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The group’s "Alcohol Policies Project" advocates against what it considers adverse societal influences of alcohol, such as marketing campaigns that target young drinkers.<ref>Nat Ives. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D04E4D6153FF935A35750C0A9659C8B63 "The media business: Advertising; a trade group tries to wean the alcohol industry from full-figured twins and other racy images"]. ''New York Times''. March 6, 2003.</ref>, and promotes turning self-imposed advertising bans by alcohol industry groups into law.<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEFDB163BF93BA35752C1A960958260 "Alcohol industry ends its ad ban in broadcasting"], ''New York Times''. November 8, 1996.</ref> The project is run by long-time director [[George Hacker]], a lawyer who also co-directs the [[Coalition for the Prevention of Alcohol Problems]].
The group’s "Alcohol Policies Project" advocates against what it considers adverse societal influences of alcohol, such as marketing campaigns that target young drinkers.<ref>Nat Ives. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D04E4D6153FF935A35750C0A9659C8B63 "The media business: Advertising; a trade group tries to wean the alcohol industry from full-figured twins and other racy images"]. ''New York Times''. March 6, 2003.</ref>, and promotes turning self-imposed advertising bans by alcohol industry groups into law.<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEFDB163BF93BA35752C1A960958260 "Alcohol industry ends its ad ban in broadcasting"], ''New York Times''. November 8, 1996.</ref> The project is run by long-time director [[George Hacker]], a lawyer who also co-directs the [[Coalition for the Prevention of Alcohol Problems]].


One of the main activities of the Project is directing the "Campaign for Alcohol-Free Sports TV". The campaign, launched in 2003 with support of at least 80 other local and national groups, calls upon college administrators to sign a pledge that their institutions will prohibit all alcohol advertising on local sports programming, and that they will also work within their athletic conferences and within the [[National Collegiate Athletic Association]] (NCAA) to prohibit alcohol advertising from televised college sports. It also seeks Congressional support for such a prohibition.
One of the main activities of the Project is directing the "Campaign for Alcohol-Free Sports TV". The campaign, launched in 2003 with support of at least 80 other local and national groups, calls upon college administrators to sign a pledge that their institutions will prohibit all alcohol advertising on local sports programming, and that they will also work within their athletic conferences and within the [[National Collegiate Athletic Association]] (NCAA) to prohibit alcohol advertising from televised college sports. It also seeks Congressional support for such a prohibition.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/09/sports/ncaabasketball/09college.html "Bill would ask N.C.A.A. to forgo alcohol ads"]. ''New York Times''. March 9, 2005.</ref>


== Criticisms ==
== Criticisms ==

Revision as of 00:06, 11 October 2008

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The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is a non-profit watchdog and consumer advocacy group headquartered in Washington, D.C.

History and organization

CSPI is headed by Michael F. Jacobson, who founded the group in 1971 along with two fellow scientists from Ralph Nader's Center for the Study of Responsive Law.

CSPI is a section 501(c)(3) organization exempt from federal income tax. CSPI's chief source of income is its Nutrition Action Health Letter, which has about 900,000 subscribers and does not accept corporate advertising.[1][2] The organization receives about 5-10 percent of its $17 million annual budget from private foundation grants.

Programs and campaigns

Nutrition and food labelling

CSPI has used threats of litigation to pressure large American companies over nutrition and food labeling,[3] including the purported mislabeling of "low-fat" foods in restaurants. In 1994, the group first brought the issue of high saturated fat in movie popcorn to the public attention. In 2003, they worked with lawyer John F. Banzhaf to force ice cream retailers to display nutritional information about their products. Most recently, they expanded the demand for nutrition labeling to include all chain restaurants, and helped introduce menu labeling legislation in several U.S. cities and states. Their guidelines include detailed nutrition labeling, abolishing the use of trans fats, and reducing the amount of sodium in processed foods.

CSPI was also instrumental in convincing fast food restaurants to stop using animal fat for frying in 1989.[4] They have recently been fighting against the use of trans fats in those same restaurants.

Food Safety

One of CSPI’s largest projects is its "Food Safety" initiative, directed to reduce food contamination and foodborne illness. In addition to publishing Outbreak Alert!, a compilation of food-borne illnesses and outbreaks, the project supports the establishment of a new Food Safety Administration that would fold the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Department of Agrigulture (USDA) into one bureaucratic body.

Alcohol Policies Project

The group’s "Alcohol Policies Project" advocates against what it considers adverse societal influences of alcohol, such as marketing campaigns that target young drinkers.[5], and promotes turning self-imposed advertising bans by alcohol industry groups into law.[6] The project is run by long-time director George Hacker, a lawyer who also co-directs the Coalition for the Prevention of Alcohol Problems.

One of the main activities of the Project is directing the "Campaign for Alcohol-Free Sports TV". The campaign, launched in 2003 with support of at least 80 other local and national groups, calls upon college administrators to sign a pledge that their institutions will prohibit all alcohol advertising on local sports programming, and that they will also work within their athletic conferences and within the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to prohibit alcohol advertising from televised college sports. It also seeks Congressional support for such a prohibition.[7]

Criticisms

CSPI's public policy recommendations (and sometimes the organization's motivation for making them) have often been questioned by various parties, particularly those within the food industry who have been the most directly affected.

One example is CSPI's contention, from the mid-1990s onward, that trans fats pose a public health danger. Three trade groups— the National Restaurant Association, the National Association of Margarine Manufacturers, and the Institute of Shortening and Edible Oils— in response "said the evidence was contradictory and inconclusive, and accused (CSPI) of jumping to a premature conclusion."[8] A Wall Street Journal editorial went farther, pointing out that CSPI's recent prior advocacy in favor of trans fats[9] was the reason many restaurants had adopted them in the first place.[10]

Stronger critics, among them the food-industry-funded Center for Consumer Freedom, derisively refer to CSPI as "the Food Police"[11][12], and suggest their focus on food manufacturers and retailers distracts from "real culprits... a lack of exercise and people's unwillingness to take personal responsibility for their own diets."[11] In a Washington Times editoral, former U.S. Representative Bob Barr (Republican from Georgia) also pointed to individual responsibility for dietary choices and accused CSPI of pursuing "a pre-existing political agenda."[12]

In addition, there is a litany of self-published websites (a Google search readily turns up half a dozen) dedicated, in varying degrees, to disparaging CSPI and its findings.[13][14][15][16]

Notes

  1. ^ "Nutrition Action Health Letter". Center for Science in the Public Interest.
  2. ^ "Our Funding: CPSI Funding Sources". Center for Science in the Public Interest. Retrieved 2008-03-31.
  3. ^ Masterson, K (2007-10-14). "Food cop: Love him or hate him". Chicago Tribune.
  4. ^ "CSPI Accomplishments". Center for Science in the Public Interest. Retrieved 2007-10-02. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |name= ignored (help)
  5. ^ Nat Ives. "The media business: Advertising; a trade group tries to wean the alcohol industry from full-figured twins and other racy images". New York Times. March 6, 2003.
  6. ^ "Alcohol industry ends its ad ban in broadcasting", New York Times. November 8, 1996.
  7. ^ "Bill would ask N.C.A.A. to forgo alcohol ads". New York Times. March 9, 2005.
  8. ^ "Debate Flares on Fat From Hydrogenated Oils". New York Times. 1996-08-08. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
  9. ^ Blume, Elaine (March, 1988). "The truth about trans: hydrogenated oils aren't guilty as charged". Nutrition Action Healthletter, published by CSPI. Retrieved 2008-10-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ "The Bloomberg Diet: The nanny state reaches into the kitchen". Wall Street Journal. 2006-12-09. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
  11. ^ a b Warner, Melanie (2005-06-12). "Striking Back at the Food Police". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
  12. ^ a b Barr, Bob (2006-09-17). "Scientific Research Ruse". Washington Times. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
  13. ^ [1]
  14. ^ [2]
  15. ^ [3]
  16. ^ [4]

References

  • Center for Science in the Public Interest. Project to Empower Students to Transform the Campus Drinking Culture: Survival Skills for the Successful Advocate. Washington, DC: Center for Science in the Public Interest, n.d.
  • Goetz, D. Liquor industry gets stricter on advertising. Louisville Courier-Journal, 10.09.03

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Center_for_Science_in_the_Public_Interest&oldid=244475941"