June 27, 2008

California’s Bolthouse Farms: Proudly Promoting Radical Homophobia Since 1915

Alex Blaze reported on Bolthouse Farms at Bilerico on June 5, 2008:

About Bolthouse Farms

William Bolthouse has just donated $100,000 dollars to the ballot initiative to amend California’s constitution to ban same-sex marriage. He owns 43% of Bolthouse Farms, a company famous for its juice.

A couple of blogs have mentioned this before, but, really, it’s just par for the course for Bolthouse juice. Since 2000, much of that money from the juice has gone to fund fundamentalist, homophobic, and right wing operations.

Back in 2000, he donated $2000 to Bush’s presidential campaign and $1000 to GWB’s campaign in 2004.

He also donated $11,500 to Gary Bauer’s Campaign for Working Families in 2000 and $1000 to that organization in 2007. The PAC was designed to promote “traditional families in the political arena” through electing conservative candidates and financially supporting “pro-family ballot initiatives.”

In fact, William Bolthouse sees his business as a “platform for ministry.” So much so that he set up a foundation as a form of tithing the money he and his family made from the juice business.

The Bolthouse Foundation is also a major donor to the Alliance Defense Fund, a group of homophobic lawyers that try to get fundamentalism and homophobia through the courts. …

Plenty more at the link, including the Bolthouse Foundation’s mission statement, which has been altered (surprise, surprise!) since Blaze first wrote about it earlier this month.

Bolthouse’s mission statement before:

“The Bolthouse Foundation is a private family foundation funded by some of the former owners of Wm. Bolthouse Farms, Inc.

“The purpose of The Bolthouse Foundation is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by supporting charitable and religious organizations whose ministry, goals, and operating principles are consistent with evangelical Christianity as described in The Bolthouse Foundation Statement of Faith.

“This Website is designed to provide information to qualified organizations interested in submitting a Grant Inquiry on an unsolicited basis.”

(Read archived Statement of Faith)

Bolthouse’s mission statement today:

” The purpose of The Bolthouse Foundation is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by supporting charitable and religious organizations whose ministry, goals, and operating principles are consistent with evangelical Christianity as described in The Bolthouse Foundation Statement of Faith.

“Mr. and Mrs. William J. Bolthouse sold their interest in Wm. Bolthouse Farms in late 2005, and since then The Bolthouse Foundation has reflected their giving decisions exclusively. The Bolthouse Foundation is a separate entity from Bolthouse Farms, and all funding decisions by The Bolthouse Foundation are made solely by the Foundation. No members of The Bolthouse Foundation have a financial interest in Bolthouse Farms, and The Bolthouse Foundation receives neither financial support nor benefits from the profits of Bolthouse Farms.

“This Website is designed to provide information to qualified organizations interested in submitting a Grant Inquiry on an unsolicited basis.”

Talk about trying to cover your butt, eh?

The same basic message was received in response to an email to Bolthouse Farms.

Now that you have the backstory, here’s Alex’s update today:

Update: Bolthouse Farms and the
Bolthouse Foundation are connected

…I found quite a bit of history on William Bolthouse, with donations to extreme right-wing organizations dating back all the way to at least 2000 when he was still in charge of the juice company and had a large stake in it. I also found out that the Bolthouse Foundation, founded and funded by the Bolthouse family, was giving to quite a few causes that I personally wouldn’t have supported or wanted to have inadvertently supported.

Quite a few of you have e-mailed the company looking for answers, and they’ve denied connection with the Bolthouse Foundation. Other people are planning direct actions around this, so I dug deeper to make sure I was correct. Let’s just say that it isn’t accurate to say that they’re completely separate organizations. …

One of the big questions that came up was How much stake does William Bolthouse currently have in the juice company?

His family owned most of the company before they were bought-out in 2005 by Madison Dearborn Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm. Before that, he had donated both to the Bush campaign and to the Campaign for Working Families, Gary Bauer’s extremist PAC. He had already co-founded the Bolthouse Foundation private charity that, in 2006, received all of its donations from the Bolthouse family. Bolthouse Foundation gave over $6 million to the National Christian Foundation, a massive conservative Christian funding arm that funnels money to smaller groups, both ministerial and political, that work to promote a fundamentalist Christian worldview.

Bolthouse Farms (the juice company), the Bolthouse Foundation (the private charity), and the National Christian Foundation all have mission statements that focus on doing God’s work as based on a fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible. …

The Bolthouse Farms spokesperson I called repeated [the assertion that “The foundation is a separate entity and is not connected to Bolthouse Farms in any way”], even though she was unsure she could provide evidence that William Bolthouse is not currently receiving money from the company. Bolthouse Farms did not provide any documentation requested by the time of publication.

The assertion that they’re not connected “in any way” is far from true, based on a couple things I found. …

Actually, based on a lot of things he found (excellent work, Alex!). Head to the link to read everything; in short:

The Foundation gets its money from William Bolthouse, and William Bolthouse’s philosophy, mission, even members of his family, still run the Company. Family members are on both sides of that aisle. The Foundation is looking out for the Company’s interests. The money that funds the Foundation originally came from the Company and may continue via other family member’s private donations that still work for the Company. They are not completely independent entities.

Blaze is being generous in his assessment here; it sounds more like the foundation and the company are joined at the hip.

So, what to do, what to do? We’re not going to advise anybody to boycott Bolthouse — we don’t want their high-priced lawyers on our butts — but, as Blaze concludes:

Personally, after finding out all of this, I’m not going to buy their products anymore. There’s just way too much baggage, and way too many alternatives on the market. What you do with the information is up to you.

We have no idea why any self-respecting LGBT person or any of our allies would continue to fund these most radical righties. All I know is that my household will never buy any of the following Bolthouse products again:

• Bolthouse 100% carrot juice
• Bolthouse 100% Valencia Orange juice
• Bolthouse Passion Fruit juice
• Vedge vegetable juice
• Bolthouse Mango Lemonade
• Bolthouse Prickly Pear Cactus Lemonade
• Bolthouse Cranberry Lemonade

Bolthouse Smoothies
• Blue Goodness
• Green Goodness
• Strawberry Banana
• Berry Boost
• C-Boost

• Perfectly Protein line, including Perfectly Protein Vanilla Chai, Pefectly Protein Mocha Cappuccino, and Perfectly Protein Hazelnut Latté

Bom Dia “antioxidant rich” juices
• Açaí Berry with Pomegranate
• Açaí Berry with Cacao
• Açaí Berry with Mangosteen
• Açaí Berry with Blueberry

• Bolthouse Yogurt Dressing

…and, of course, Bolthouse’s production staple, fresh carrots — especially after a 2006 botulism outbreak at Bolthouse put six people in the hospital, including two Canadians who were paralyzed.

Refrigeration troubles? Maybe. Or maybe it was a sign from an angry God.

Further reading:

The Legal Muscle Leading the Fight to End the Separation of Church and State
Washington Spectator, April 1, 2007

Going Courtin’: Religious Right Fat Cats Bankroll Alliance Defense Fund’s Legal Crusade
Americans United, April 3, 2007

Local carrot farmer donates $100,000 to fight gay marriage
Bakersfield.com, June 8, 2008

Action Alert from Pride at Work

Posted by: Sapphocrat

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