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Center for Food Safety

666 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, Suite 302, Washington, DC 20003
Phone 202-547-9359 | Fax 202-547-9429 | Email office@centerforfoodsafety.org

Connections

American Corn Growers Association On several occasions the Center for Food Safety (CFS) has added the American Corn Growers Association (ACGA) to the list of leftist groups endorsing its various anti-consumer petitions. In December 1999 and March 2000, for instance, CFS filed legal papers demanding that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration begin labeling all genetically enhanced food products, despite scientific evidence and long review processes demonstrating their safety. CFS and ACGA are also members of the “Bolinas group,” a conglomeration of environmental and other anti-consumer groups (many funded by the same organic food producers) that pool their resources in order to try and force the government’s hand on the labeling issue. ACGA and CFS are also both underwriters of the anti-technology propaganda web site CropChoice.com.

Center for Media & Democracy The Center for Food Safety (CFS) and Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) were among the institutional plaintiffs (along with the Humane Farming Association) in a pair of lawsuits brought against the federal government in 1999; the legal actions demanded numerous changes to meat-processing and labeling regulations, and insinuated that existing federal protections would not be enough to keep mad cow disease out of the United States. In addition to serving as executive director of CMD, John Stauber sits on the Organic Consumers Association’s policy board, and also on the advisory board of CFS.

Center for Science in the Public Interest In 1997, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and the parent organization of the fear-mongering and grossly misnamed activist group the Center for Food Safety, teamed up in opposition to a Food and Drug Administration ruling that removed much of the red tape usually involved in declaring food products “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS).

Chefs Collaborative Professional organic evangelist Joan Gussow is one of several links between the “celebrity chef” movement and the organic food marketers that make their kitchens go ‘round. In addition to holding the position of “overseer” with the Chefs Collaborative, she also sits on the advisory board of the Center for Food Safety along with organic food marketers and lobbyists. Both groups are also involved with the “Keep Nature Natural” fear-marketing campaign, underwritten by organic food marketers like Eden, Nature’s Path, Whole Foods Markets, and Wild Oats.

EarthSave International EarthSave International president Howard Lyman serves on the Organic Consumers Association’s policy board, and also on the advisory board of the Center for Food Safety. In addition, Lyman is a “National Council” Member of the Farm Animal Reform Movement.

Environmental Media Services The Center for Food Safety is one of seven organizations that make up the “GE Food Alert” coalition, a group of anti-biotech nonprofits assembled by Washington PR firm Fenton Communications (which also owns and operates Environmental Media Services).

Environmental Working Group The Center for Food Safety and its parent organization (the International Center for Technology Assessment) have been on and off the client list at Washington’s Fenton Communications. The Environmental Working Group is a Fenton Client; David Fenton, who runs the firm, sits on EWG’s board.

Foundation on Economic Trends Before founding the Center for Food Safety (CFS), Andrew Kimbrell spent eight years working for the Foundation on Economic Trends. Joseph Mendelson, the legal director of CFS, was once a staff attorney for FOET. Rifkin and CFS both signed the Pacific Declaration calling for a moratorium on biotech crops. FOET's Jeremy Rifkin and CFS' parent organization, the International Center for Technology Assessment, are also signatories of Genetically Engineered Food Alert's "Call to Action."

Greenpeace In March 2000, the Center for Food Safety filed a petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, seeking immediate removal of all genetically improved foods from American grocery shelves. Greenpeace was an institutional co-signer of this legal maneuver. The two groups also collaborated on a 1999 lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, filed in response to the EPA’s approval of genetically improved crops.

Humane Society of the United States Center for Food Safety (CFS) president Andrew Kimbrell and legal director Joseph Mendelson are both on the board of the Turning Point project, which ran a series of radical environmental ads in major papers listing the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) as a sponsoring organization. Center for Food Safety advisory board member Melanie Adcock was formerly director of HSUS’s farm animal program.

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy IATP president Mark Ritchie is a member of the Center for Food Safety’s advisory board. Both groups are part of the Genetically Engineered Food Alert, a food-scare effort designed by anti-business Washington PR guru David Fenton.

Mothers for Natural Law In 1996 the Center for Food Safety’s Andrew Kimbrell co-founded an anti-food-technology organization called the Alliance for Bio-Integrity. This organization and Mothers for Natural Law (M4NL) are both ideologically related to the “natural law” movement of the Indian spiritualist (and multi-billionaire) Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Like the Maharishi’s North American empire, both M4NL and the Alliance for Bio-Integrity are based in Fairfield, Iowa.

Organic Consumers Association The Center for Food Safety (CFS) and the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) are both part of the Genetically Engineered Food Alert, a food-scare effort designed by leftist Washington PR guru David Fenton. In addition, the two groups have one board member in common, John Stauber, who also runs the Center for Media and Democracy. OCA was also a co-signer of a March 2000 CFS legal petition targeting genetically improved foods. CFS legal director Joseph Mendelson and OCA president Ronnie Cummins were both mentored by noted anti-technologist Jeremy Rifkin at his Foundation on Economic Trends.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Darcy Kemnitz, current executive director of the Wildlife Advocacy Project, has served as a registered lobbyist for PETA, and as staff attorney for the International Center for Technology Assessment (CFS’ parent organization).

Sierra Club The Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund (the Sierra Club's legal arm) and the Center for Food Safety have joined forces to agitate against biotech foods. In 2003, the two groups collaborated with Greenpeace to petition the Food and Drug Administration to ban the sale of harmless, bio-engineered pet fish. In 2000, the Sierra Club endorsed a scare campaign run by the Center for Food Safety and other anti-biotech groups designed to incite fear over biotech foods. The campaign included protesters dressed as Monarch butterflies, falsely claiming that biotech corn is harmful to the insects. In the same year, the two groups joined Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Environmental Defense Fund to formally petition the Food and Drug Administration to stop approving genetically engineered crops.

Tides Foundation & Tides Center The Tides Foundation gave the Center for Food Safety $60,000 in 1997, according to publicly available tax filings. CFS’ parent group, the International Center for Technology Assesment, has also received at least $170,000 from Tides since 1997. Tides never specified the purpose of any of these grants, nor the name of the original donor or donors.

Turning Point Project Center for Food Safety (CFS) president Andrew Kimbrell and legal director Joseph Mendelson are both on the board of the Turning Point project. Kimbrell is generally credited for being the driving force behind Turning Point’s 1999-2000 ad campaign. In addition, the International Center for Technology Assessment (CFS’ parent group) gets the vast majority of its funding from the Foundation for Deep Ecology, the same quasi-religious environmental fund that has bankrolled over 95% of Turning Point’s activity thus far. ICTA was also listed as a Turning Point “coalition” group.

Union of Concerned Scientists Margaret Mellon, the Union of Concerned Scientists’ complainer-in-chief when it comes to genetically enhanced foods, is also an Advisory Board member of the misnamed Center for Food Safety (CFS). Of course, CFS’s agenda has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with opposing advances in food technology, so Mellon and CFS’s Andrew Kimbrell are like two peas from the same organic-only pod. The two groups have come together on numerous occasions to petition the USDA and the FDA on a variety of biotech issues. One recent co-drafted legal action carps about “large agribusiness corporations” having “undue influence on who will be certifying organic producers.”

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