June, 30 2015, 09:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Expert contacts:
Anna Lappé, Real Food Media Project, (917) 476-4896, anna@smallplanet.org
Kari Hamerschlag, Friends of the Earth, (510) 207-7257, khamerschlag@foe.org
Stacy Malkan, U.S. Right to Know, (510) 542-9224, stacydmalkan@gmail.com
Communications contact: Kate Colwell, (202) 222-0744, kcolwell@foe.org
WASHINGTON
In response to skyrocketing growth in organic and non-GMO food sales, food and agrochemical companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the past several years on stealth communications campaigns designed to defend industrial agriculture, sway opinion leaders and win over skeptical consumers, according to a new report by Friends of the Earth released today.
The report, "Spinning Food: How Food Industry Front Groups and Covert Communications are Shaping the Story of Food," documents unprecedented levels of spending from front groups, trade associations, anti-GMO labeling campaigns, federal check-off programs and vast corporate marketing budgets aimed at defusing public concern about the risks of chemical-intensive industrial agriculture and undermining the reputation of organic food.
"The food industry is using a host of covert communication tactics to shape public opinion without most people realizing the stories are being shaped behind-the-scenes to promote corporate interests," said Anna Lappe, a national bestselling author and founder of the Real Food Media Project, which works with public interest organizations around the country on popular education about food, farming and sustainability. "Our goal with this report is to inspire journalists, opinion leaders, policy makers and the public to bring increased scrutiny to the food industry's messages and messengers."
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In the last four years alone, food and agrochemical corporations have set up six new front groups that often appear as independent experts in the media, but are in fact made up of industry or PR professionals that are pushing coordinated industry messages designed to defend industry profits and win critical national policy battles on GMO labeling, pesticides and antibiotic use in animal agriculture.
"This onslaught of industry-sponsored spin is aimed at stemming the growing tide of consumers seeking healthier food produced without GMOs, toxic pesticides or routine antibiotics," said Kari Hamerschlag, senior program manager at Friends of the Earth. "Rather than spending so much money on PR defending unhealthy and unsustainable food production, these companies should invest in meeting the growing demand for food that is good for people and the environment."
Key findings include:
- Big food and chemical companies spent hundreds of millions of dollars from 2009 to 2011 to manipulate the public conversation about our food.
- 14 front groups -- often appearing in the media as independent sources -- spent $125 million during that time frame to push coordinated messages that serve industrial agriculture interests. These include groups like the U.S. Farmers and Rancher's Alliance, whose partners include Monsanto, DuPont, Dow and Syngenta.
- Covert PR tactics these groups are using include efforts to disparage "organic moms," the growth of "native advertising" disguised to look like real news, stealth engagement on social media and the use of third-party allies to foster an echo chamber for industry talking points.
- Coordinated messages pushed by a range of seemingly independent spokespeople are making their way from PR firms to the pages of leading media outlets.
- The report details and debunks five of these key messages, including "organic food isn't worth the money" and "GMOs are needed to feed the world.
"To have an honest conversation about the future of our food system, it's crucial for consumers and news producers to understand the alarming extent of industry influence on media coverage and to do what we can to make sure we're hearing the real story, not spin," said Stacy Malkan, co-author of the report and co-director of consumer advocacy group U.S. Right to Know. The report, "Spinning Food: How Food Industry Front Groups and Covert Communications are Shaping the Story of Food," can be found at www.foe.org/spinning-food. The report includes a detailed summary of industry trade and front groups' activities, board members and spending.
Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.
(202) 783-7400LATEST NEWS
How the Past 25 Years of Big Oil's Lie-Filled Ads Have Delivered 'Climate Catastrophe'
"Using evidence from congressional investigations, advertising, and public relations documents, independent journalism, and watchdog reports," the new analysis states, "Big Oil's Deceptive Climate Ads explains how the pervasive and misleading messaging in BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell’s advertisements has not only misrepresented the companies' business practices, but, over the span of two and a half decades, effectively cultivated a larger, deceptive narrative that oil and gas companies are leaders in the fight against climate change, when in fact they are actively fueling climate catastrophe around the globe."
The Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) report notes that "while oil and gas companies and their trade associations publicly denied the risks and realities of climate change for decades, growing public understanding of climate science around the turn of the 21st century eventually meant that outright denial was no longer sufficient to protect their bottom line."
"During this period, major oil and gas companies began to reposition themselves publicly as active partners in the fight against climate change, even while they continued to increase fossil fuel production, invest minimally in clean energy, oppose energy efficiency initiatives, and promote technically or economically infeasible solutions," the document details.
"To convey this misleading image to the public," the publication continues, "Big Oil companies carried out extensive advertising campaigns, inundating the public with messaging that creates an overall deceptive portrait of their true role in the climate crisis."
CCI sorted the ads across seven categories of deception: emissions reductions, renewables investments, individual action, natural gas, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, and algae biofuels. The group found that "these skillfully crafted advertisements often include partially truthful statements but omit relevant contextual information to create an inaccurate or incomplete representation of the initiative, product, or technology they promote."
"For instance, advertisements that portray natural gas as beneficial for the climate because it 'lowers emissions' are misleading by omission, because although gas produces less CO2 and other pollutants than coal when burned, it still emits significant quantities of greenhouse gases, including CO2 and methane, that pose a serious threat to the climate," the publication points out. "This tactic, known as paltering, has been at the core of Big Oil companies' climate advertisements for the past 25 years."
(Image: Big Oil's Deceptive Climate Ads)
The report also acknowledges the public response: "Market research shows BP's 'Beyond Petroleum' campaign increased brand favorability among US and UK audiences, leading viewers to associate the oil giant with efforts to reduce carbon emissions at a time when it was the largest producer of fossil fuels in the UK and North America. Chevron's 'Real Issues' campaign, which promoted its energy conservation initiatives and renewables investments, improved the company's reputation among ad-exposed audiences."
The publication comes as the climate emergency continues to worsen, with deadly impacts, and world leaders fail to take adequate steps toward "a just, equitable, fossil-free future." Meanwhile, communities continue to call for not only action to limit future global warming but also consequences for the big polluters that created the global crisis.
The report similarly concludes that "oil and gas companies—including BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell—must be held accountable for the damages their deception has caused. As climate accountability lawsuits filed by communities across the US make their way through the courts, ongoing advertising deception by the four oil majors' in this report demands further scrutiny and investigation."
CCI president Richard Wiles echoed that demand in a Thursday statement: "Big Oil's climate deception has evolved from lying about the problem to lying about solutions. For two-and-a-half decades now, these companies have sold the public a false and misleading image of their industry as working to solve the climate crisis, all while doubling down on fossil fuels and making the problem worse."
According to Wiles, "Any business that floods consumers with such brazenly deceptive advertising must be held accountable."
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