Originally published July 6 2015
Chemical food companies secretly funneling money to keep trans fats in U.S. food supply
by Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
(NaturalNews) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has met fierce opposition from a conservative think tank group that is upset about the agency's recent decision to ban trans fats. The National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) believes that the solution to trans fats giving people heart disease and killing them is to simply let the market work itself out rather than prohibit these industrial poisons from being laced into foods.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the NCPPR's Risk Analysis Division is currently headed by Jeff Stier, the former associate director of the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), which we recently exposed as being a front group for chemical and processed food interests. Stier, who is also an NCPPR Senior Fellow, has repeatedly expressed support for letting trans fats persist in food. In fact, his organization even opposed mandatory trans fat labeling, which was first enacted by the U.S. government in 2006.
Although it describes itself as a "non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative" think tank, NCPPR appears to be little more than a covert lobbying group for the chemical food industry. Food corporations like Kraft, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Pepperidge Farm, Land O'Lakes, and many others make huge profits selling fake foods made with cheap trans fats, and these profits are what NCPPR seems most concerned about protecting, not public health.
Stier referred to the FDA's decision to ban trans fats based on science as "a horrible idea," contending that fears about trans fats are based on "scary assumptions," "wishful thinking," and "junk science." Such flowery rhetoric is hardly shocking considering the fact that Stier's organization, as well as his own bank account, receives funding from many of the same food corporations that are being required to reformulate their products without trans fats.
NCPPR's Jeff Stier claims organic food is a "detriment to public health"
The "free market" that Stier contends should govern trans fat use on its own clearly isn't the same one that most of us would consider normative. In Stier's view, greedy food corporations that care only about their bottom line should be able to inject whatever poisons they wish into food and let consumers sort it out without proper labeling. This is more in line with corporate fascism than it is with free market economics, of course, as even the freest of markets still need to have proper consumer protections in place.
However, that would cut off Stier's gravy train, so it must be opposed at all costs, even if thousands -- and perhaps millions -- of people have to suffer and die in order to enrich the coffers of NCPPR's corporate donors, nearly all of which remain a secret. This is corporate cronyism by definition, and it's how corrupt think tank groups like NCPPR remain in existence -- by pushing the interests of their wealthy donors at the expense of public health.
In order to further illustrate how far from reality the love of money has taken Stier, consider his statement back in 2007 that he believes organic food is a "detriment to public health." In a piece entitled "Organic Food a Detriment To Public Health", which was picked up by The Huffington Post, a deranged Stier wrote the following:
"...the organic food movement isn't doing us any good, not in terms of health, not in terms of obesity."
Stier also believes that organic food is somehow bad for the poor and that everyone needs to be gobbling down produce sprayed with deadly pesticides in order to improve public health. In his bizarre worldview (which could just be the money talking), Stier maintains that organic food is no more healthful than conventional food, even though study after study proves otherwise.
Jeff Stier has profited heavily from chemical food industry; of course he opposes organics and sane safety regulations!
During his time at the ACSH, Stier was among the group's highest paid staff members, even as the non-profit faced serious financial shortfalls. Along with co-criminal Gilbert Ross, who was the mastermind behind the recent attack against Dr. Oz to have him removed from Columbia University's surgery department, Stier profited heavily from ACSH's many corporate donors, which include McDonald's, Bayer CropScience, Monsanto and more.
According to SourceWatch, Stier's 2003 salary while at ACSH was $155,577, making him the third-highest paid staff member of this corrupt industry front group at that time. Between 1999 and 2003, Stier's salary at ACSH jumped from $110,185 to $155,577, an increase of more than 41 percent, despite the group's admitted financial hardships.
"As one Congressional Quarterly survey noted, 75% of ACSH's funding comes from chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturers," reported the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) back in 2012. "In one of the last available public records, Monsanto gave ACSH $105,000, making the pesticide and biotech giant the single largest contributor."
Sources:
http://www.naturalnews.com
http://www.naturalnews.com
http://www.nationalcenter.org
http://www.nationalcenter.org
http://www.jeffstier.org
http://www.jeffstier.org
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com
http://rodaleinstitute.org
http://www.sourcewatch.org
http://www.panna.org
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