U.S. Right to Know's 'Hall of Shame' exposes industry front groups manipulating government policy and public opinion

(NaturalNews) It's becoming a well-known fact that processed food and agrichemical companies speciously hire front groups and disinformation "shills" to push the lie that chemicals are safe, organics are dangerous and GMOs are just fine for your children. To bring this dark reality further into the limelight, the group U.S. Right to Know (USRTK) has created a corporate "Hall of Shame" highlighting the worst of the worst when it comes to groups that are actively trying to hide the truth about food from you and your family.

The following seven organizations are listed by USRTK as food industry front groups, trade groups and/or shills that are actively engaged in misinformation campaigns to keep you and your family in the dark about what you're eating:

1. Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA)
This trade group has been exposed not only for spending millions of dollars trying to stop mandatory labeling of genetically modified organisms, but also for illegal money laundering. The leading trade group for America's junk food industry, the GMA has also repeatedly dodged addressing its members' contributions to childhood obesity and continues to support the use of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) in U.S. dairy products, even though this GMO growth hormone has been banned in Europe and Canada due to safety problems.

The GMA doesn't want you to know who its corporate members are because many of them are companies that peddle artificial sweeteners, GMOs and other poisonous substances to the public. GMA members include anti-transparency companies like Bayer CropScience, Cargill, Inc., ConAgra Foods, the Coca-Cola Company, Dean Foods, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont, Kraft Foods Group, Martek Biosciences, Monsanto, PepsiCo, Pfizer Nutrition, Procter & Gamble, Starbucks Coffee Company, Syngenta and Unilever.

2. American Council on Science and Health (ACSH)
ACSH claims to be an independent advocate of sound science, but let the record show that this front group is devoted to promoting the interests of the tobacco, agrichemical, fossil fuel and pharmaceutical industries. This group has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from companies like Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, McDonald's and others in exchange for promoting "science" that supports these companies' offerings.

ACSH is on record for claiming that secondhand cigarette smoke doesn't cause heart attacks or cardiac arrest, that natural gas fracking isn't polluting water or air, that crop pesticides are completely safe and have never harmed any, that the endocrine-disrupting chemical (EDC) bisphenol-A (BPA) is completely safe and that mercury, which is found in some seafood and vaccines, causes no harm to humans.

3. Calorie Control Council (CCC)
This trade group acts on behalf of the artificial sweetener industry to pull the wool over the eyes of the public on matters of product safety. CCC insists that all artificial sweeteners, including aspartame, sucralose and saccharin, are safe for consumers. It also conducts its own health "studies" on these products that almost always come to the conclusion that artificial sweeteners are completely safe.

4. Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF)
This lobbying firm has long fought efforts to ban smoking in restaurants and bars. It was founded in 1995 from $600,000 in seed money invested by Philip Morris, the world's leading cigarette and tobacco company outside of China. In recent years, CCF has switched its focus to "food and beverage issues," defending junk food, factory farming and GMOs.

5. International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA)
IDFA has played a major role in trying to allow food corporations to hide artificial sweeteners in milk products without proper labeling. This group is also closely aligned with both candy manufacturers and artificial sweetener producers, promoting more consumption of these products while advocating against women and children consuming more fruits and vegetables for improved health.

6. U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA)
This industry front group sides with chemical agriculture on most issues, which isn't surprising since its primary funders include Monsanto and DuPont. USFRA also partners with a host of other Big Ag and Big Pharma corporations to promote consumption of junk food, pharmaceutical drugs, GMOs and more.

A documentary it funded called Lobbyist Propaganda attempts to mislead viewers into thinking that organic certification isn't necessary. It further claims that industrial agriculture methods that include the use of pesticides, antibiotics and GMOs are just fine because these meet the standards set forth by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

7. Henry Miller
This one man show, and someone we've covered in the past, is a blatant Big Ag shill who's been exposed for lying about the safety of GMOs, viciously attacking pro-labeling advocates like Dr. Mehmet Oz and shilling for the interests of the biotechnology industry.

Miller opposed Proposition 37 in California that require mandatory labeling for GMOs, while repeatedly expressing support for the use of crop chemicals like Roundup (glyphosate) that are linked to hormone damage, organ failure and cancer.

Sources:

USRTK.org

Web.Archive.org

FinancialTimes.com

LATimes.com

NaturalNews.com