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Product Policy

At the 2002 Annual General Meeting (AGM), members of Karma Co-operative ratified a new product policy. The policy is also available in a printable format. [84 kb]

(This policy statement requires Acrobat Reader, available free to download!)

Policy History

The members of Karma Co-op first adopted a formal product policy in July 1982. In 2000, co-op members began discussion at the AGM of a number of issues related to product policy, including but not limited to genetically modified foods, an issue that was not prominent in 1982.  As a result, the Food Issues Committee was reactivated, and it began to discuss its strategies for dealing with both immediate and policy issues. These discussions and strategy sessions occupied close to a year. During that time, the committee hosted a film night followed by a discussion of GMO issues; there was no other public activity by the committee until the fall of 2001.

In March 2002, the committee developed a then new draft product policy. To evaluate the practicality of the policy, the committee reviewed about Karma products, hoping to answer the following questions:

1. The policy suggests that we need to know many things about our products and their sources. How much of this information can we actually get with a reasonable amount of effort?
2. If we have the information, is it clear how to apply it in the case of each specific product?
3. Is there anything about specific products which, when we actually hold them in our hands and think about them, lets us know that we've left some important positive or negative characteristic out of the policy draft?
4. How much would our current product line need to change to bring it into compliance with the draft policy?

In May 2002, the committee held a co-op member forum to discuss the committee's work so far and the draft policy. Suggestions were incorporated and a revised policy was accepted at the 2002 annual general meeting.

This page was last updated on 26 September 2007.