After slamming critics of its decision to sponsor a reality TV show featuring objectionable content, Coca Cola Spain is facing boycotts of the company's products throughout the Spanish-speaking world.

The Madrid-based religious liberty organization Hazteoir.org recently launched a public opinion campaign to call on major businesses to withdraw their ads from the reality show “Summer Camp,” a Spanish version of “Survivor.”

During the program, one of the female contestants was made to strip to her underwear and jump into a pool of melted chocolate, while the host invited her fellow contestants to lick the chocolate off of her.

HazteOir.org convinced McDonalds, Burger King, Orange, ING Direct and Minute Made to all pull their ads from the program. However, the CEO of Coca Cola Spain, Marcos De Quinto, has maintained his company’s sponsorship.

De Quinto used his Twitter account to explain his decision, saying, “May God spare us from groups like ‘The Guardians of the Faith,’ who want to tell us what TV shows to watch, what books and newspapers to read, what party to vote for.”

He also used his account, @MarcosdeQuinto, to attack the president of Hazteoir.org, Ignacio Arsuaga.

“If having to think like you is the price I have to pay for you to keep drinking Coca-Cola, I prefer you don’t drink it,” he said.

De Quinto also threatened to have lawyers investigate what kind of penalties could be levied against the organization, which he accused of “inciting a pack of wild dogs against specific targets,” referring to its support for marriage and opposition to abortion.

In other tweets, De Quinto labeled Christians who object to Coca Cola’s sponsorship of the program as “fanatics” and “intolerant,” and accused them of launching a “guerrilla-style” attack against Coca Cola.  He also said he had the backing of executives at the Coca Cola world headquarters in Atlanta.
 
De Quinto’s response generated an immediate reaction from Spanish-speaking Catholics in Spain and Latin America.

Bishop José Munilla Aguirre of San Sebastián criticized De Quinto’s attitude, and told the Cope Radio Network Aug. 30 that he personally would drink “only pure and crystalline water instead of Coca Cola until the situation is cleared up, because I think the president of Coca Cola in Spain has made a big mistake and should retract his statements.”

“I was under the impression that this company’s international advertising approach was very respectful of family and social values, and this does not square with the statements made by this president,” Bishop Munilla said.

At the beginning of this week, the Twitter hashtag #BoikotCocacola became a trending topic in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Panama, and hundreds of Twitter users announced their decision to stop consuming Coca Cola until De Quinto retracts his statements or resigns as CEO.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/coca-cola-spain-faces-boycott-over-tv-ads-twitter-comments/

We are not vigilant enough. Capitalism has fooled us into believing we are choosing when we pick one mass-produced brand over another, but in reality, the vast majority of these brands are simply fronts for government-subsidized industrial agribusiness, which is at the heart of the Communist agenda.

The problem here is that without industrial agribusiness, it's really not possible to produce enough to feed the population with the lifestyle they are accustomed to.  There's a reason why there are facilities with thousands of cattle and hogs and millions of laying hens, and there's a reason why confinement operations are so ubiquitous.  It cannot pay in the system farmers are accustomed to raise pasture-fed cattle, for example.  It's more important that they get the highest and fastest gains, yet such is a tradeoff for health, reproductive success, etc.  And much of it is artificial- subsidies keep them in business, growth hormone implants increase gains, and so forth.  

Dairy cattle have been artificially inseminated instead of being mated by bulls via natural service for the past few decades.  Now many cannot even come into estrus without the use of reproductive hormones to induce cycling.  

Health issues run rampant in the industry.  Outbreaks of disease are far more devastating in large confined mobs then out in a grazing system.  Anthelmintic and antibiotic resistance are enormous problems.  

That said, there are many facilities that take great care to ensure animal health and safety, but even so, it's generally far from ideal.  However, I think longing for the days of James Herriot is pointless, and I for one am extremely grateful for the advances made in science and medicine since then.  We have antibiotics, vaccines, and vastly improved surgical procedures.  We understand better than ever the pathology of disease and the mechanisms of inheritance.  

Yet we can't even get dairy cattle to come into heat anymore.  Oh, and a certain faculty member at a certain university was afraid to explicitly state that cattle as ruminants, are indeed designed to consume a diet of primarily forages.

Shepherdess, I know you're the expert, but I think the chief problem is that farming has been practically ruined as a small business by ruthless middlemen.  One of the financial pundits points out that the average age of farmers in the US and in other countries is rapidly approaching retirement.  A healthy society needs a healthy rural culture.  A system where young people are unable to keep with the profession, where those who own farms are unable to live decently off of them, is a system that is consuming its seed corn.

It's definitely accurate to say they're dying out.  Most young people also have no interest in farming, even if they grew up on such an operation.  It is interesting to note that small-scale farming is actively growing.  I can't speak for the other livestock industries as well, but most sheep farmers in my state are small-scale.  Some flocks are hobbies only, and others are run as a business and even as the sole source of income.  It appears that most of these people have little to no farming background.  It takes an incredible amount of fortitude and determination (we Finns like to call it sisu) to keep up with such a business, but I know a number who are successful and content.  

Most people are not cut out for such work.  Even fewer have the desire to do so.  I just can't see most people going back to small farms, even if it was economically feasible.  Even mega-scale farming is an incredible amount of work- it's just that it takes far fewer people to produce many thousands times the number of animals on a tiny fraction of the land.  It's also possibly less risky.  

Farming and homesteading should be a reasonable way to make a living, so that this situation of farmers "dying out" would not be happening.

It is possible to earn a living in this manner, if one has some resources and a very strong work ethic, even at a small scale.  Acquiring land is a separate (albeit critical) issue.  

Based upon my observations, it's not really the lack of income keeping most people from farming.  It's the workload and lifestyle.  These progeny of farmers could go back to their parents' farm to work, but they choose not to, even when the parents desire it.  It's not the sort of lifestyle they want for themselves.  Farming does not quite mesh with a 9-5 and weekends off mentality.  It's also inherently risky.  Crop failure and animal health issues aren't uncommon.  Just look at what the drought last year accomplished.  Small square hay bales (poor quality grass!) were going for $10-20/bale.  (Normally worth $3, generously.)  I know several cattle and sheep farmers that had to majorly downsize because they couldn't afford the cost of feeding over the winter.  These are aspects that cannot be controlled and play a larger role.  They really have nothing to do with the economy or politics.  These are things that have been struggled with since man first milked a ewe or pushed a plow into the ground.  

At any rate, the entire situation is complicated and there are a number of factors involved.  These are just several of them.

Here is more on the effects on Coca Cola's support of immorality;
Coca-Cola saw its stock value drop yesterday as the boycott against the soft-drink giant has spread across Spain and into Latin America over statements by its CEO in Spain, Marcos De Quinto.

In what has been labeled a direct attack on Christians, De Quinto, president of Coca-Cola Spain, hurled insults at life and family defense groups in response to a campaign by the religious liberty organization HazteOir.org to fight a controversial Spanish reality show.

During the program “Summer Camp,” a version of “Survivor,” one of the female contestants was made to strip to her underwear and jump into a pool of melted chocolate, while the host invited her fellow contestants to lick the chocolate off of her.

HazteOir.org successfully convinced several companies – including McDonald's and Burger King – to withdraw their ads from the show. However, Coca-Cola declined to pull its ads, and De Quinto responded to those who objected to the sponsorship by calling them “fanatics” and “intolerant,” and accusing them of launching a “guerrilla-style” attack against Coca-Cola.

“May God spare us from groups like ‘The Guardians of the Faith,’ who want to tell us what TV shows to watch, what books and newspapers to read, what party to vote for,” De Quinto said on Twitter.

He also used the social media site to tell HazteOir.org president, Ignacio Arsuaga, “If having to think like you is the price I have to pay for you to keep drinking Coca-Cola, I prefer you don’t drink it.”

The comments sparked outcry in the Spanish-speaking world, and the Twitter hashtag #BoikotCocacola became a trending topic in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Panama, as hundreds of Twitter users announced their decision to stop buying the products until De Quinto retracts his statements.

In an article yesterday for the website DailyFinance.com, Wall Street analyst Amanda Alix noted that “Coca-Cola has fallen into the red today, a somewhat surprising follow-up to its performance yesterday.”

Noting the possibility of a widespread boycott, she said that De Quito’s Twitter response will likely “only inflame the anti-Coke sentiment even further.”

Ben Bouckley of BeverageDaily.com said the growth of the boycott against Coca-Cola in the Spanish-speaking world is clearly “bad news for Coca-Cola.”

 Coca-Cola spokesman told Bouckley that “there has been a misunderstanding of Mr. De Quinto's earlier statements on Twitter. As one of the world's most inclusive brands, Coca-Cola has a long established reputation of respect for all people – regardless of race, religion or gender.”

However, HazteOir.org president Ignacio Arsuaga said his organization is considering filing a lawsuit over the Twitter comments. De Quinto accused Arsuaga of belonging to a “mafia sect” made up of “criminals” who “hack into websites” and are “outside the law.” Hazteoir.org denied that it has engaged in criminal actions.

Arsuaga told CNA that the group has “been initially told that there are sufficient grounds for suing for slander and libel” and added that HazteOir.org is “still looking over the messages Marcos De Quinto posted on Twitter.”

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/coca-cola-stock-drops-as-boycott-spreads-in-latin-america/