American Council on Science and Health

The American Council on Science and Health, Inc. (ACSH) 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. 

John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton ofPR 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)

ACSH was founded in 1978 by 'a group of scientists who had become concerned that many important public policies related to health and the environment did not have a sound scientific basis.'

Its President and founder Elizabeth Whelan 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 Miller of the Hoover InstitutionNorman Borlaugof Texas A&M University and Thomas DeGregori of the University of Houston, all well known supporters of GM crops. Its advisors include <a href="modules.php?name=Encyclopedia&op=content&tid=37">Dennis T. Avery</a> of the <a href="modules.php?name=Encyclopedia&op=content&tid=128">Hudson Institute</a> who has also contributed to the many ACSH articles promoting GM and denigrating organic food.

<a href="http://www.cspinet.org/integrity/corp_funding.html">ACSH corporate funders</a> have included Archer Daniels Midland, Monsanto, Ciba-Geigy, DuPont, Dow, the National Agricultural Chemicals Association, Pfizer, and NutraSweet Company. ACSH stopped disclosing corporate donors in the early 1990s.