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Foundation on Economic Trends

4520 East West Highway, Suite 600, Bethesda, MD 20814
Phone (301) 656-6272 | Fax (301) 654-0208 | Email dhjohnston@foet.org


Connections

Logo not available American Corn Growers Association
In the summer of 1999, a smattering of environmental activist groups and self-styled big thinkers met in Bolinas, California for the purpose of condemning genetically enhanced crops. The result was the so-called Pacific Declaration. Among the signatories were the Foundation on Economic Trends’ Jeremy Rifkin, and the fringe American Corn Growers Association.


Center for Food Safety Center for Food Safety
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."


Logo not available Center for Media & Democracy
Center for Media and Democracy founder John Stauber worked for the Foundation on Economic Trends (FOET) from 1988 to 1993. Rifkin and Stauber both signed Genetically Engineered Food Alert's "Call to Action." FOET's Jeremy Rifkin continues to laud his former employee on the dust jackets of Stauber's books. Of Stauber's (and co-author Sheldon Rampton's) Mad Cow USA, Rifkin wrote: "It can happen here!"


Logo not available Center for Science in the Public Interest
The joyless calorie counters at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and the Luddites at the Foundation on Economic Trends (FOET) come together on this principle: people should eat less meat. CSPI executive director Michael Jacobson and FOET president Jeremy Rifkin both serve on the National Council of the "Great American Meatout," an annual event run by the Farm Animal Reform Movement, an animal rights group.


Chefs Collaborative Chefs Collaborative
The Foundation on Economic Trends pioneered the idea of organizing chefs on a large scale to aid in fights over food politics. Its Pure Food Campaign signed on a reported 1,500 chefs to publicly reject modern farm technology, and many of those chefs -- including the notorious priestess of organic-only cuisine, Alice Waters -- are now leaders of the Chefs Collaborative. Rifkin and the Chefs Collaborative also both signed onto Genetically Engineered Food Alert's "Call to Action."


EarthSave International EarthSave International
Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, is a former advisory board member of Earthsave International. The former executive director of Earthsave, Howard Lyman, was previously the executive director of Rifkin's Beyond Beef Campaign, which Earthsave joined as a "supporting organization." Lyman, Rifkin, and Earthsave founder John Robbins all serve on the National Council of the "Great American Meatout," an annual event run by the Farm Animal Reform Movement, an animal rights group.


Logo not available Farm Animal Reform Movement
Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM), an animal rights group, organizes the annual "Great American Meatout." Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, serves on the National Council for this event.


Logo not available Farm Sanctuary
The animal rights group Farm Sanctuary was one of the many "supporting organizations" of the Foundation on Economic Trends' Beyond Beef Campaign.


Logo not available Greenpeace
The Foundation on Economic Trends (FOET) has joined forces with Greenpeace on several bouts of biotech bashing. In 1999, FOET president Jeremy Rifkin organized a coalition of groups, including Greenpeace, to bring Monsanto to court for make-believe violations of anti-trust law. When Greenpeace was trying to cement French government policy against biotech crops, it arranged a meeting between Rifkin and aides to the French president and prime minister. Greenpeace was also among the organizations sponsoring Rifkin's "Treaty Initiative to Share the Genetic Commons" -- a measure intended to bludgeon future innovations in genetic technology.


Humane Society of the United States Humane Society of the United States
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) was a supporting organization for the Foundation on Economic Trends’s Beyond Beef Campaign. HSUS has joined Foundation on Economic Trends president Jeremy Rifkin in his legal crusades against biotechnology, and Rifkin’s Green Lifestyle Handbook includes an essay by HSUS’s “senior scholar” Michael Fox.


Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) has signed up for many of the Foundation on Economic Trends' coalition-building ventures. It was a supporting organization in the Beyond Beef Campaign, and it co-sponsored the Treaty Initiative to Share the Genetic Commons. FOET president Jeremy Rifkin and IATP both signed on to Genetically Engineered Food Alert's "Call to Action" and the Pacific Declaration.


Mothers for Natural Law Mothers for Natural Law
Mothers for Natural Law, an arm of the organic-only cult of the Indian mystic known as the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, sponsored the Foundation on Economic Trends' (FOET) Treaty Initiative to Share the Genetic Commons, and signed, along with FOET president Jeremy Rifkin and many others, the Pacific Declaration against genetically enhanced foods.


Organic Consumers Association Organic Consumers Association
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) evolved out of the Foundation on Economic Trends' (FOET) "Pure Food Campaign." Ronnie Cummins, who ran that campaign, is now OCA's executive director. FOET president Jeremy Rifkin and OCA both signed onto Genetically Engineered Food Alert's "Call to Action" and the Pacific Declaration. OCA sponsored Rifkin's Treaty Initiative to Share the Genetic Commons.


Logo not available Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Foundation on Economic Trends president Jeremy Rifkin has partnered with animal rights organizations in an attempt to prevent the commercial use of genetically engineered bovine growth hormones. Among these groups is the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a front group for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PCRM president Neal Barnard was listed as an "expert" available for comment on the press release for the 2003 "Great American Meatout" -- where Rifkin is on the National Council. PCRM was a supporting organization for Rifkin's Beyond Beef Campaign.


Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Howard Lyman, the former executive director of the Foundation on Economic Trends' Beyond Beef Coalition, serves on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's Board of Advisors. That Sea Shepherd's idea of animal protection is to attack fishermen with firearms and sink their boats doesn't seem to bother Lyman, the "Mad Cowboy."


Logo not available Sierra Club
The Sierra Club and the Foundation on Economic Trends are both institutional sponsors of the "Genetically Engineered Food Alert" campaign, a Fenton Communications project designed to scare people away from foods produced through biotechnology.


Logo not available Turning Point Project
Former Foundation on Economic Trends (FOET) staffer and Center for Food Safety director Andrew Kimbrell is currently the president of the Turning Point Project. Joseph Mendelson, another former FOET staffer, is on Turning Point's board.




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Foundation on Economic Trends