TalkingDog (7,608 posts)
New App Lets You Boycott Koch Brothers, Monsanto And More By Scanning Your Shopping Cart
http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2013/05/14/new-app-lets-you-boycott-koch-brothers-monsanto-and-more-by-scanning-your-shopping-cart/
In her keynote speech at last year’s annual Netroots Nation gathering, Darcy Burner pitched a seemingly simple idea to the thousands of bloggers and web developers in the audience. The former Microsoft MSFT +0.95% programmer and congressional candidate proposed a smartphone app allowing shoppers to swipe barcodes to check whether conservative billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch were behind a product on the shelves.
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The app itself is the work of one Los Angeles-based 26-year-old freelance programmer, Ivan Pardo, who has devoted the last 16 months to Buycott. “It’s been completely bootstrapped up to this point,†he said. Martinez and another friend have pitched in to promote the app.
Pardo’s handiwork is available for download on iPhone or Android, making its debut in iTunes and Google GOOG +3.26% Play in early May. You can scan the barcode on any product and the free app will trace its ownership all the way to its top corporate parent company, including conglomerates like Koch Industries.
Once you’ve scanned an item, Buycott will show you its corporate family tree on your phone screen. Scan a box of Splenda sweetener, for instance, and you’ll see its parent, McNeil Nutritionals, is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson JNJ +0.77%.
http://election.democraticunderground.com/10022848428I think I will download the app and make sure to buy Koch brothers products.
Stuart G (7,649 posts)
3. NO...here is why a Boycott ain't no good............
Last edited Wed May 15, 2013, 05:07 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)
Koch Bros..Industries.................................................................
Georgia-Pacific paper for your printer
Brawny paper towels
Dixie cups
Northern bath tissue
Angel Soft bath tissue
etc..........................now why not Boycott????????
some..not sure which...are good union jobs..yep...and pay good wages..right here in the U.S.A..
..........yep to the workers..so Koch Bros..would like nothing more than an excuse to fire those union people, move the plant, and start elsewhere..or just fire them all...that is the problem..
I suggested a boycott years ago, and someone that knew the unions well ..........schooled me on this....
Can't piss off the unions.
gateley (61,870 posts)
4. Good point.
But I don't think the number of people who would use this as a guideline for their purchases would really negatively impact any of these companies. It will just make us feel better about ourselves. I think.
That is true, none of your boycotts have shut anyone down yet.
DLnyc (1,970 posts)
6. I don't agree. Boycotts seem to be working pretty well against Rush Limpballs, for example.
For just one example.
I think boycotts have often been extremely effective, historically.
Here are some more examples: http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/boycotts/successfulboycotts.aspx
. . . Nestlé gave in to pressure from Greenpeace and promised a zero deforestation policy in its palm oil supply chain. After just 8 weeks of intense campaigning and meetings with the company Nestle came come up with what Greenpeace described as a “comprehensive policy†that will be monitored by the Forest Trust.
Nearly 1.5m saw Greenpeace’s spoof Kit Kat advert, over 200,000 emails were sent and activists demonstrated at Nestlé HQs worldwide. Greenpeace said “We didn’t expect Nestlé to come up with this policy so quickly.
Fruit of the Loom crumbled in the face of pressure from the largest ever student boycott. In an incredible about-face the company re-opened a Honduran factory it had closed after workers had unionised. Furthermore, it also gave all 1,200 employees their jobs back, awarded them $2.5 million in compensation and restored all union rights.
The campaign started in 2009 when United Students Against Sweatshops started a campaign that led to 96 US colleges severing their contracts with the company. Ten British universities followed suit. The campaign was estimated to have cost the company $50million.
Reyna Dominguez, who worked at the factory, told New Internationalist that “without this pressure the company would never have come to the negotiating table. There has never been an agreement like this in Honduras or the world.â€
Funny I heard Limpballs on the radio today, and he still has sponsors.
