Foreman's lasting achievement as a consumer advocate will have been to make feces an approved part of the American diet."
Clinton Appoints Former Monsanto & Tobacco Lobbyist as
"Consumer Representative" to Global Biotech Forum
Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2000
Carol Tucker Foreman to the Rescue of Biotech
by: John Stauber, managing editor, PR Watch
Its no surprise to me that the Clinton/Gore Whitehouse has appointed
recent and long-time Monsanto biotech lobbyist Carol Tucker Foreman as the
"consumer advocate" to the global Biotech Consultative Forum.
Some suspect that this has been long in the works, that the primary reason
she left her incredibly lucrative corporate lobby firm to take her current
position as food czar with the Consumer Federation of America was to use
her corporate, political and public interest connections to pave the way
for a resolution of the current trade impasse on genetically engineered
foods.
The Clinton/Gore-led effort to rush GE foods onto the market has resulted
in an economic and political train wreck internationally, and fixing this
mess for the Democrats and the food and biotech industry requires someone
of Foreman's skills, someone who has the incredible ability to sell herself
inside the beltway as a "consumer advocate" while pulling in huge money as
a biotech and food industry lobbyist.
Her old lobby firm, now called Heidepriem & Mager, has as some of its
current clients American Home Products Corporation, Dow Chemical,
SmithKline Beecham, Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories and Monsanto and Upjohn's
parent company Pharmacia.
Foreman was the executive director of Consumer Federation of America before
starting her corporate lobby career, and while a corporate lobbyist she
headed up the board of the food-industry funded Public Voice organization..
When she moved back to CFA last year, Public Voice became part of CFA.
In April I attended CFA's National Food Policy Conference in Washington,
DC. Most of the participants came from the agribusiness and biotech
industry, and the principal speaker was Gordon Conway of Rockefeller
Foundation, one of Carol's current funders who is the driving force behind
ending the impasse over marketing biotech foods.
Security for the event was provided by IFIC, the International Food
Information Council, a scientific front group funded by the food industry..
One of the CFA employees I met and spoke with was PR crisis management
expert Dick Weiss, who I had not see in a decade. At that time he was paid
by the National Dairy Board to head up their PR campaign on behalf of
genetically engineered bovine growth hormone, or rBGH. Weiss told me he
has been working for CFA for a couple years on an occasional basis.
Although anything that man says should be held suspect, I believe him when
he says that these days he's paid in part by CFA.
CFA badly needs infusions of corporate and foundation cash, and folding
Public Voice into its operation under Carol has delivered the money. For
instance, CFA's National Food Policy Conference was "held in cooperation
with the National Food Processors Association, with technical assistance
from the International Food Information Council. Support the the 2000
biotechnology component was provided by the American Feed Industry
Association."
The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) is a huge trade association
and lobby group unknown to most Americans, but it is the group RESPONSIBLE
FOR LAUNCHING AND COORDINATING THE CAMPAIGN TO PUT FOOD DISPARAGEMENT LAWS
ON THE BOOKS.
I capitalize this because these laws are the single biggest and most
successful assault on free speech in the US in the past decade, and are
responsible for imposing self censorship on the media regarding food
issues. For more information on these laws, under which Oprah and Howard
Lyman were sued, see our book Mad Cow USA (Common Courage Press, 1997). In
short, AFIA hired the law firm of Olsson, Frank & Weeda, another "patron
and sponsor" of the CFA conference to draft a model 'food disparagement
law' which the American Farm Bureau Federation has lobbied into law in 13
states.
Other corporate "underwriters and benefactors" or "patrons and sponsors" (I
guess it depends on how much cash they dumped on CFA) of the National Food
Policy Conference were: Food Marketing Institute, International Dairy
Foods Association, International Food Information Council, Kraft Foods
(owned by Philip Morris), National Food Processors Association, The Procter
& Gamble Company, Archer Daniels Midland, Chocolate Manufacturers
Association, General Mills Foundation, Hershey Foods Corporation, IBP,
inc., McLeod, Watkinson & Miller (food industry lobbyists and lawyers),
National Pork Producers Council, National Yogurt Association, Ocean Spray
Cranberries, Olsson, Frank & Weeda law/lobby firm, Protein Technologies
International, Tropicana and Unilever.
In short, Carol Tucker Foreman is best seen as type of political
Frankenstein creature. She is a smart, aggressive, well connected,
hardball lobbyist, who has managed to continue to cultivate her image as a
"consumer advocate" by serving as a go-between with groups like Public
Voice, CFA and and their corporate benefactors.
Her brother replaced Clinton as Governor of Arkansas, until felony
corruption forced him from office. But her family and political
credentials as a Democratic insider and friend of the Clinton/Gore
administration run deep. Does anyone doubt that after delivering the goods
for the agribusiness and biotech industry on genetically engineered foods
she won't be back lobbying for them directly? For that matter, who really
knows what her current financial arrangements are with any of these
corporations? Probably just Carol herself.
Perhaps this appointment will have a good effect. It might if it draws
attention to the incredible corruption that has taken place inside the
beltway among so-called consumer and public interrest groups like CFA.
These groups epitomize what is wrong with the public interest community -
at the national level it has sold out to big money from special interests,
and when push comes to shove it will follow the money. Nobody in DC is
better at pushing and shoving, or shoveling money, than Carol Tucker
Foreman.
Yes, she is now a forceful advocate for labeling genetically engineered
foods. But then, what would you expect? She HAS to be; that's what
provides her credentials. Remember, the game here is to broker a deal, and
the biotech/agribusiness industry has learned the hard way that it has made
mistakes and has to eventually accept some level of labeling in order to
get back on track.
But, has Carol changed from the corporate lobbyist she's been? Not at all.
Her specialty is wearing many hats, and winning for her clients. Right
now, that's CFA and its foundation and corporate funders. A deal will be
sought in the name of consumer and environmental protection, but protecting
corporate interests and agricultural biotechnology will be the real bottom
line. |
