Who puts the sweet in Sweet pea?

Corporate greed has infiltrated our community and YOUR freedom of choice. This weekend thousands of people will flock to Downtown Bozeman for the 46th annual Sweet Pea Music and Arts Festival to celebrate creativity and all that it adds to our lives. It’s a dang good time and if you’re in town, I’d highly encourage you to go support the event, the neighboring SLAM festival, and all of the artisans featured throughout the weekend.

Like everything else in Bozeman, the Sweet Pea Festival has evolved over the years. But there was one fundamental change this year that made me furious. In previous years, food vendors have been able to sell beverages of their choice, bottled water, sodas, kombucha, etc. This year, however, outside beverage sales were captured by our local Coca-Cola bottler and distributor, effectively restricting your choices to Coke products only, AND simultaneously boxing out LOCAL providers seeking to offer Sweet Pea patrons few “better for you” options. I’ll say it again... corporate greed has infiltrated our community and your freedom of choice. Pretty suspicious if you ask me.

Allow me to peel back the layers of Coke’s business and marketing tactics. Coca Cola spends roughly 2 billion dollars annually on advertising. To sustain their positive image, they dole out “Grants” under the guise of philanthropy, cultivating relationships with arts councils, civil rights groups, doctors, dentists, dietitians, anti-hunger activists, etc. Big Soda isn’t motivated by its love for the arts or some deep concern for minority rights. Their giving serves only to polish their soiled anti-health agenda. Through multi-million dollar campaigns, they sustain the feel good imagery used to sell you and your children the number one driver of chronic health problems in this country. For example, would you be surprised to learn that in 2003, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry REVERSED its years long position on soda’s cavity causing effect, preceded only by a $1mil grant from Coca Cola?

According to the 2020 community health needs assessment conducted by the Gallatin County Health Department and other local health authorities, more than 60% of our residents are overweight or obese, and 25% of kids age 5-17 are as well. Include Montana’s Tribal kids of the same age group in that 25% figure, and it skyrockets to 42%. Furthermore, 23% of high school aged boys drink at least one sugar sweetened soda per day. That is the exact same percentage of high school students nationwide with prediabetes or T2D. For whatever reasons, their testosterone levels on average are about 25% less than that of their fathers’ generation. Not to mention the leading causes of death in Bozeman, like the rest of the country, are heart disease and cancer, largely driven by modifiable lifestyle and nutrition choices. For the first time in the history of our nation, the US is raising a generation of children who are on track to live SICKER and SHORTER lives than their parents.

If we want to reverse these trends, access to affordable, high quality, food is ESSENTIAL. For those wanting to clap back that this is an issue of food insecurity, the demographics would suggest otherwise. In Gallatin County, 80% of our residents live within 1/2 mile of a grocery store. This isn’t an issue of food insecurity, it’s an issue of visibility.

Let me explain, the way grocery stores work is that those brands with the most money to spend get the most shelf space. Marketing influences people’s choices and children are particularly vulnerable to the messaging. Scroll through TikTok and you’ll find that a staggering 43% percent of the most popular videos created by Zoomers and Gen Alpha influencers promote food and drinks. 90% of these products are ULTRA-PROCESSED foods and sugar sweetened beverages.

The problem extends far beyond social media though. In the 1980’s, Coca Cola began using high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in place of sugar in their soft drinks. US corn subsidies paid for by American taxpayers, along with foreign sugar import tariffs flipped the pricing in favor of HFCS, and set in motion an historic rise in obesity and diabetes over the next 40 years. Over that time, these corn subsidies amounted to about half a trillion dollars in revenue for U.S. corn producers.

What’s the worst part of it all? There’s NO nutritional benefit to consuming HFCS, but it makes up about 10 percent of our daily caloric intake. Fructose stimulates our pleasure pathways and affects dopamine signaling in the brain. Dopamine-related disorders, like ADHD, affect millions of adults and children who, instead of being encouraged to change their sugar intake, are fed amphetamines in an effort to combat the problem. Unsurprisingly, ADHD is shows positive correlation with chronic sugar consumption. Despite the overwhelming evidence available, why do our USDA Nutritional Guidelines for anyone 2 years and older, recommend that up to 10% of our calories come from added sugar? And I’m not making this up. These figures come STRAIGHT from the USDA website.

These guidelines shape school lunch programs and other federally supported public assistance measures. How do you feel when you learn that $7 billion of the SNAP program goes to purchasing HFCS-sweetened beverages made by Coke and Pepsi? It’s with some optimism that we saw in 2021 the House Ways and Means committee introduced a bill to impose a tax on sugar sweetened beverages, the revenues of which would go to the prevention, treatment, and research of diet-related health conditions in disproportionately impacted populations. Coke, however, spent close to $3mil that same year lobbying AGAINST that bill, which is currently stalled in congress. Surprise surprise.

While we’re following the money, let’s break down the economics of the water that Coca Cola uses. Per their own internal analysis of one particular bottling plant, it took a staggering 35 liters of water to make every half-liter bottle of Coca Cola. I would suspect their other plants are similar, and possibly worse.

Dasani is a Coca-Cola-owned brand, so this year at Sweet Pea, you’ll see PLENTY of plastic Dasani water bottles floating around. To make Dasani, Coca Cola purchases water from municipal sources under very favorable payment terms, treats it, bottles it, marks it up 100x, and sells it RIGHT back to you. The processing and infrastructure of the local water supply is paid for by local taxpayers and therefore, Coca-Cola’s billion dollar bottled water brand is largely subsidized by you.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be packaging our own water, Zest2O, and giving it away to anyone who needs it. To the food bank, to music venues, to emergency services, and free with every purchase of zesty products at our shop.

To be clear, I don't believe that our local Coca-Cola bottling plant has evil people within its walls, nor do I fault Sweet Pea for signing an exclusive deal to require all its vendors to source Coca-Cola products. It takes a lot of money to produce a music and arts festival, and without any direct knowledge of the deal, I imagine they got that money (though I will note that they have never reached out to Zesty).

Honestly, we believe the ENTIRE system is rigged from the top down and reforming it should be our number one priority.

And fear not my friends, for the Zesty crew has a small solution to offer, at least at the local level.  

For those of you who wish to remain free from the shackles of Big Bev this weekend, we’ve partnered with the Montana Science Center, who as of this moment, are the only non-profit given the green light to sell beverages outside of the Coca Cola portfolio.

We’re donating ALL of our products to support them, so pay whatever you can and support of the Science Center (we suggest at least $3 and thank you for your generosity!). Maybe even pay it forward and buy one for a stranger.

People tell us all the time that our Berry Basil tastes like a Coke, don't be afraid to give it a shot. Don’t want kombucha? Our Yellowstone Yerba Mate will also be available, sweetened with monk fruit, no sugar, no calories, and 35mg of caffeine, which is the same amount as a Coca Cola.

If you need to dissolve a nail or a human tooth in a matter of days, go grab a coke and drop one inside.

If you want to keep it 100 and feel good about the vibes you put out to the world, grab a Zesty.

Have a great Sweet Pea weekend.