American Council on Science and Health

The American Council on Science and Health, Inc. (ACSH). It describes itself as "a consumer education consortium concerned with issues related to food, nutrition, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, lifestyle, the environment and health." Its website contains a number of articles promoting GM foods and attacking organic agriculture. 

ACSH is a corporate front group which attacks any criticisms of corporate products as not having "a sound scientific basis". It has received funds from food processing and beverage corporations including Burger King, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, NutraSweet, Nestle USA as well as chemical, oil and pharmaceutical companies such as Monsanto, Dow USA, Exxon, Union Carbide and others. Martin Donohoe noted in Z Magazine:

Dr. Whelan claims that ACSH accepts funding from corporations “as long as no strings are attached.” However, in 1982, ACSH filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a lawsuit brought by the Formaldehyde Institute. The brief was paid for by Georgia-Pacific Co., a leading manufacturer of formaldehyde and a member of the Formaldehyde Institute. Georgia-Pacific paid its Washington law firm $40,000 to write the brief, which ACSH then submitted under its name. Formaldehyde has been classified as a human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and as a probable human carcinogen by the EPA.

ACSH was founded in 1978 by Elizabeth Whelan, who is still its executive director, and Frederick Stare. She is portrayed in the mass media as an independent scientist. she defends petrochemical companies, the nutritional values of fast foods, and the safety of saccharin, pesticides and growth hormones for dairy cows. She claims that the US government spends far too much on unproven health risks such as dioxin and pesticides because of the public’s “unfounded fears of man-made chemicals and their perception of these chemicals as carcinogens”.

John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton of PR Watch call ACSH an 'industry front group that produces PR ammunition for the food processing and chemical industries.' (Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry)

Its President and founder is the author of 'Panic in the Pantry' and  'Toxic Terror'. Whelan says: 'I've been called a paid liar for industry so many times I've lost count.'

Its directors include Henry I. Miller of the Hoover Institution, Norman Borlaug of Texas A&M University and Thomas DeGregori of the University of Houston, all well known supporters of GM crops. Its advisors include Dennis Avery of the Hudson Institute who has also contributed to the many ACSH articles promoting GM and denigrating organic food.

ACSH corporate funders have included Archer Daniels Midland, Coca Cola Monsanto, Ciba-Geigy, DuPont, Dow, the National Agricultural Chemicals Association, Pfizer, and NutraSweet Company. ACSH stopped disclosing corporate donors in the early 1990s.