Justin, I think you're misinformed about Starbucks, which continues as an independent corporation owned by its shareholders, not by
Phillip Morris. SBUX has made agreements with various other companies to produce some of its products like ice cream and to market
products like coffee, tea and specialty drinks (Frappuccino, etc.) through supermarkets, but this doesn't amount to selling the company
to PM.

The shade coffee discussion is an interesting one, and like a lot of problems it is sort of complex. Switching to this type of
agriculture may be a good idea; the task of those who wish to make it a major issue will be easier if they avoid claiming moral
superiority for themselves, and figure out how shade coffee can be grown economically. If it's as good as the proponents say, and if
their arguments make sense after being tested in the marketplace of ideas, we'll all be drinking it within a few years. But in the
meantime, SBUX has been providing good coffee to its customers (including me) for a lot of years, and this is not at all immoral. In
most ways SBUX seems to me a good corporate citizen.

Regards,

Paul Webster




Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 09:11:00 -0500
From: Justin Brown <justinlb at earthlink.net>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: Learning Something New Every Day
Message-ID: <36D40874.9908007B at earthlink.net>
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i learned something discouraging about starbucks coffee over the weekend --
it's now owned by phillip morris! they made a deal with either kraft or one
of the other pm subsidiaries/affiliates, so now it's owned by them. i found
out through a great publication called "adbusters."

justin brown
carlisle ma
justinlb at earthlink.net