Ulukaya is a Turkish immigrant of Kurdish descent who came to the US, bought a run-down Kraft yogurt factory in a depressed upstate New York town with a loan from the Small Business Administration, and built a dream. Ten years later, he employs 2,000 people in New York and Idaho, and announced in April that he was going to give 10 percent of the company's ownership to its employees—an act that made some employees instant millionaires. Chobani pays even low-level employees over minimum wage, and offers full-time employees health benefits, 401(k) plans, and parental leave, even for factory workers. Last year, he signed Warren Buffett's Giving Pledge, promising to give away a majority of his fortune to charities.READ MORE: Nobody's Really Sure Whether Yogurt Is Good For You
@Chobani BAN THIS FOOD, it is all Muslim workers only, which supports ISIS in America
— Women4️⃣Trump (@NCaltrump2016) October 16, 2016
There are increasingly frequent calls to boycott Chobani. Ulukaya has been called every racist name under the sun. Conspiratorial far-right websites have taken a liking to claiming Ulukaya wants "to drown the United States in Muslims." Even the mayor of Twin Falls, Idaho is receiving death threats for supporting the Chobani factory located there.Do not buy CHOBANI yogurt! Do you really trust them not to poison you! https://t.co/T6px3zu2wH
— DeplorablyJustMe (@t1nker72) August 13, 2016
@Chobani helps to cover up #RefugeeRape in Twin Falls, Idaho.#BoycottChobani
— DEPLORABLE-RichFinTX (@richfintx) October 28, 2016
Conservative news site Breitbart—formerly run by Stephen K. Bannon, Donald Trump's campaign manager—is in on the action, of course, publishing a bunch of vitriolic articles accusing Chobani, among other things, of hiring refugees and thereby leading to a rise in tuberculosis cases in Idaho. On a similar note, World Net Daily, a far-right conspiracy-focused website, ran a story originally titled "American Yogurt Tycoon Vows to Choke US With Muslims."READ MORE: Palestinian Refugees Are Starting an All-Female Food Truck in Lebanon
Maybe Ulukaya could commiserate with the Canadian subsidiary of the Campbell Soup Company, which announced its plan to roll out a line of halal-certified soups back in 2010, only to be met with insane theories of Islamification via soup.BAN CHOBANI YOGURT!!!
OUR TAXES FUNDED THIS MUSLIM - NON-CITIZEN MILLIONAIRES YOGURT PLANT!!! BILL CLINTON TOOL!! https://t.co/0lfGLzHE8p — ClicknConnect Clubs (@JohnGaltClub) September 16, 2016
You'd think that when a self-made man lives out the American dream by creating tons of food manufacturing jobs from nothing, he would be greeted in a more welcoming manner. But then again, this is 2016, a week before the ugliest and most contentious presidential campaign in recent history.If being slowly brainwashed by Greek yogurt results in the empowerment of hundreds of disenfranchised refugees, there are plenty of Americans who would argue that it's time to grab a spoon.We need an all out ban on Chobani yogurt… The Muslim loon owner wants to destroy the US with #MassMigration. #BanChobani #BoycottChobani https://t.co/GQQEEjDH8h
— @Deplorable Evelyn (@EJKTwit) October 5, 2016