Awwww, heck.
I was happily playing around with our Sodastream using Torani syrup tonight and put that out on Facebook only to be informed that the machine and syrups are “manufactured in illegally occupied West Bank lands.”
I thought it must be a hoax… but then I started digging… and my heart sank. It seems that while the syrups are manufactured in Israel proper, the machines are manufactured in the disputed West Bank area.
And then there are the questions of whether labeling the products as “Made in Israel” is misleading marketing and/or is taking advantage of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the accompanying tax-free status (the EU’s highest court did rule in 2010 that not all of the company’s products were eligible). On the other side of the argument is the company’s environmental commitment; the reduction in packaging and transport is significant.
Of course if I started making all my consumer decisions based on politics there’d be very few products left in my house.
Mike commented that it was my own fault for reading the label to which I retorted that the moral of the story was that ignorance is bliss.
He also reminded me that we bought the SodaStream to start making our own carbonated drinks with less sugar and other crap. Instead we’ve ended up “trading the fealty to Coke to one for Sodastream.”
So… rather than build a yurt in the wilderness (which is still tempting), we will instead start trying to make our own recipes. Mike has long been interested in trying this recipe for our favourite cola brand that he dug up from some corner of the internet and there are plenty of fruit extracts and other ingredients out there we can use to mix and match and create our own carbonated cocktails. We make our own ketchup, why not our own soda flavour?
As an aside, in researching Torani, I discovered they market some truly odd flavours, including “Chicken N’ Waffles” — pretty sure I don’t want that in my soda.
Further reading/resources:
- Torani Syrups — family-owned company since 1925, still manufactured in the San Francisco area and employing about 100. I can’t find anything good or bad about their environmental record.
- SodaStream Alternatives — suggestions from Global Exchange
- More about SodaStream on Wikipedia (including an overview of the controversies)
We make almost of our stuff. I was going to do a list, but you know we haven’t fired up our own slaughterhouse and cattle ranch, but that’s about as far as our limits exist.
When FabLabs become a thing we won’t have to export products from turbulent parts of the world where we angst over how little they’re paid or how much they’re exploited. Instead, they won’t get any of our business or money. I’m okay with that. Shipping and profiteering is a tremendous drain on our society. I look forward to use being less than two generations away from doing away with that.