New App Lets You Boycott Koch Brothers, Monsanto And More By Scanning Your Shopping Cart

[TalkingDog]

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.

snip

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%.

[darkangel218]

1. Thats freaking awesome!!!

Thanks for posting x

[marions ghost]

2. great concept

!!! thanx

[Stuart G]

3. NO...here is why a Boycott ain't no good............

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....

[gateley]

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.

[DLnyc]

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.”

. . .

[DLnyc]

5. Sorry, but that logic seems a little leaky to me.

I understand your point, but it seems a bit defeatist to me. Sorry.

You seem to be saying that we shouldn't boycott Koch because he *might* take out his anger on his workers. If we follow that logic, we would have to let all the rich and powerful forces that are destroying this planet do exactly as they please, because if we put any pressure on them they might be mean to their workers. Actually, the Koch brothers have heavily funded reactionary, anti-union policies all over (famously in Wisconsin). I would say the unions will have a stronger hand when we join their side and increase the pressure on these bastards, not when we just throw in the towel [sic] and let the Koches and their ilk do as they please.

[HiPointDem]

11. +1. It's like bipartisanship; too much & you give away all your power to the forces of evil.

I see it's georgia-pacific (which the kochs bought in 2005) that's the main unionized business.

well, give them a little time.

furthermore, i see it's a steelworker union rep who's telling people not to boycott because it might hurt union workers.

we should ask him how many steelworkers there are today v. 1980. how's that concessionary attitude working out for you, chum? well, maybe not for you personally, but for your membership rolls?

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Georgia Pacific in my neck of the woods: union

Three unions -- the United Steelworkers, International Association of Machinists and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers -- voted to ratify new contracts Thursday at Georgia-Pacific LLC's pulp and paper mill in Brewton.

The four-year contracts are retroactive to Nov. 1, 2007, said company spokesman Terry Hadaway. They cover 347 of the roughly 450 workers at the mill, which makes cardboard.

http://blog.al.com/live/2008/05/georgiapacific_unions_in_brewt.html

[HiPointDem]

10. if you can't say which, i doubt it. kochs are famously anti-union.

[Brickbat]

8. As mentioned, lots of those are union-made. Doesn't surprise me at all Forbes would be interested in

promoting something like that.

[DeSwiss]

9. K&R

[midnight]

12. K&R

[bunnies]

13. "android app coming soon"

grrrrrr. Why is it always iphone first? So irritating!!!!

[RandiFan1290]

14. Just be glad you don't have a Blackberry

I get left out of everything

[bunnies]

15. Good point.

Now that I think about it... I'm not sure Ive ever seen a blackberry app. Clearly the app gods frown on you, smirk at me and blow kisses to the ipeople. Jerks.