By Jill Richardson
Today marks the big launch of a $11 million PR campaign to make consumers like GMOs, fertilizer, pesticides, and factory farms. The U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) is hosting "Food Dialogues" in New York, California, Washington, DC, and Indiana and broadcasting it live on the internet. (The hashtag is #FoodD if you are following on Twitter.)
USFRA claims "The goal is not to advance an agenda or to persuade you to any particular point of view. We simply want to create a forum that, we hope, will result in all of us being better informed about issues that affect our lives, our health, our planet and our future" but that's only what they are saying AFTER they hired the major PR firm Ketchum to handle their campaign. Before the PR firm came on board, they were much more open about their goals. I guess the PR gurus told them to tone it down, and to instead discuss how they use "modern" technology in "production" (i.e. industrial) agriculture. Now instead of overtly promoting pesticides, GMOs, and veal crates, they say they "have collaborated to lead the dialogue and answer Americans' questions about how we raise our food - while being stewards of the environment, responsibly caring for our animals and maintaining strong businesses and communities."
Stewards of the environment? USFRA gets 25-30% of its funding from industry, including from some of the biggest pesticide companies on earth. And the agricultural groups that make up USFRA have long histories of lobbying against any environmental regulation, livestock welfare standards, labor reform, competition reform, and more. And as for their claim they don't want to convince anybody of anything - you don't hire a PR firm if you don't want to convince anybody of anything.
Showing posts with label Agribusiness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Agribusiness. Show all posts
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Thursday, 28 October 2010
Republicans, Agribusiness & Wall Street Trying to Stop California from Reducing Greenhouse Gas Pollution
Darren Goode reported yesterday at The Hill's Energy Blog that, "California has become the primary battleground for environmental activists this election cycle thanks to a ballot initiative that would stymie a first-in-the-nation cap on greenhouse gas emissions.
"The Proposition 23 measure would suspend California's global warming law - which calls for a reduction in emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020 - unless the state's unemployment rate drops below 5.5 percent. Currently, the state's unemployment rate is 12.4 percent, the third highest in the nation."
The Wall Street Journal editorial board indicated in today's paper that, "Proposition 23 is the number one national target of the green movement this election year. With the failure of cap and tax in Congress, the greens are trying to hold onto this remnant of their anticarbon crusade. Both sides are spending heavily, and the polls show a close vote."
The Journal editorial concluded by saying, "Proposition 23 faces an uphill fight against green moneyed interests, but its passage would give California a regulatory reprieve and save tens of thousands of jobs. If it fails, Nevadans and Chinese will rejoice."
The New York Times editorial board noted today that, "Former Vice President Dick Cheney has to be smiling. With one exception, none of the Republicans running for the Senate - including the 20 or so with a serious chance of winning - accept the scientific consensus that humans are largely responsible for global warming.
"The candidates are not simply rejecting solutions, like putting a price on carbon, though these, too, are demonized. They are re-running the strategy of denial perfected by Mr. Cheney a decade ago, repudiating years of peer-reviewed findings about global warming and creating an alternative reality in which climate change is a hoax or conspiracy."
The Times added that, "Nowadays, it is almost impossible to recall that in 2000, George W. Bush promised to cap carbon dioxide, encouraging some to believe that he would break through the partisan divide on global warming. Until the end of the 1990s, Republicans could be counted on to join bipartisan solutions to environmental problems. Now they've disappeared in a fog of disinformation, an entire political party parroting the Cheney line."
"The Proposition 23 measure would suspend California's global warming law - which calls for a reduction in emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020 - unless the state's unemployment rate drops below 5.5 percent. Currently, the state's unemployment rate is 12.4 percent, the third highest in the nation."
The Wall Street Journal editorial board indicated in today's paper that, "Proposition 23 is the number one national target of the green movement this election year. With the failure of cap and tax in Congress, the greens are trying to hold onto this remnant of their anticarbon crusade. Both sides are spending heavily, and the polls show a close vote."
The Journal editorial concluded by saying, "Proposition 23 faces an uphill fight against green moneyed interests, but its passage would give California a regulatory reprieve and save tens of thousands of jobs. If it fails, Nevadans and Chinese will rejoice."
The New York Times editorial board noted today that, "Former Vice President Dick Cheney has to be smiling. With one exception, none of the Republicans running for the Senate - including the 20 or so with a serious chance of winning - accept the scientific consensus that humans are largely responsible for global warming.
"The candidates are not simply rejecting solutions, like putting a price on carbon, though these, too, are demonized. They are re-running the strategy of denial perfected by Mr. Cheney a decade ago, repudiating years of peer-reviewed findings about global warming and creating an alternative reality in which climate change is a hoax or conspiracy."
The Times added that, "Nowadays, it is almost impossible to recall that in 2000, George W. Bush promised to cap carbon dioxide, encouraging some to believe that he would break through the partisan divide on global warming. Until the end of the 1990s, Republicans could be counted on to join bipartisan solutions to environmental problems. Now they've disappeared in a fog of disinformation, an entire political party parroting the Cheney line."
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