Boycott Pepsi!!

I hadn't thought much about another blog post until I got an email from My Uncle Jim in Idaho last night. He said:
 "I LOVE your blog. Keep it up what you say and feel is truly wonderful. You are exactly right about sin, that once we ask for forgiveness, God cast it as far as the east is from the west and is no longer remembered. I do want you to look up the verse in Joel: 2:28  "
And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.  In the last days, (which I think we are in the last hour) dreams will come alive to us, and are from Christ. We of course have to be careful how we interpret them, but I think some of the wisdom of Christ will come through these dreams and visions, and prophesy’s."

(My Uncle Jim has been a true Jesus loving, Gospel spreading, Christian for as long as I know of. I used to think he was a little crazy. LOL! I am sure there are some who must think that about me now as well.)

After reading his email I started thinking what topic to write about next. I couldn't think of anything last night and resolved that, just like the other posts, I would wait until I felt moved by the Spirit to write something.

This morning the principal of my daughters Catholic school told me she had received my email about Pepsi contracting with Senomyx, a company that is using aborted fetal cells in their flavor research and development.  She said she contacted the parish priest and they looked into it. They concluded it was just a viral email. 
I had done a google search on this when I heard of it and did not find any evidence that it was a hoax.
Now for the part that makes me sound a bit weird, (yeah maybe sounds crazy, I know); the main reason I believed it when I heard of it was actually due to a dream.  A few nights before I saw an article posted on facebook about this, I had a dream that I was purchasing some dairy product from a store display refrigerator.  Then some woman came up to me and told me that with that purchase I was participating in abortion. I was angry, offended, and confused. I told her I have never participated in abortion. She insisted that I had. I thought she was mean and crazy.  When I woke up I wondered what that dream could have meant but didn't dwell on it too long.  When I saw the article I realized how a food product purchase CAN relate to participation in abortion.  So the article had my attention right away.  I did a google search to try to verify or disprove it. I found more articles on more websites supporting the claim. So I banned Pepsi from my home, made a point of purchasing Campbell's soups and V8 fusion drinks, and started spreading the word.
My sister was the first person to express skepticism about this. So I thought of suggesting to my dad (who has done investigative reporting articles), to look into this for an article.  He didn't seem too eager to jump on that one and I let it go.
After the school principal expressed skepticism I resolved to find out myself.  A day or so ago on Grace FM  one of the pastors was talking about when we see a need we should act on it! He said people will make excuses "Oh, I'm not called to do that."  He said we deceive ourselves if we sit back and wait for someone else to do it thinking we are not called to it.  If we know there is a need and it is in our power to act then we must act.  I think that pastors message applies to me here.  I forward emails and suggest to others to look into things but I hadn't done the extra steps, I hadn't done what I was suggesting to others to do. To contact Pepsi, Campbell's, Senomyx, and the pro-life groups.  So I have begun to do that now. I hope you will too.

Below are the responses I have received from my inquiry thus far:

From: Debi Vinnedge Children of God for Life-
Dear Ms Dryburgh and Mrs Rubin,
       You are correct that PepsiCo has contracted with Senomyx to produce
artificial flavor enhancers for their products and also correct that Senomyx
is using aborted fetal cell line HEK-293 (human embryonic kidney) in the
research and development.  PepsiCo has paid Senomyx $30 million up front for
that research and development and will also pay Senomyx royalties on all
products sold using their flavor enhancers.
       PepsiCo has openly admitted the truth in letters to the public - yet
they have been evasive, depending on how the letters are worded.  When
confronted properly, they simply do not respond - or they will respond that
they have forwarded the complaint to senior management.
       There is a ton of proof that can be accessed on our website at
www.cogforlife.org/senomyxproof.htm  In addition, you can view just one of
many letters from PepsiCo at http://cogforlife.org/pepsiresponse.pdf  and
there are several more articles, including one by CBS news listed on the
main page of our website at http://www.cogforlife.org/  (Just click on the link at
the top for Breaking News) Also, we intend to file a formal shareholder
resolution in the next 30 days with the Security and Exchange Commission as
we believe both shareholders and the public have a right to know this
information.  Watch for more press releases on this to come!  Meanwhile,
over 30 prolife groups have joined us in our boycott  effort so I do hope
you will consider letting PepsiCo know your intentions as well.
       Please let me know if you have any questions or need further help.
God bless you always,
Debi Vinnedge
Children of God for Life
http://www.cogforlife.org/


Response from Pepsi- (note Pepsi does not deny that the contract with Senomyx or that Senomyx uses aborted fetal cells.) 
consumerrelations@cr.pepsi.com

Dear April,

Thank you for contacting us at PepsiCo. We appreciate your thoughtful feedback and would like to take a moment to share some information we hope you will find helpful.

First, Senomyx does not provide ingredients to PepsiCo, nor do they manufacture PepsiCo products. Our work with Senomyx is focused on beverage sweetener research to help us reduce sugar in future global products. The integrity of our products is critical to PepsiCo as well as our consumers, and we use only ingredients that meet FDA requirements. Senomyx utilizes well-established and long-approved research processes that are widely used today by many companies within the food and beverage industry. As with each of our research partners, Senomyx is required to meet all relevant industry and government regulatory standards in all its processes and methods.

Thanks again for writing.


Pepsi Consumer Relations

012826760A


I am now going to contact Campbell's company to thank them for ceasing to contract with Senomyx.  I am not certain the standing of Nestle and Kraft in all of this. That is something to also look into, they may also be contracting with Senomyx.

On a side note: I have wondered about blogging some of my dreams. I don't want to bore you all with most of them though.  Maybe I should log onto myspace and start posting them there again?  Two in particular. One about some war planes in the night sky and flashes of light, another a dream that was reoccuring since I was a kid and something else about that.  That's all a whole different topic though.