tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10239730.post110744573648523349..comments2007-05-09T15:05:31.607-04:00Tom Philpotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12628086253733653673noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10239730.post-27788232559059851632007-05-09T15:05:00.000-04:002007-05-09T15:05:00.000-04:00www.prwatch.org<BR/><BR/>Guest Choice & "The Food Police" Make Strange Bedfellows<BR/><BR/>Source: 6/17/01 CSPI letter to NYT, and Guest Choice Network<BR/><BR/>Lobbyist Rick Berman runs the DC-based Guest Choice Network, a mean and nasty PR operation serving the tobacco, booze and food industries. (See PR Watch Volume 8 #1 for the inside scoop on Berman & Co.) His favorite target is often Michael Jacobson's "food police" at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). But now, after years of sitting on the sidelines in the genetically engineered food debate, Jacobson has received biotech funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, and CSPI is praising the alleged benefits and safety of GE food. As a result, Berman's Guest Choice Network is praising CSPI, especially after CSPI's Gregory Jaffe told the New York Times that the benefits of GE food, "without any evidence of harm to humans or the environment � partly explain why engineered crops are spreading so rapidly." Oh really, Gregory? We suspect that the failure of the US FDA to require mandatory safety testing or labeling -- and the failure of the snoozing food police at CSPI to demand they do so -- are the more obvious reasons why GE foods have stealthily grabbed market share in the US. Politics is known for strange bedfellows, and Mike Jacobson and Rick Berman are today's odd couple.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com