Contact the editor of Mix by mail or email:

Patricia Cumbie
Twin Cities Natural Food Co-ops
2610 University Ave. W., Suite 500
St. Paul, MN, 55114

themix@ncga.coop

Letters to the Editor

From July/August 2008

Preserve Clean Water Vote Yes for Minnesota

This November, you have the opportunity to Vote Yes for Minnesota-dedicating funds to preserve clean water, protect our natural areas and wildlife habitats, and support the arts and our parks and trails. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make an investment in protecting Minnesota’s quality of life and preserving it for future generations.

This initiative will protect our drinking water and provide funding for cleanup of our rivers, lakes and streams.

The Clean Water, Land and Legacy amendment will offer tremendous help to protect our environment. The outdoor fund will preserve our many forests, prairies and natural areas that both Minnesotans and our tourists enjoy so much. Protecting our lands for game habitat, wildlife, fishing, hunting and hiking is critical at this time, and passing this amendment now is the right thing to do for our state’s future.

Minnesota has also been blessed with one of the strongest arts communities in the country. Passage of this amendment will ensure that kids from all corners of the state have access to arts education. This amendment is a long-term investment in Minnesota’s future generations.

Lastly, this amendment will support and enhance our parks and trails system. While we enjoy ample opportunities for outdoor recreation, this will ensure that we upgrade existing facilities and expand our current network of parks and trails.

This Nov. 4, you have a chance to make a long-term investment in Minnesota. Vote Yes on The Clean Water, Land and Legacy amendment, and protect Minnesota for future generations.

If you would like to volunteer with our campaign to protect the Minnesota you love, please contact Vote Yes for Minnesota by phone at 651-644-2088, or by email at info@yesformn.org.

-Charlie Poster, communications director,
Vote Yes Minnesota

From September/October 2007

Mix Response a Cop-out
Your response to the Cornucopia letter from the July/August issue of the Mix was a cop-out—I think it would be far more honest, open and ethical to just plainly say that you accept their adverts because you need the money.

You can hardly disengage yourself from “dictating” choices when you help with an ethically suspect ad campaign that outspends its largest competitor 20 to 1.

Don’t equivocate—it makes you appear too much like all the other mainstream media out there—in hock to your eyeballs to the highest bidder and divested of principle.

—Kimberley Balcos

Mix Too Politically Correct
I feel the need to comment on your response to the letter from Mark Alan Kastel, Cornucopia Institute, which appeared in the July/August Mix. Even though it is true that you carry a disclaimer in regards to advertising which appears in the Mix; and even though you have in previous issues featured articles that refer directly to the practices Kastel highlights in his letter to the editor regarding Horizon organic milk, I cannot help but wonder why the Mix can’t have a “bar,” a minimal standard to say the least, by which advertising is accepted into your newspaper?

I imagine a scenario in which someone from the advertising department at Dean Foods calls to check what feature stories the Mix is covering in the next issue before securing advertising!

The bottom line is, Horizon’s factory farms have allowed the likes of Walmart to enter the organic milk market with “cheap” organic milk—the hidden cost carried on the backs of tortured beasts, abused immigrant workers, and the environment—and you have said as much.

Why confound the organic movement, the environmental movement, the animal welfare movement and over 50,000 households reached by the Mix with such advertising? Dean Foods and Horizon milk are not like the little guy buying a 2×4 inch slot to sell snake oil. It’s rather like having the Exxon Valdez ram into your newspaper!

I believe you have erred in being “politically correct.”

—Mary Conway

Misplaced Trust
I was so desperately disappointed in your response to Cornucopia in the July/August issue of the Mix. It had strong hints of political toe-dancing around an issue that, if legitimate, should be addressed by co-op leaders. The line “...our acceptance of advertising does not reflect an endorsement of advertised products….” sounds familiar if you have ever read Utne. The publisher was also held accountable by her readers when she seemed to put in advertising that went counter to her message and mission.

May I suggest that in the future, you address concerns directly and concisely; do not refer readers to several past articles. You have let us down if you knowingly have accepted ads which run counter to your mission and beliefs. And, finally, do not pass on all responsibility to your customers. Many of us choose our stores carefully and in that choice is placed a certain level of trust as to the products we will purchase. If that trust is misplaced, perhaps our co-ops need to define more clearly what we can and cannot expect inside your stores.

—Nancy Lanthier Carroll

Disheartened by the Mix
I was disheartened at your response in the July/August Mix to the letter from Cornucopia regarding Dean Foods’ Horizon advertisements. It is not realistic to claim that carrying advertising doesn’t to some degree constitute an endorsement or that you have no responsibility to your readers beyond caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). The advertisers want to advertise in your publication for a reason. It is not realistic to think that readers do not tend to trust the ads in Mix, nor that advertisers are not bargaining for that trust.

After reading what Cornucopia has to say, I think every Horizon ad should be accompanied by a Mix disclaimer. Dean Foods is a corporate liar engaged in defrauding consumers who want natural and organic products. And your Pollyanna editorial policy lets them go on lying to us with their professionally designed ads. Printing the Cornucopia letter once hardly balances the scales.

I don’t believe the only choice is either a complete laissez-faire policy or “dictating” to readers. Certainly there are some standards you apply as to acceptibility of advertising. What kind of moral corruption does it take to make you draw the line? The Twin Cities natural food
co-ops that I’ve known intimately for a third of a century do have principles, and I believe those principles could better inform the advertising policy of Mix.

—Terry Hokenson

Respectfully Disagree
I would like to respectfully disagree with the last paragraph of your response in the July/August Mix to Mark Kastel from the Cornucopia Institute regarding the acceptance of advertising from Dean Foods for Horizon organic milk. You said that “...our acceptance of advertising does not reflect an endorsement of advertised products and services by the newspaper, or the TCNFC. It is up to the reader and consumers to decide whether or not to support our advertisers, or any product producer.”

The Wedge Co-op is a very visible member of the boycott of Dean Foods/Horizon milk products. Last time I checked, the TCNFC was not a corporation—they were a coalition of member-based co-ops. I expect more from TCNFC than a corporate response to a question of advertising integrity in the publication that serves its members. And I expect more integrity in the acceptance of advertising for the Mix.

—Anna Dvorak

Wedge Co-op responds: I think I know where the confusion comes from. The Organic Consumers Association briefly listed the Wedge as a boycott participant on their web site.

Wedge Co-op does not participate in product boycotts, believing boycott participation to be a customer decision. It is our job as a cooperative to serve and educate/inform our members, who make the choices that best suit their needs. Our buyers choose products to put on the shelves, but those choices must be confirmed by member/customer purchases. Products have to earn their shelf space. We do, in fact, carry one facing of 32 ounce plain Horizon yogurt due to customer demand. We also carry Silk and WhiteWave soy products, both of which are owned by Dean Foods, the parent company of Horizon.

—Elizabeth Archerd,
member services director