The Center for Consumer Freedom - Part 1

December 07, 2009 ↓ Comments (0)

My Year Without recently turned me onto a website called SweetScam.com. It’s purpose is to teach people that High Fructose Corn Syrup is not the cause of obesity. Truth is, I have to agree with them. HFCS doesn’t make people fat. People who lead a sedentary lifestyle and eat too much junk food laced with HFCS make themselves fat. So, who’s to blame? According to this commercial, there’s no cause for a case.

Meanwhile, you can’t turn a corner without someone slapping the soda out of your hands on a hot day, smashing your food at a diner or stomping on your hot dog in the street.

Both ads came from the Center for Consumer Freedom. According to their about page, the center is a full non-profit organization dedicated to… something. I can’t tell what exactly. They say, “Consumer freedom is the right of adults and parents to choose how they live their lives, what they eat and drink, how they manage their finances, and how they enjoy themselves.”

Their YouTube page says, “The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit watchdog group, protecting consumer choices and promoting personal responsibility.”

What’s more, if you look at their YouTube page, one of their favorite video is a mean spirited parody of a video starring Paris Hilton and a tofu/alfa sprout sandwich. Kind of a strange pick for a large non-profit interested in helping me make the right food choices for me and my family. Wait—they never said they were going to help me make the right choice. They just said they would make me responsible for my choice as to what I feed myself and my family.

Personal responsibility. We, the consumers, are responsible for what we put in our mouths. If we want to buy a boat load of junk food and eat it, then so be it! We’re free to do so. However, I do feel that we should have a right to know everything that’s in our food and that includes the labeling of genetically modified foods. It doesn’t need to be a warning, just an indication.

Consumer freedom should include consumer education and transparency. However, the Center for Consumer Freedom says their funders are afraid of radical activists and that’s why they don’t disclose their list of funders. I, as a consumer who believes in freedom, would love to know who funds this organization. That would make a big difference in how I feel about them. So I did a search.

On the website Consumer Deception it says the following:

Rick Berman founded and runs a trio of shadowy tax-exempt food, tobacco, and beverage industry front groups. For a hefty fee, these nonprofit organizations hire Berman as executive director. Berman then uses his own privately owned public relations company to do work for the nonprofit organization. In this way, Berman channels between 49 and 79 percent of the donations given to these nonprofit groups into his own pocket. In 1998, this amounted to more than $1 million for just one of these groups.

The Center for Consumer Freedom is one of Rick Berman’s tax-excempt groups. (Check the Consumer Deception webpage for interesting quotes and source links about the Center for Consumer Freedom.)

We as consumers have freedom. What we need now is reliable information. The HFCS people are always reacting to accusations that their product promotes obesity. They do not advocate a SuperSize Me style diet. Moderation is their motto.

Let’s face it. EVERYONE KNOWS THAT TOO MUCH SUGAR IS BAD FOR US or else we’d eat nothing but junk all day everyday. Believe me, I’ve tried to live on sugar and it’s just not sustainable. I’m sure people have tried to live on cigarettes and found the same thing. No matter if you believe sugar is the devil or not, it always comes back to personal responsibility. What you put in your mouth is your choice. Make it a good one.

Center for Consumer Freedom: Part 2
High Fructose Corn Syrup Commercials Cause Controversy