Hobby Lobby isn’t the only company looking to opt out of the Affordable Care Act. Eden Foods is suing the Obama Administration over the ACA’s birth control requirements.
What makes the news about Eden Foods wanting to deny birth control coverage most shocking is that this is a company that produces organic beans and dairy alternatives. You might see their organic soy milk and BPA free canned beans on store shelves and think that surely you’re supporting a progressive company when you buy their food. Not so, according to a series of reports from Salon.
Eden Foods CEO Michael Potter is suing for the right to deny his 128 employees birth control coverage, saying that this violates his religious beliefs that sex should be for procreation only.
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The original Salon report talks about Eden Foods suing the government and calling birth control unnatural. In a follow-up story, Potter changes his tune a bit. He says that birth control is a “women’s issue” that he doesn’t understand. But that he’s against paying for it. Then he equates birth control with Jack Daniels.
It’s really very confusing, and by the end of the second Salon piece, I got the idea that he didn’t really know what birth control was or how it worked, but he know how money works. And he doesn’t want to spend any if he doesn’t have to.
Finding Alternatives to Eden Foods
Don’t want to support Potter’s vague ideas about birth control? They are by no means the only game in town when it comes to organic canned beans, organic soy milk, or any of the other products that they produce. Most stores have alternatives lining the shelves right alongside Eden Foods’ products, so it’s easy enough to pass them by when you’re shopping.
Back in the nineties I worked for several years at a vegetarian worker-owned food co-op with the son of Eden Foods CEO Michael Potter. My co-worker was very sweet and funny, but clearly had major difficult issues with his father. I never asked him about the specific details, but reading that Potter is “suing for the right to deny his 128 employees birth control coverage, saying that this violates his religious beliefs that sex should be for procreation only”, helps me to understand the scope of what K had to deal with.
Eden Foods – a message from a vegan and human rights supporter – get stuffed and know that I will advise numerous followers to do the same. What a jerk to think you have the right to play God with your workers. You have in fact put yourself above the one you say you worship – blasphemous behavior.
Thanks for posting about this. I won’t be buying any Eden Foods products. We must vote with out pocketbooks!
I could not agree more. It bums me out, because I used to buy their products pretty regularly!
Reached for your delicious black beans yesterday at whole foods and then stopped myself and bought another brand. As did the woman next to me when I explained why. And also the ton of women on my FB page who didn’t realize your company was so anti-woman, and have all commented that though they love your products, they hate your politics. So, we will all exert our right to CHOOSE by choosing to buy other products.
The issue here isn’t birth control. It’s Federal overreach. Agree or disagree with Mr. Potter’s views, that’s every Americans right. No one has the right to force him to purchase birth control for other people. The Federal Government does not have the authority under the Constitution to coerce citizens to provide healthcare for other citizens. This isn’t a progressive approach, it’s soft tyranny. We’re all quick to let the Fed impose our will on others until we find ourselves on the losing side of the argument. It’s far better in the long run to keep the Fed within its constitutional boundaries.
Good for Mr Potter! He has every right yo live according to a rightly-ordered conscience.