Corporate responsibility covers more ares than just choosing what goes into your product, which is mainly what I expound on here. It also has a lot to do with what you do with your profits. Many companies reward their CEO's, managers, and often their employees. Many also donate to various charities and causes. Why would they do such a thing? Tax write-offs, mainly. Occasionally, there is some altruistic motive behind these donations, but I believe that is consistently rare. What do you do when you find out a company you purchase goods from supports causes that you don't? What would you do, ignore this indirect funding or stop purchasing? Companies pay taxes. Should they be able to support whatever causes, ideas or legislation they want? Should these causes, politics or religion color their business?
This post began about a year ago when, in the midst of reviewing a product by Bolthouse Farms, I ran across some information that disturbed me. Apparently, the former owner donated money to causes support fundamental Christianity and hinder or fight against gay rights. In fact, their mission statement used to mirror the beliefs of the Bolthouse Foundation, which was founded and is currently run by William Bolthouse, former owner of BF. The company itself was not necessarily directly supporting causes like the National Christian Foundation and the Alliance Defense Fund, but William owned the company and donated much of his money to these causes. And although the company was bought out in 2005 by an investment firm, it still remains partially family owned. William's son-in-law is currently the chairman of the board.
The company seems to want us to believe that they no longer have anything to do with William Bolthouse of the Bolthouse foundation. The current CEO of Bolthouse Farms released a letter that says:
The Bolthouse Foundation is a private foundation funded by some of the former owners of Wm. Bolthouse Farms, Inc. The foundation is a separate entity and is not connected to Bolthouse Farms in any way. Furthermore, they do not receive financial support or benefit from the profits of Bolthouse Farms. We appreciate your concern and apologize for the confusion.
The bulk of the scandal surrounding this company erupted in June of last year, but has since then tapered off quite a bit. Even the boycott that was sparked by the actions of William was called off in October. However, Alex Blaze of Bilerico dug up a lot of information that seems a bit contrary, to put it lightly. But I could find no articles or blogs about William or the Farms published this year. So maybe they have taken up some responsibility and cast off the weight of the homophobic former owner, and are striving to remain an unbiased company, or maybe the higher-ups are still covertly funding there negative causes through William. Until I see proof either way, I'm going to hold off judgement, but I'm also going to hold off purchasing any Bolthouse or Bom Dia products, aside from my latest review. Consider it me being fair-and-balanced (Oh please, don't sue me, FOX!).
Whether or not what a company supports is a 'good cause' in your eyes, think about it this way. Business, religion and politics are three things that need to to stay as far away form each other as possible. When one begins to taint the other, nothing but problems arise. I hope Bolthouse Farms and all the other companies whose products we review try to maintain some level of corporate responsibility, both with their products and their profits.
*Note: This post was borrowed from my other blog contribution at Better Libations.*
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