US coffee shop chain Starbucks is this week the target of a massive anti-genetically modified ingredients campaign across the world. Consumer and environmental activists in 300 US cities and across the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand will leaflet and stage protests in front of Starbucks coffee shops during a ``Frankenbuck$'' Global Week of Action Sept. 17-23. In a statement this week the Organic Consumers Association announced that activists, "will criticise Starbucks' use of genetically engineered ingredients in their foods, beverages, and bottled Frappuccino drinks, their use of sweatshop labor coffee suppliers, as well as Starbucks' refusal to brew and seriously promote Fair Trade coffee." Part of an ongoing international campaign against Starbucks, events are scheduled from Seattle to Portland, Sydney to Newcastle (UK). Ronnie Cummins, National Director of the Organic Consumers Association declared, ``For six months now, Starbucks has been stonewalling. PR statements and halfway measures are not enough. Starbucks must either give in to the demands of consumers around the world for a non-genetically engineered product line, Fair Trade coffee, and social justice, or else they run the risk of further damage to their reputation and bottom line. ''
