I love pouring me up a big tall glass of Tropicana’s Original Fresh-squeezed Orange Juice. I love watching the thick orange waterfall of sweetness cascade from the carton into the glass. The fresh orange smell invigorates me as I bring the glass up to my mouth. It reminds me of my Abuelita’s house in Mexico. Then, I let the orange elixer of goodness flow down my throat and send a refreshing chill throughout my entire body. “Ahhhhhh”
I really love orange juice but Tropicana has always been my favorite. This is why it will be so hard to give it up. But give it up I must. Back in March, I shared information about Senomyx and their reprehensible use of HEK293 to develop taste enhancements for food products. Children of God for Life and a few other pro-life groups called for a boycott with the companies that have contracts with Senomyx. Because of this I know at least one company, Campbells, has chosen not to renew their contract with them. So boycotts can work. However, Pepsico has not only continued their contract with Senomyx but is now defending their use of HEK293 as the “gold standard” of research. Sadly, “The human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells are the most commonly used cell line in the production of biologics” according to the FDA.
(Don’t be fooled with the word “embryonic though”. Embryonic is merely referring to the age of the baby. Up through 8 weeks gestation is embryonic, fetal thereafter. But HEK is technically not embryonic as the kidney was taken from a baby that had developed beyond the embryonic stage – around 3 months gestation. So its actually incorrect – but they did the same thing with PER C6 calling this “embryonic retinal tissue” when the aborted baby was actually 18 weeks gestation.)
Because of Pepsico’s relentless defense, Pro-life Groups have called again for a Pepsico boycott. When I wrote about this before, I figured this would be easy enough because we don’t drink pop and so giving up Pepsi wouldn’t be all that difficult. But then I decided to see what other brands fell under the Pepsico umbrella. Oh my. I had no idea they were so GIGANTIC! You can check out the list here: http://www.pepsico.com/Brands.html
Now that you know about my love affair with Tropicana OJ, you can imagine my dismay when my eyes fell onto the word “Tropicana” on that page. 
boo.
And then…if you click on the individual brands, those all have their own individual brands also! double boo.
Aside from my beloved Tropicana, here are a few others I like to buy or have bought in the past: Aquafina, Mother’s cereals and occasionally the Quaker Chewy granola bars (even though I have to cover the ingredient list when I do munch into one). The other one that surprised me was Gatorade. I used to like it back in the day but then it just started tasting gross so I stopped. But there a LOT of people who still swear by it.
I know the Original Tropicana says it only uses “fresh-squeezed” oranges but with this new information I now find it rather repulsive. Which makes me sad. I am going to write them a letter telling them as much. Who knows, maybe Tropicana will feel my pain like Campbell’s Soups did and maybe they will talk to Pepsico. Maybe Pepsico will decide that using aborted baby’s leftover body tissue to test new ‘flavors’ for their food products is just too disgusting.
What products will you be sad to give up until Pepsico gives up Senomyx?
