The University of California, Berkeley has a beverage contract with Coca-Cola that grants them a 98% market share, a virtual monopoly, of all the beverages sold on campus. The contract is set to end in August, 2011 and is coming up for renegotiation.

Coca-Cola has a controversial track record that is in direct violation of human rights, labor rights, and environmental issues. The state of Kerala in India is moving to demand $47 million in damages from Coca-Cola, and a Coca-Cola funded study recommended the closure of its plant in Jaipur because of the company's unsustainable practices. A consortium of plaintiffs has mounted a lawsuit accusing the company for engaging in a "campaign of violence" in Guatemala. Coke is also one of the nation's largest lobbyers AGAINST municipal recycling bills and laws. Despite the evidence, Coca-Cola continues to deny any wrongdoing.

The current contract is not completely transparent, the bidding and negotiations process does not allow for student input, and the virtual monopoly does not allow students to make more sustainable or ethical choices when deciding which beverage company to support. Also, the huge ethical and environmental injustice that is construed by bottled water makes our campus complicit in supporting the privatization of water from communities and huge waste stream attributed to the product.

We believe that money is not the only currency of a contract,  that ethical and sustainable implications should be a priority, and that the campus should offer a diversity of beverage products to allow students to make conscious decisions when purchasing products on campus.

Now is our opportunity to shape the beverage contract for potentially the next ten years on our campus.