CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
Oldways
Brought to You by Coca-Cola
22 Corporate Crime Reporter 14, April 2, 2008
You just have to wonder about Washington.
Earlier today, I was wandering around the National Press Club – and stumbled upon a one day conference titled – Understanding Sweetness: Making Sense of the Science of Sugars, Sugar Substitutes, Sweetness and Health.
The sponsor – Oldways Preservation and Exchange Trust.
The group's motto?
Advocates for Healthy Eating.
Oldways is a non-profit organization based in Boston.
On the cover of the press packet they were handing out today is a picture of herbs in old canvass bags at a market, another picture of some fresh vegetables – onions, carrots, tomatoes, eggplants – at a market.
And there is a third picture of K. Dun Gifford, the president of Oldways Foundation, with a farmer.
The farmer is carrying a goat. Gifford is playfully pulling at the goat’s ear.
As soon as I saw this, I thought – wow – maybe this is a group inspired by Michael Pollan’s book In Defense of Food.
Nutshell version of Pollan’s book – eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
Pollan’s takeaway tip: “Don't eat anything that your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.”
But then again, this is after all Washington.
And Washington is corporate occupied territory.
There is nothing in the conference materials criticizing soda drinks as a primary cause of obesity among children.
There is no talk of liquid candy.
There is no talk about the possible health dangers posed by artificial sweeteners.
And there is no indication – until the last page of the thick conference materials book – that the conference is sponsored by Coca-Cola’s perversely named Beverage Institute for Health and Wellness.
The whole thing seemed pretty sleazy and deceptive.
I go back to my office.
A one minute search turns up that a Wall Street Journal report that Oldways and Coca-Cola teamed up in October 2004 to sponsor a conference in Mexico City on the “nutritional value of sugar.”
The Journal reported that the conference was “another sign of growing anxieties among food companies – especially beverage companies such as Coke and PepsiCo – that their products are rapidly becoming targets of a global consumer health campaign.”
According to the Journal, the Mexico City conference was partially sponsored by four sugar and sweetener manufacturers – Cargill, Celanese's Nutrinova, Tate & Lyle and Ajinomoto.
According to the Journal, the three-day conference was designed to show that “sweeteners aren't solely to blame” for the global increase in obesity rates and “can be part of a healthy diet.”
So, I go back to the conference and tracked down Gifford in a hallway outside the conference at the Press Club and asked him what the budget of Oldways was?
“It’s a million dollar a year organization,” Gifford said.
Do you get money from the artificial sweetener industry?
Yes, Gifford says.
How much?
Can’t tell you right now.
Okay, about how much of your budget is from artificial sweetener companies and soda drink companies?
Can’t tell you right now.
A quarter, a half – more?
“Can’t tell you right now,” Gifford says. “But it’s all on the web.”
So,
I go back to my office and look it up.
It’s not on Oldways' web site.
So I search out Oldways' most recent 990.
Seventy-three percent of the organization’s 2006 budget is from three donors. One donor gave $271,851. One donor gave $311.710. And a third gave $255,046.
That’s three donors for a grand total of $838,607.00. (Total revenues for that year – $1,142,147.)
But all donor names are blanked out.
So, I go back to the conference and track down Gifford.
And I ask him – so, there are a couple of donors who give the vast majority of your budget.
Who are they?
Can’t tell you right now.
Why not?
Well, I’d have to make a call, and I don’t want to right now.
It’s the lunch break, and out comes Michael Jacobson, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Jacobson is the legendary critic of Coca-Cola and other sugary drinks – he’s the one who slapped the label “liquid candy” – on them.
Jacobson is not happy.
“How come Oldways is an apologist for the artificial sweetener industry?” he asks Gifford.
“Why not have a critic of artificial sweeteners as a speaker?” Jacobson asks. “Artificial sweeteners are not the old way. They are not part of the traditional diet.”
“It’s not literally,” Gifford says. “But if I’m trying to move the behavior of a whole lot of people, if I’m a purist – what percent of the population am I going to get to pay attention to the message?”
“Positive messages move more people than negative messages,” Gifford said. “We have a positive message that you don’t have to give up what pleases you about your table – if you are careful about it.”
“Since no one – with one exception – has said the artificial sweeteners are unsafe, we say to consumers – we are there with you,” Gifford said.
Jacobson points out that “there is no critic of artificial sweeteners, there is no critic of soft drinks participating at the conference.”
But Jacobson himself was invited to speak at the conference, Gifford says.
“You are not a critic?” Gifford asks.
“Sure,” Jacobson says. “But I’m on the last panel to give an opinion on the whole day. You should have speakers that reflect the breadth of opinion on the topic of sweeteners. Where is a David Ludwig talking about soft drinks causing obesity in kids? You don’t have anybody like that.”
No he doesn’t.
But
what would you expect?
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