Are A person Producing Health and fitness Options Depending on Exactly what This kind of Business Top Party Affirms?

By Dr. Mercola

There are many dozens of industry front groups masquerading as independent information organizations. I've previously published information about several of them, including the International Food Additives Council (IFAC), the Coalition Against Costly Food Labeling Proposition, the Science Media Centre, and Alliance to Feed the Future.

Michele Simon, JD, MPH, policy consultant with Center for Food Safety has also published a report titled: "Best Public Relations Money Can Buy: A Guide to Food Industry Front Groups,"1 which reveals how the food and agricultural industry hide behind friendly-sounding organizations aimed at fooling the public, policymakers, and the media.

Institute for Science in Medicine2 is yet another example worth mentioning. Once you start to look at them more closely, you’ll find that most of these repetitive front groups “in the name of science” lead back to the same people... and the industry science they espouse is very much like a new religion—one that does not tolerate others beliefs.

Here, the focus will rest on the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). A previous Mother Jones3 article spilled the beans on who's actually funding this pro-industry science group, which defends everything from fracking to pesticides, the toxic plastic ingredient bisphenol-A (BPA), and genetically engineered foods—all in the name of quenching unwarranted fear mongering by those who don't understand the science.

The ACSH claims to be an independent research and advocacy organization consisting of "concerned scientists" who are devoted to debunking "junk science." But once you understand who this front group really serves, it becomes easy to see why the scientific basis for the ACSH's recommendations may be questionable at best. As reported by the featured article:

 "Internal financial documents... show that ACSH depends heavily on funding from corporations that have a financial stake in the scientific debates it aims to shape...

According to the ACSH documents, from July 1, 2012, to December 20, 2012, 58 percent of donations to the council came from corporations and large private foundations. ACSH's donors and the potential backers the group has been targeting comprise a who's-who of energy, agriculture, cosmetics, food, soda, chemical, pharmaceutical, and tobacco corporations."