Starbucks is taking a lot of heat from consumers lately. 
 
Multiple organizations, including OCA, have appealed to CEO Howard Schultz to switch to organic milk.
 
And recently, hundreds of thousands of consumers signed petitions, including ours, demanding Starbucks drop out of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), a lobbying group that is suing Vermont to overturn its GMO labeling law.
 
It’s no wonder Starbucks is looking for ways to polish its image. And it found one. Problem is, it doesn't address the real issues.

Singer/songwriter Neil Young recently struck a sour note with Starbucks when he wrote that he’d waited in line for his last cup of Joe imprinted with the famous mermaid logo.
 
It seems Young learned that Starbucks is a member of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), the multi-billion-dollar lobbying group that is suing to overturn Vermont’s GMO labeling law.
 
Starbucks took offense, claiming that Young, and the boycott petition he signed, were wrong. When that wasn’t enough to cool the media attention, the GMA chimed in: "Neither Starbucks nor Monsanto is participating in our lawsuit to overturn Vermont's GMO labeling law."

Nice try. Fact is, corporations join lobbying groups like the GMA so they can maintain a consumer-friendly image while the lobbying group does the dirty work for them. Case in point: When Washington State sued the GMA for money laundering, the GMA defended its creation of the “Defense of Brand Strategic Account” to “better shield individual companies from attack,” by claiming that the lobbying group speaks “with one voice” for its members.

The legendary rocker announced that he's boycotting Starbucks over the coffee monolith's alleged involvement in a lawsuit in Vermont regarding the labeling of genetically modified ingredients.