Article on company: http://money.ca.msn.com/investing/in...entid=21969656

Coca-Cola has it's own coffee/tea/hot chocolate company called Far Coast. It is also apparently served somewhere on campus according to this.

Does anyone know where that on-campus location is?

And second, does anyone find it...I guess ironic that Far Coast is a free trade coffee company, and yet Coke has been accused of many human rights violations in its South American bottling plants in the past decade?


Far Coast is one of the official beverages of the Olympics, as well.

they serve it in thode library at the reactor cafe

I think I have bought some before in BSB.

Dont be hoodwinked by fair trade.

Fair Trade, like many supposed "aid" organizations, has set out with big hopes and good intentions, but their course of action shows little knowledge of the subject they deal with, and no thought to how their program will affect the people they "help" and the surrounding communities. Fair Trade does not help people move out of extreme poverty because the farmers who can be fair trade farmers do not live in extreme poverty. And out of all the crop they grow as fair trade farmers, something like 3% on average of their crop will be purchased at fair trade prices (instead of the implied 100%).

There is a lot wrong with fair trade and people should not support it. No one should buy fair trade until the fair trade organization admits to the effects of their "help", and takes action to fix the problem. Many groups who support fair trade acknowledge the problems, but wont move to make changes because "it is a good way to raise awareness". Supporting a non-functioning, harmful organization because it raises awareness makes about as much sense as supporting racism because by having it prevalent in society raises awareness about discrimination.

Supporting Fair Trade supports a movement that has no understanding of economics, agriculture, health science, or the communities and people they aim to help. Good intentions are no different from bad intentions if there is a lack of guidance. You cant help people move out of extreme poverty unless you live with them, identify problems they have that can be improved, and then set your goals based on that information. Far too much aid is decided upon from the comfort of an office space in the western world with no real understanding of the problems faced by people in extreme poverty.

There are no simple solutions to complex problems.


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If you havent yet heard about Coca Cola and South American paramilitary groups, you should google that shit. If you are lazy there are documentaries you can find.

Also, Coca Cola has some unflattering history in india when it comes to destroying the water table at a rate faster than it can be replenished, and causing an artificial drought for all the surrounding farmers.

We need to have the MSU put a clause in all their contracts stating that if any company is involved in any form of human rights abuse, unehtical behaviour, etc., that we reserve the right at any time to terminate their contract.

We should kick Coca Cola off our campus until they show they are a responsible company; other Universities have already done this. We have a lot of power when it comes to these situations, if only we exercise that power.

At the Reactor Cafe in Thode there's a sign that says "Far Coast."

I've definitely bought from Far Coast in Thode before. It's ... okay. :]

Thats funny I love the far coast tea and when I googled them and found out coke owns it I was suprised (even though coke owns every drink it seems)
I agree with how its ironic that its "free trade" I'm fully aware of the oppressive nature of the Coke company, for example how they will take over a native peoples land just to take control of their water resourses, and leave the villagers with nothing. (literally build a fortress around such resourses).

I love their 'PanChai' ... its pretty good !!!

- Abhi

Free trade != Fair Trade. Using them interchangeably is kind of funny though.

Originally Posted by Rossclot

We need to have the MSU put a clause in all their contracts stating that if any company is involved in any form of human rights abuse, unehtical behaviour, etc., that we reserve the right at any time to terminate their contract.

We should kick Coca Cola off our campus until they show they are a responsible company; other Universities have already done this. We have a lot of power when it comes to these situations, if only we exercise that power.

Well Ross, this is coming up very soon. The February Presidential is supposed to have the CocaCola exclusivity Contract Negotiations up for contention.

This contract was also up for renewal a few years before I was at Mac. Someone like Lorend or Jay might know about it in more detail.

The MSU can't decide anything on its own. Such questions/issues are always refferendum issues and the last one happened in 2005. The students voted against giving coke an exclusivity contract hence the Union Market now has non coke products. But the MSU refferendum apparently wasn't binding on the University because either a) they don't care or b) The real reason was that in the original old contract there was a clause that said McMaster University needs to sell a certain number of units of coke otherwise the contract automatically gets renewed for 2 years. The clause was apparnently implausible and hence apparently there was no way Mac could sell that much Coke.

MSU does have a policy on such issues: https://www.msumcmaster.ca/content/d...g%20Policy.pdf

But the human rights abused are categorized as being carried out by Paramilitaries/Rebels and likes and hence Coke is abhorred. The MSU is in no position to determine the link of coke to those paramiliary and try and prove all that. You have to realize the fact that there are people at Mac and within the MSU who have a completely different view then you and will point out stuff like, Coke at Mac is produced by local plants in Brampton and that UN documents we have will prove that Coke had no link to all of that and the human rights abuses are a result of internal conflicts etc etc.

Also even IF the MSU decides to break contract and kick out Coke. Coke will only be gone from Union Market & 1280. Hospitality is run by the admin and they will still carry coke.

But I don't know anything about these issues other then hearsay since I only came to Mac in 2008.

Jay above me is a exec member of Amnesty at Mac(One of the two clubs who are against Coke, Including Campus Choice), she does know a good deal about it(I know that because we discussed this stuff in detail on the "Insider agents" sub forum months ago). Also, a Biology prof at Mac also went down to Columbia and was interrogated by the same Paramilitaries.

Either ways, I'll try finding out more about it as the Presentials come closer and IF there is a refferendum(which is highly likely since it just takes a small minority of SRA members to initiate one)