Colloidal silver Merck Medical Charity Hoax Greenpiece
Merck, other Pharma Companies Funding Activist Groups behind the EPA Petition to Regulate Silver
by Tony Isaacs
2009
Recently it was revealed that a handful of the activist agencies behind the
petition to the EPA to regulate nano-silver as a pesticide have received funding
from pharmaceutical giant Merck, which annually has hundreds of billions of
dollars in profits from patented antibiotics which many believe are less
effective, less safe and far more expensive than colloidal nano-silver products.
Now, further investigation has discovered that the initial revelations may just
be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Merck and other pharmaceutical
companies' funding of the groups who support the EPA petition.
The actual source of the funding that was first revealed in emails and colloidal
silver blogsites was the John Merck Fund was set up in 1970 by Serena Merck, the
widow of Merck Pharmaceuticals CEO George W. Merck, in honor of their
short-lived son John.
The recipients of funding who are signees on the petition to the EPA were
identified as:
Funding To Activist Groups |
Total Donated |
Time Frame |
Center for Food Safety |
$1,305,000.00 |
1999 – 2005 |
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy |
$490,000.00 |
1992 – 2003 |
International Center for Technology Assessment |
$247,500.00 |
1999 – 1999 |
Consumers Union of the United States |
$90,000.00 |
2000 – 2001 |
$80,000.00 |
2000 – 2002 |
|
Friends of the Earth |
$45,000.00 |
1992 – 2000 |
The Center for Food Safety (CFS) which along with its sister organization the
International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA), initiated the EPA
petition and enlisted the other groups which signed off on the petition,
received the second largest amount of funding of any group from the John Merck
Fund -- second only to the huge total of the Tides Center/Tides Foundation,
whose total funding of almost $2.7 Million dwarfs the combined total of $1.75
Million given to the CFS and the ICTA and CFS.
Tides Foundation & Tides Center $2,693,000.00 1989 – 2005
http://www.activistcash.com/foundation.cfm?did=138
As it turns out, the top funding recipient Tides Foundation and Tides Center are
also actively involved in the petition to regulate silver, as well as the source
of funding and support to several of the other groups who signed the EPA
petition.
When one goes to the Tides Center website, their position is apparent to one and
all with the posting of a press release urging support of the EPA petition:
http://www.tidescenter.org/news-resources/news-releases/single-press-release/article/epa-petitioned-to-stop-sale-of-260-products-containing-nanosilver/index.html
Information on Tides Center's website and other web searches found the following
Tides Center/Tides Foundation connections to groups involved in the nanosilver
petition, but who are not listed as Merck funding recipients:
• Center for Environmental Health (a project of the Tides Center)
• Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (previous funding and connections
with the Tides Foundation)
• Clean Production Action (a Tides Center project)
• Food and Water Watch (receives donations from the Tides Foundation)
• The Loka Institute (has no current offices but was previously provided office
space and a mailbox in Washington. DC by the International Center for Technology
Assessment in their offices)
In addition, a $200,000 grant for 2006-2007 from a second Merck Foundation, the
Merck Family Fund to another petitioner, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, was
discovered.
A quick internet search reveals that Merck is not the only pharmaceutical
company which provides funding to the Tides Foundation and Tides Center, as this
listing of the top funding recipient from the Pfizer Foundation demonstrates:
Funding To Activist Groups, Total Donated, Time Frame
Tides Foundation & Tides Center $300,000.00 2003 – 2004
The Tides Foundation is described by Activistcash.com as quickly becoming "the
800 pound gorilla for activist funding."
As reported on ActivistCash:
The Tides foundation was established in 1976 by California activist Drummond
Pike. Tides does two things better than any other foundation or charity in the
U.S. today: it routinely obscures the sources of its tax-exempt millions, and
makes it difficult (if not impossible) to discern how the funds are actually
being used.
In practice, “Tides” behaves less like a philanthropy than a money-laundering
enterprise (apologies to Procter & Gamble), taking money from other foundations
and spending it as the donor requires. Called donor-advised giving, this
pass-through funding vehicle provides public-relations insulation for the
money’s original donors. By using Tides to funnel its capital, a large public
charity can indirectly fund a project with which it would prefer not to be
directly identified in public.Drummond Pike has reinforced this view, telling
The Chronicle of Philanthropy: “Anonymity is very important to most of the
people we work with.”
Due to the efforts of many foundations to keep their funding activities
anonymous, it is difficult to determine the true scope of pharmaceutical company
funding for the Tides group as well as the individual activist groups.
Given the information outlined above, one can only wonder what other
pharmaceutical funding is linked to these groups and shudder to think of how
many activist groups have been corrupted by funding from Big Pharma and other
companies with agendas that are anything but in the public interest.
It is easy to see how such subterfuge can corrupt decision making, the same as
can paid lobbyists and political funding. Obviously it would be in the distinct
public interest to require full disclosure of funding sources for every
organization which petitions a government agency or legislative body to see
where there might be funding sources who would stand to benefit as a result of
the desired action or legislation.
Similarly, it would also be in the public interest to require full details of
all the activities and efforts of lobbyists, including expenses and the details
of each meeting held by lobbyists with government officials. While we are at it,
we would also be a better informed and better served citizenry if every elected
official’s vote on any measure included donations and links to any companies or
other entities affected by such legislation.
Granted, such reforms are a tall order, but until we see such altruistic change
all the talk about true transparency in government is merely lip service - and
the words from our own lips will continue to have little chance of reaching
those whose ears are captured by the special interests who have bought off and
otherwise rigged the process in their favor.
See Also: "Action Alert: Stop EPA from Eliminating Access to Colloidal Silver"
Notes:
The complete list of groups who signed the petition to the EPA is:
The International Center for Technology Assessment
The Center for Food Safety (the sister organization of the CTA)
Beyond Pesticides
Friends of the Earth
Greenpeace
ETC Group
Center for Environmental Health
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Clean Production Action
Food and Water Watch
The Loka Institute
The Center for Study of Responsive Law, and Consumers Union
Sources included:
http://www.silvermedicine.org/nano-silver.html
http://www.activistcash.com/