In my last installment of a trio of posts on the 2012 Net Impact Conference, I want to draw our readers’ attention to a keynote panel that included the CEO of Coca-Cola and the president of Honest Tea. The topic of this panel centered on healthy eating and consumer choices. By way of background, Honest Tea is an organic tea company that was founded by Seth Goldman in 1998. Honest Tea is a poster child of socially responsible innovation: the firm sources herbs/plants from developing countries, supports poor farmers, uses organic ingredients, and provides sustainable product packaging. But in 2011, Coca-Cola bought a majority share of Honest Tea.

The cultures and visions of Coca-Cola and Honest Tea were somewhat at odds. Coca-Cola, a multinational corporation that has received criticism for its products’ adverse health effects and poor labor practices, wanted Honest Tea to align with mainstream consumer needs and wants. Meanwhile, Honest Tea wanted to remain largely independent, viewing its environmentally and socially conscious business model as a competitive advantage.

The most interesting discussion from this panel focused on how much responsibility corporations and consumers should each take for public health and healthy food decisions. With obesity as a growing epidemic in the United States, attendees asked some hard questions. Since Coca-Cola produces a wide variety of high-calorie, sugary drinks, isn’t the company to blame for many public health issues? If Coca-Cola would stop producing unhealthy products, wouldn’t the public reap benefits? If Coca-Cola truly believes in good public health, why doesn’t it support NYC’s ban on large sugary drinks? Does Coca-Cola accept and recognize that many of its products are–at their core–unhealthy?

I was not surprised that Coke’s panelist dodged most of these questions. But what struck me was the extent to which Coca-Cola and Honest Tea found common ground on two specific points: individual responsibility and the need for education.

Both panelists agreed that individual consumers were ultimately responsible for their own health- and food-related decisions. At one point, Coke stated something to extent of “we provide the options, and the consumer makes the choice.” In other words, Coke was only producing what the marketplace demanded: sugary drinks. The firm was simply responding to consumer demand and providing them with what they wanted. And while Coke does provide some healthy options (e.g., Diet Coke and vitamin-fortified drinks), it is the consumer that decides what to buy. So if a consumer elects to buy Coke, the consumer is responsible for facing the health-related consequences.

The second point of agreement was that greater consumer education is needed–and will aid consumers in making healthier decisions. Panelists argued that, if better awareness of health issues were prevalent, customers would be more conscious about the impact of food/beverage purchases on their health.

I took issue with both points. Although I agree that consumers are ultimately responsible for their own health, I don’t believe that they are entirely responsible for purchasing decisions. Health and purchasing decisions are dissimilar, and the latter is greatly influenced by private sector advertising. I don’t think that it would be reasonable to expect that consumers can make good decisions when they are constantly pushed by food/beverage providers to purchase unhealthy items. That is, how can an uneducated consumer choose to drink water (the healthier option) when companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi bombard them with advertisements about their core product (the unhealthy option)? And don’t these firms at least hold some responsibility for public health? After all, they are the ultimate providers of the products, and they can unilaterally choose to increase or decrease products.

I do agree that education is one of the solutions to our public health crisis. But the companies that point to improved education as the solution (while simultaneously producing unhealthy foods/beverages) neglect to address a critical issue: who will provide the education? Will the firms themselves create education programs that decry the products themselves? Certainly not. Will the government provide education programs about healthful food choices? Today, it doesn’t have enough money. Will consumers themselves conduct research and educate themselves? Doubtful.

In the end, I don’t believe that the notion of “ultimate consumer responsibility” is a sufficient justification for firms that heavily advertise and push for the sales of unhealthy foods and drinks. Firms arguably hold responsibility for the products they sell and should be held accountable for the downstream impacts. That’s one of the overarching premises for corporate social responsibility (CSR).