Thursday, September 4, 2014

Association Proposes Ethics Code for Craft Spirits Producers


What follows is a press release, which I am reproducing verbatim. It is relevant to our subject of the last few days. It sounds great but there is already a serious flaw. They claim that acceptance of the code is required of all members, which might be really useful if the group would put its membership list on its web site, ideally linked to the products those member sell. Like Reagan said, "trust, but verify."

Speaking of which, they do have a list of the Association's 'founding' distilleries. It includes yesterday's transparency offender, Cacao Prieto. Since I refuse to write about vodka, someone else will need to call out some of the other 'founders.' It looks like ACSA should have gotten its own house in order before this big release.

A few years ago, the American Distilling Institute (ADI) launched a miserable certification program that landed with a big thud. Many hoped the ACSA would do better. Many still hope that.

Oh, and you shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition or double-space after a period.
________________________

The American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA), the non-profit trade organization that represents America's growing craft distilling community, today unveiled a code of ethics that all members must faithfully adhere to. Developed by the ACSA Ethics Committee under the leadership of chairman Paul Hletko, the code states the following:

ACSA Code of Ethics

"We operate in an honest, transparent and non-deceptive fashion. We inform consumers truthfully and accurately about the sources and methods used to make our spirits through our labels, materials and communications. We expect fair dealing and respect amongst members.  We obey all federal, state, and local laws."

According to ACSA president Thomas Mooney, "This brief but powerful code of ethics reassures consumers and the spirits trade that our members' products are both honest and authentic. The future of the craft distilling revolution depends on our transparency."

All members of ACSA are now required to sign on to the Code. ACSA Executive Director Penn Jensen further notes that the code creates a "statement of faith upon which the consumer can rely: what's in the bottle is what the distiller says is in the bottle." Jensen adds that "it's the consumer who over the long haul will determine a brand's fate. Ethics and honesty will play a large role in that."

Background Note: In March of this year the newly elected Board of Directors authorized a change in name for the American Craft Distillers Association (ACDA) to the American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA). The change was made to include those authentic artisans who are crafting spirits through blending, re-distilling, and contracting with other distillers to build unique new products.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

agree on single space after period. But disagree about prepositions at the end of a sentence, which is something I will happily put up with.

Thanks for the info, as always

Anonymous said...

I am a member of ACSA and I have heard nothing about this.. Sounds like its not to heavily enforced. The biggest problem with the ADI one is that its pay to play. Our spirit qualifies for this but without paying $500 bones we won't be listed as "Craft".
If these groups are truly after the best interests of the industry they will post all this for all distilleries without making them pay to be a member to be on their list.

Chuck Cowdery said...

I know most of the folks at ACSA and that was just my way of having a little fun with them. I took typing in the 1960s, so I learned the two-space rule, but it has been obsolete now for about 30 years. Even old guys should be aware of it.

Anonymous said...

I took typing in high school, in 1988, and this is the first I've heard of the no double space rule; on a bourbon blog no less.You're right Chuck, the teaching never stops.
Crown Pt. Marc

Chuck Cowdery said...

It's hilarious that this is what we're talking about, but here's the deal. All word processing programs automatically insert the proper amount of space after a period so by double spacing you're actually quadruple spacing. It's a hard habit to unlearn but if an old dog like me can unlearn it, anybody can.

Anonymous said...

I guess it depends on which environment you spend your time, Chuck. While HTML refuses to even recognize a double space, other environments, such as Emacs, require the use of the double space after a sentence ending period.

As I too learned on the old manual typewriters I was taught to use a single space after normal periods and two spaces after sentence ending periods. MLA Handbooks rules were pretty much beat into our heads in those days. Later, while coding and in documentation I still heavily relied on this rule. You are correct in how programs such as MS Word attempt to handle sentence ending periods, but these automated rules also screw up the formatting for many of my technical documents full of abbreviations. As a result I have to turn off as many of these "features" as best possible. Many times I just open a basic text editor using a monospace font and work in there until completion at which time I will copy and paste into the appropriate program and begin final formatting only then.

Yes, it is a bit funny all of this fuss over a space or two. But it is Friday and this is at least a humorous way to end the week instead of thrashing folks regarding their labeling. We can return to that at the beginning of the week. Until then, let us all enjoy a drink and the weekend.

Chuck Cowdery said...

Like most people, I do most of my writing in MS Word.