Response from Seward Coop on Eden Foods

[BainsBane]

No, they won't stop selling their products.

Your comment was:

Eden Farms - please don't support them because they are suing to be exempt from covering women's birth control under ASA. Please don't stock their products.

Our response:



Thank you for voicing your concern about this issue. We've been monitoring this situation for over a year and share your concerns about Eden Foods' position on health care. We communicated those concerns to the company's president, Michael Potter, when Eden Foods filed a complaint against the U.S. government (Eden Foods v. Sebelius) in 2013.





Seward Community Co-op unconditionally supports women's access to health care, including contraception. However, several other aspects of Eden Foods' practices align very well with Seward Co-op values. Many of our customers appreciate the fact that Eden Foods is an independent company rather than one owned by a large corporation. Eden Foods consistently supports strict organic standards, and their products were free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and packaging free of Bisphenol A (BPA) long before most other producers began to consider these issues. As often as possible, Eden Foods also sources crops locally to their business, keeping hundreds of small-scale, organic family farms in business.



Every producer has his or her own vision and values, and while we strive to source products from companies with values similar to our own, we cannot expect to achieve 100-percent alignment with each brand we carry at the co-op. In this case, our co-op serves a diverse customer base who have differing opinions on this issue. In order to meet the wide variety of product needs within our community, we sell items that some of our customers may prefer not to see on our shelves. At this time, we believe that retaining Eden Foods products best serves our Ends Statement and our owners' needs. We provide alternatives to Eden Foods products whenever possible. We respect your purchasing decisions in this regard, and we strongly encourage you to vote with your dollars by making product choices that align with your values.

Thank you,
Allison, Advocacy and Governance Specialist

I will not be buying any Eden Foods products unless they drop their lawsuit to be exempted from covering women's reproductive health.