did not in any way restrict the religious beliefs of the individual who owns the company.
MARK: But then, after that, we had the Hobby Lobby decision, right?
GEORGINA: Yes, this past summer, there was the Hobby Lobby decision, which suggested that courts might be willing to answer Eden’s questions differently. And, as a result, the Eden decision was vacated back to lower courts… This doesn’t, by the way, mean, “You lost before, but now you’ve won.”’ It basically means, “You can ask your question of the courts again.”
MARK: So Eden refiled?
GEORGINA: Right. Eden had to file their case again, and it’s still making its way through the process. Michael Potter, founder, chairperson, president, and sole shareholder of Eden Foods, has referenced a final decision having come from Judge Denise Hood’s court in Detroit on Feb 12, 2015, but we have not been able to locate any official records referencing a decision from that court on that date. [Michael Potter seen right.]
Potter has given contradictory and inconsistent public statements about the depth of his religious convictions and the real motivations behind his court challenges to the ACA. His lawyer described his views this way: “In accordance with his Catholic faith, Potter believes that any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation, whether as an end or means — including abortifacients and contraception — is wrong.” But in another interview, Potter himself said he cared more about long underwear than birth control, suggesting that his political objections to the mandates of the ACA far outweighed any religious convictions he might have.
Unfortunately, media reports surrounding the issue fell off quickly after the summer, and there has been little pressure on Potter to explain what he and his company are up to, and hold them accountable for the contradictory statements they have given on their case and intentions. We hope that, by raising the issue locally, in the kinds of places that made Eden Foods what it is today, we might help to change that. We want to send a clear message to Potter about his customers’ concerns over his blatant disregard for the beliefs and health of his female employees.
I personally support a boycott of Eden Foods because I think their actions unfairly impact their female employees, and I don’t want to see their actions create a precedent for even more drastic anti-woman actions on the part of other companies to undermine the ACA.
MARK: And where does the YFC Board of Directors stand on the issue?
GEORGINA: The YFC board considered the issue back in July, when it was raised by Ben Miller, a member of the Co-op’s Board of Directors. (See page 3 of the most recent Co-op newsletter for the board president’s summary of the board’s position.) In short, they opted not to do anything at that time, which is part of why we’ve begun a petition drive in order to get this on the annual meeting agenda. Some board members feel they need member desires made clear, others think they already decided, so, in their eyes, this is a petition to reconsider.
MARK: So how did this most recent push to get Eden products off the shelf come about?
GEORGINA: A member of the newly re-forming chapter of Washtenaw County NOW raised the issue with that group (of which I am also a member) after the Ann Arbor People’s Food Co-op seemed to be dodging the issue, and that’s where this new push began. Members of NOW sent letters to both co-ops, and I followed up by attending the YFC board meeting (where I’m a member) and asking for the issue to be put on the annual meeting agenda. I was told, given the bylaws of the Co-op, that it would take 50 signatures to make that happen. So, as a member of the YFC, I started a petition. [If you’re a member of the YFC, you can sign the petition here.]
Washtenaw County NOW has committed itself to this issue. We are appealing to the co-ops, but we’re also planning other actions around raising consumer awareness on the issue and putting pressure on Eden Foods. (Cheryl Farmer is the leader our local chapter.) My take on the NOW position is that we would welcome the opportunity to support this company again as soon as they offer female employees the opportunity to use their healthcare premiums for the treatments they and their doctors deem most appropriate. We do not believe the work that Eden Foods has done to promote sustainable and organic food, while laudable, exempts them from showing this basic level of respect and fair treatment toward their female employees.
MARK: And how about from your perspective, Ann?
ANN: What you and Georgina have written is a very good summary. I would add that Michael Potter is trying to portray this as an affront to his personal religious convictions. However, Eden Foods is for-profit corporation, which makes it a separate entity under the law from Michael Potter, citizen. The corporate form provides a shield for its shareholders from personal liability PROVIDED the corporation interests are kept separate from the personal affairs of the shareholders. This is called the “corporate veil”. So, this argument of Michael Potter’s that Eden Foods, Inc. providing birth control as part of their employee medical plan infringes on his personal religious freedoms doesn’t hold water.
MARK: We heard the history of the at the YFC from Georgina. What’s the background in Ann Arbor, Ann?
ANN: Last July, the Hobby Lobby ruling was handed down, and it appeared that Eden Foods had the Supreme Court on its side. Several Co-op members, including me, attended a board meeting and asked about the process for putting a boycott measure on the ballot. We were told that we could start a petition drive to have it put on the ballot, which would require signatures from 10% (approximately 800) members. The board members seemed to agree that it would be difficult to get that many signatures, and they talked about changing the bylaws to reduce that percentage. A second way to get it on the ballot, according to the PFC bylaws, would be for the board to vote to put it on the annual ballot, which comes out in April each year. The board agreed at their September meeting to put it on the ballot themselves. This did this in part because of the feeling among them that the 10% mark was onerous. The Coop published in the holiday issue of their Connection Newsletter that it would be on the ballot.
After January’s board meeting we heard that they had voted at that meeting to rescind the ballot measure, though. The PFC Vice President told us it was due to ”deeper concerns as a result of placing the boycott question on the April ballot.” (The minutes from that meeting are now available.)
The boycott supporters sprung back into action. Many members emailed their concerns to the board about the democratic process being thwarted. We began an unofficial petition drive and collected 200 signatures from Co-op shoppers to have the measure put back on the ballot. More than 20 supporters attended the February board meeting and requested they put the measure back on the ballot. But the board did not do so. It now appears that the petition drive is the only way to get this put on the ballot, and it will now have to be a special ballot. It won’t be on the April ballot.
I’ve requested that the Co-op notify the membership that this has been removed from the ballot. It has now been 7 weeks since their vote to rescind the measure, and still the Coop membership has not been notified. Currently the only place on their website that this information can found is in the January board meeting minutes.
MARK: Has there been any response from Eden in the wake of Wheatsville and other large co-ops around the country voting to boycott them?
GEORGINA: Indirectly. They put out a statement last July. You can find it here.
ANN: I know that Eden Foods wrote to the Ann Arbor People’s Food Coop in response to their board vote (subsequently retracted) last September to put the issue on the member ballot. In that response, Eden Foods referenced its own statements on the issue, like the one they released in April 2013, which includes the following two quotes.
“We believe in a woman’s right to decide, and have access to, all aspects of their health care and reproductive management. This lawsuit does not block, or intend to block, anyone’s access to health care or reproductive management.”
“Eden employee benefits include health, dental, vision, life, and a fifty percent 401k match. The benefits have not funded “lifestyle drugs,” an insurance industry drug classification that includes contraceptives, Viagra, smoking cessation, weight-loss, infertility, impotency, etc.”
It appears that their argument is that they aren’t trying to block access to health care. Of course they’re not. How could a company possibly keep a woman from seeking medical care on her own time at her own expense? What the company is seeking to do is to not provide for some of that medical care as part of the employee’s compensation package. The effect, then, would be to require women seeking such care to pay for it themselves, thereby reducing the value of her overall compensation package.
[Following is a clip from Eden’s letter to the the People’s Food Co-op. The entire letter can be found here.]
MARK: What’s your sense as to how, if at all, a boycott of Eden Foods may impact the finances of the Ypsi Food Co-op? If I’m not mistaken, quite a few of the Co-op’s best selling items are produced by Eden, correct?
GEORGINA: To be honest, I don’t think it is up to me to answer this question. I’ve asked, and will continue to ask, the Co-op general manager for more information on sales (or at least ordering) stats on Eden Foods products. I think the membership needs this information to make an informed decision about whether or not they would like to take action and, if so, of what sort. We do have a list of Eden products sold at the Co-op and it is lengthy, but that doesn’t mean much without sales (or at least ordering figures).
Like all of the people signing the petition and most of the folks calling for a discussion of the issue at the YFC annual meeting, I’m a member-owner of the Co-op and I very much want to see it continue to succeed. At the same time, I don’t believe that the Co-op just a grocery store. It’s democratically run. It’s a community of sorts. This creates an opportunity for that community to consider the political and ethical ramifications of what we chose to sell.
At least one board member has raised the concern that if we don’t have Eden soymilk and other products on the shelves, customers will go somewhere else. I would like to suggest a different possibility. With the membership behind the decision to boycott (should they choose to go that direction) and solid efforts to reach out to the other customers and explain the situation, I would hope that loyalty to the Co-op would grow from YFC taking a principled stand on the issue. Whole Foods has already passed on requests to boycott. They have no members, no community, to direct their policy — only lone consumers with the power of their individual dollars.
MARK: And how about in Ann Arbor, Ann?
ANN: Co-op board members have lamented at board meetings that they would like to have a more active membership. It seems to me that having the members make a decision about the types of companies they’d like the Co-op to support with their business would be a great way for them to encourage a more fully-committed and engaged membership. I think the process has the potential to increase both loyalty and sales.
MARK: How confident are you that high-quality alternatives to Eden products can be sourced, assuming members agree to a boycott of Eden Foods?
ANN: I have seen that the Co-op has alternatives for Eden Foods product on its shelves from other suppliers. I have checked several times over the past few months, and have been unable to find a product from Eden Foods for which there is not a similar product available from another supplier. Many shoppers are already boycotting Eden’s products. We’ve asked the Co-op to put up educational materials about this issue so that all members can make informed purchasing decisions.
GEORGINA: I’m fairly confident, but, again, this is probably best not done by me. As a member-owner, however, I’m willing to help, and I know others are as well. Let’s start by seeing what we already carry, and then look at what else our distributors offer that we could easily carry. Someone in the community just asked who else packages their products in BPA-free cans. (Eden was a leader in this area, just to give them their due.) A bit of searching turned up the answer that Bionaturae, Westbrae, and Muir Glen also can in BPA-free containers. With a better sense of just which products our customers buy, we could certainly work to identify other options. Some of the macrobiotic products may be harder to replace, which is a shame, but I believe that, if we educate our customers about the absence of these products, they would stand by the Co-op on this.
MARK: Is there perhaps a middle ground, where members could vote to start replacing Eden products over a given period of time?
GEORGINA: Sure. Absolutely. Let’s hear some concrete proposals — getting this at the meeting is all about giving the members a forum to discuss options! Once that is secured, we’d like to spend more time brainstorming a whole host of ways to respond — at the Co-op level, at the community level, at the individual level…
In one case (Central Co-op in Seattle), consumers voted with their dollars first and the co-op took Eden off their shelves after a significant decline in sales. I do not advocate this process for YFC, since it has the potential to stick the Co-op with stock for which it has paid but cannot sell, and therefore stands to hurt our Co-op financially. If we have a majority of members who intend to boycott the products, though, I think it’s in the best interest of the Co-op’s financial health to adopt a boycott and not order the products in the first place.
ANN: The goal is to end the Co-op’s financial support of Eden Foods unless and until the company includes all FDA-approved forms of birth control as part of their employee health care plan at no additional charge to employees. If a phased approach would be effective and would help the Co-op financially, then we would certainly consider that approach. As for being stuck with product, there are already policies in place at the Ann Arbor Co-op about implementing a boycott, and these policies outline what to do with product that has already been purchased. So the products wouldn’t likely be removed from the shelves immediately, and the Co-op certainly wouldn’t be left unable to sell product that it has already purchased. (Policy G.12.8 outlines how the Co-op will return items to the supplier, if possible and, if not, then the purchased stock is to be sold until depleted.)
MARK: Are there lessons to be learned from other co-ops, like Wheatsville, as to 1) how a campaign like this should be waged, and 2) how alternatives are sourced post Eden?
GEORGINA: I’m sure there are lessons to be learned from other co-ops, but, other than what I’ve already noted about the Seattle co-op, and read in the news on the others, I don’t yet have these details. Who wants to help look into this?
ANN: There are many other co-ops around the country that have been grappling with this issue, and we can learn from them. As you noted above, Mark, the Wheatsville co-op has eloquently stated the reasons for their member-voted boycott. And there are lists of alternative products available (usually from co-ops that have a policy prohibiting boycotts).
MARK: Given that they’re a relatively local company, might there be an opportunity to meet and discuss these items face to face? I don’t know that doing so would be fruitful, given comments I’ve read from Eden’s owner, but I don’t imagine it would hurt, would it?
GEORGINA: YFC invited Potter to an education session, to be held at the public library. Potter declined.
ANN: I know that the Ann Arbor Co-op had intended to hold a forum on the boycott issue, had this issue not been removed from the April ballot. Vanessa Marr (vicepresident@peoplesfood.coop) was working in January to line up speakers from both sides of the boycott issue. I don’t know whether she had asked anyone from Eden Foods to participate or not. You might ask her, if she did, what their response was.
MARK: How many signatures to you need to bring this to a vote in Ypsi? And when do you need them by?
GEORGINA: The petition is a means for getting the issue in front of the Ypsi Food Co-op membership for a discussion and possible action. We need 50 signatures of current co-op members, ideally by March 15, 2015. The board needs to verify the signatures and, as specified in the bylaws, appropriately notify the membership that there will be a special meeting on the issue. We are aiming for March 15 so that this “special” meeting can happen in conjunction with the coop’s annual meeting that is already scheduled for Thursday, May 7 at 5:30pm at the Freight House. It is costly for the coop to do extra notifications to members, so we want to use the annual meeting notice that will already be going out.
