About 2.5 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day. Culture and coffee are treated as synonymous. Ever since te first coffee shops opened doors in the Middle East, around the 15th century onwards, coffee culture spread like wild fire in the western world.

On Thursday May 6, 2011, at approximately 8:30 pm, in Cundinamarca Soacha, Marin Jose Ferney was shot three times and killed by unidentified assailants while was selling Coca-Cola products on his route which runs out of BS 2564, the distribution center south of Bogota DC. One hypothesis is that they came to steal the money from the sale and resistance.

As the anti-globalization movement gained traction 10 years ago, it was widely reported that of the top 100 global economies, 51 were multinational corporations. For developing countries, the size of these companies was something to be feared, and activists scored a number of victories campaigning around labor, human rights, and environmental scandals.

Engage and mobilize young people to take action in their schools and communities. While the simple decision to stop at the water fountain rather than the vending machine can make a real difference, students can make a a much bigger impact by becoming experts and advocates for the right to clean, safe, and affordable tap water.

In a recent e-mail to an OCA activist, Kraft Foods admitted it uses genetically engineered bovine growth hormone, saying, "We are not rejecting milk from BGH/BST supplemented herds." BGH/BST is the genetically modified Bovine Growth Hormone developed by Monsanto and now marketed by Eli Lilly. It was the first genetically modified organism to become part of the food supply.

New Delhi: The state government of Kerala in India has approved a draft Bill to set up a tribunal which will allow individuals adversely affected by Coca-Cola’s bottling operations in Plachimada to seek compensation from the company. The state government is expected to introduce the Bill in the state legislature next week, and the Bill is expected to pass.

Peter Gleick, scientist and freshwater expert, talks about his latest book: Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water. Tap water is safe almost everywhere in the U.S. It takes far more water to make the plastic bottle than it even holds. Most bottled water is simply water from somebody else's tap! Why on earth does this industry continue to thrive?

Three firms control 89% of US soft drink sales [1]. This dominance is obscured from us by the appearance of numerous choices on retailer shelves. Steve Hannaford refers to this as "pseudovariety," or the illusion of diversity, concealing a lack of real choice [2]. To visualize the extent of pseudovariety in this industry we developed a cluster diagram to represent the number of soft drink brands and varieties found in the refrigerator cases of 94 Michigan retailers, along with their ownership connections.

Yesterday’s article stated that, “‘I would argue caloric soda should be made ineligible for purchase under SNAP, like tobacco and alcohol,’ said Paarlberg, using the new name for food stamps, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. He later said sugary sodas are ‘a huge part of the obesity problem.’

The idea that Starbucks seems to be the last to jump onto the recycling bandwagon sort of blows my mind. Especially when their contribution to the problem is so massive.

How can I achieve sustainability in everyday life? Is consistent, sustainable behaviour possible and practicable at all?

[T]he World Water Council, its members and other corporations that make profit from buying and selling water.

To read the news, it would look like soda taxes are just around the corner. First, President Obama mildly suggested in an interview in Men’s Health that soda taxes were worth some consideration.

In 2007, facing growing opposition to its water management practices, particularly in India, Coca-Cola's CEO, Neville Isdell came up with a brilliant idea.

Governments and industry have agreed to work with scientists to draw up a set of standards that can be used as a yardstick for measuring the efficiency of water use.

THE INTERNET CAFÉ in the Fijian capital, Suva, was usually open all night long. Dimly lit, with rows of sleek, modern terminals, the place was packed at all hours with teenage boys playing boisterous rounds of video games. But one day soon after I arrived, the staff told me they now had to shut down by 5 p.m. Police orders, they shrugged: The country’s military junta had declared martial law a few days before, and things were a bit tense.

West Salem, WI: An estimated 150-200 organic dairy farmers, and their supporters, from Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa held a “demonstration” at the La Crosse County Fair on Thursday.

On June 10th, EWG's President Ken Cook wrote a letter to Coca-Cola's Chairman and CEO, Muhtar Kent, calling on him to take immediate steps to reduce children's exposure to BPA. I thought you might like to read it - before or after you call the company yourself to reinforce his powerful words.

Tremendous growth in the organic soy foods industry has occurred over the last two decades as consumers seek healthy dietary alternative sources of protein.

Lipton has been practicing good stewardship for so long in Kericho that the Rainforest Alliance certification for their plantation there wasn't that big of a stretch, and the changes they were required to implement were minimal.

In one of Kathleen Sebelius' last days as Governor of Kansas, she did an amazing and perhaps unexpected thing. She vetoed a bill that would have "made it more difficult for dairy farmers who don't use recombinant bovine growth hormone (rbGH) to label their milk as such" (in the words of Dr. Michael Hansen from Consumers Union).

Kelly Brownell has long studied the relationship between rising levels of obesity in the U.S. and the way our food is grown, processed, packaged, and sold. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, he discusses the common marketing and lobbying tactics employed by the food and tobacco industries.

In a major advance for human rights, PepsiCo has adopted a human-right-to-water policy for its domestic and overseas operations. The announcement was made by the beverage giant on World Water Day, celebrated each year on March 22.

At the end of the 2006 school year, children’s nutrition advocate Dorothy Brayley had a disturbing conversation with a local dairy representative. He had come to her office to discuss participation in the summer trade show of food providers she runs as director of Kids First Rhode Island.

A coalition of six environmental groups is proposing that bottled water, beer, cola, and other products carry a label if they are produced from sustainable sources of water, much as some forest products and seafood are already being given a green seal of approval if they are sustainably harvested.

Moore, founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, said that the massive use of plastic bottles — Americans purchase 2 million plastic bottles every 5 minutes — is leading to floating swaths of trash that are killing large numbers of seabirds and contaminating fish.

Ethiopian coffee exporters, accused of hoarding in Africa's biggest producer, must accept lower global prices and sell stocks, the head of Ethiopia's new commodity exchange said on January 30.

For all intents and purposes, the New England dairy industry will be “rbST-free” by the end of summer 2009.

Coca-Cola, the maker of VitaminWater, is being sued by the Center for Science in the Public Interest over alleged deceptive marketing practices. Those practices include using buzzwords like “definitely au naturel” and “triple antioxidants” on the product’s packaging.

Law enforcement efforts can significantly deter deforestation in protected areas despite high pressure from agricultural expansion, reports a new study

.[An] investigation by The Times suggests that workers on plantations that supply Fairtrade tea are not seeing their lives improve as they should...

Starbucks…has long cultivated a corporate image for social responsibility...and sensitivity to workers' rights. Now that carefully crafted reputation is under assault, thanks to a messy legal dispute with a group called the Starbucks Workers Union (SWU)

A group of Chinese dairy companies blamed for selling contaminated milk that killed six children and sickened nearly 300,000 others earlier this year has agreed to pay $160 million in compensation to the victims and their families.

As You Sow’s second Beverage Container Recycling Scorecard and Report evaluates new and ongoing efforts by beverage producers to: 1. reduce materials use 2. increase recycled content in containers 3. raise recovery and recycling rates 4. support public policy initiatives to increase container recycling rates 5. disclose such activities to stakeholders

Health experts have been ringing alarm bells about the amount of sodium, or salt, in processed foods for years. But according to discouraging new data published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, most food companies aren't listening.

American fast food is almost entirely produced from corn according to a chemical analysis of dishes served at McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's. The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), TransFair USA and the Fairtrade Labelling Organiations International (FLO) today announced a groundbreaking initiative that builds upon the organizations' shared history of support for small-scale coffee farmers.

In the radio ad, a talking faucet extols Miami-Dade's tap water as cheaper, purer and safer than bottled water.

Brian Campbell of International Labor Rights Forum comments on the plight of cocoa farmers and workers.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution today encouraging mayors to phase out city spending on bottled water and to promote the importance of municipal water. The resolution, authored by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and sponsored by mayors from 17 major cities, aims to redirect taxpayer dollars to other essential city services.

Tucked into the foothills of Mount Shasta, the Northern California town of McCloud has no stoplights and one grocery store. A former logger's El Dorado, McCloud fell on hard times in the 1980s when it started running out of trees to cut down. But with its drop-dead panoramas and crisp, clean air, the burg started to limp back in the 1990s. Today it is a world-renowned paradise for trout anglers, a respite for burned-out boomers looking to escape the status race, and a hotbed of New Age seekers, some of whom jet in from Japan to meditate and chant in what they regard as a spiritual vortex.

The Dogwood Alliance, a forest conservation group in Asheville, wants the world's largest fast-food company to clean up its wrappers.

In each cup of coffee we drink the major issues of the twenty-first century — globalization, immigration, women's rights, pollution, indigenous rights, and self-determination — are played out in villages and remote areas around the world. In Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee, a unique hybrid of Fair Trade business, adventure travel, and cultural anthropology, author Dean Cycon brings readers face-to-face with the real people who make our morning coffee ritual possible.

Cities around the nation are joining influential restaurateurs and activists in a public campaign to be launched Wednesday to convince consumers to choose tap water over bottles. Chez Panisse restaurant, run by celebrity chef Alice Waters in Berkeley, Calif., has joined Corporate Accountability International and others to promote tap water as safer and more environmentally conscious.

Starbucks Coffee Company has already made a New Year's resolution! Today Starbucks committed to make 100% of the chain's milk supply free of artificial growth hormones by December 31, 2007. The Starbucks announcement follows nearly two years of pressure from Food & Water Watch, which launched the Hold the Hormones Campaign in 2006, asking consumers to demand the company buy better milk.