Organic Under Attack: Report Exposes Big Food’s Tobacco-Style PR Blitz
(COMMON DREAMS) Lauren McCauley — Remember that recent blog post you read about the popularity of genetically modified foods? Or the economics expert on the news who questioned if paying the price of organic food was ‘worth it’?
According to a new report, these views were very likely the product of a public relations blitz by Big Food and Big Ag firms, that are actively working to spread misinformation about the safety of industrial agriculture practices and discredit the value of organic food in the face of growing popular demand.
At the same time the sale of organic products has skyrocketed—jumping to more than $35 billion in 2013—the country’s largest food and chemical companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to combat this trend. In 2013, Monsanto alone spent $95 million on marketing.
“Rather than respond to changing market demands by shifting the way they do business, many large food and agrochemical companies are using tobacco-style PR tactics to mislead the public and attack the organic food industry to try to win back skeptical consumers,” states environmental watchdog Friends of the Earth in a new study published on Tuesday.