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Center For Science In The Public Interest




The Center for Science in the Public Interest ('''CSPI''') is an American Non-profit Organization that focuses on issues relating to foods and the food services industry. It was founded in 1971 as a Consumer Advocacy Organization whose twin missions are to "conduct innovative research and advocacy programs in Health and Nutrition , and to provide Consumers with current, useful information about their health and well-being." {Link without Title}

CSPI's mission statement states that the CSPI's three main goals are:
  • To provide useful, objective information to the public and policymakers and to conduct research on food, Alcohol , health, the environment, and other issues related to science and technology;

  • To represent the citizen's interests before regulatory, Judicial and legislative bodies on food, alcohol, health, the environment, and other issues; and

  • To ensure that science and technology are used for the public good and to encourage scientists to engage in public-interest activities.


It produces '' Nutrition Action Healthletter '', which has 900,000 subscribers.

CSPI's concerns include

CSPI is also a major critic of Fast Food restaurant chains.

In and Tooth Decay ."
The CSPI's Alcohol Policies Project advocates policies to reduce the Per Capita consumption of alcoholic beverages in the United States.

Other CSPI proposals include the following:
  • New excise taxes on fatty food, cars, and television sets to fund government fitness campaigns

  • A government-sponsored "Must-Not-See-TV Week" campaign

  • Caffeine warning labels

  • Calorie labeling on all fast-food packaging

  • A fast-food advertising ban on any TV program seen by children

  • FDA requirements to force baby food producers to label tapioca as 'chemically modified food starch'

  • Doubling excise taxes on beer

  • Taxpayer-funded nutrition counseling for food-stamp recipients (Citation is dead link) .



CRITICISM

Critics of the organization say it is an advocate of a Nanny State , and that it uses Junk Science to back up its claims. The CSPI's campaigns against unhealthy foods have drawn the ire of many social commentators who feel that CSPI's campaigns take away simple pleasures that people have enjoyed for generations, dubbing CSPI the "food police." The CSPI has been particularly criticized for leading movie theaters to stop using Coconut Oil to make Popcorn , a change that many feel has detracted from the flavor of movie theater popcorn.

Trans fats

The CSPI campaigned against fast foods using , in response to new scientific evidence, CSPI began to speak against ''trans'' fats and is currently strongly against their use. "The Tragic Legacy of Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)" by Mary G. Enig outlines this so-called "revisionism."


Mission statement

The mission statement has been criticized for incorpoating inconsistencies or strains. Many scholars see a fundamental conflict between CSPI as an advocacy group promoting a certain agenda while at the same time being an objective research organization. Some reject CSPI's "public good" stance and do not agree that the organization truly has the general public's best interests in mind {Link without Title} .


Other criticisms

  • and cannot be classed as truly scientific.


  • "CSPI is knowingly engaging in deceptive practices as they attempt to persuade the public and the media" and "if CSPI's efforts were an elementary school science project, young (Michael) Jacobson would have received an 'F' and would have found himself in the principal's office for cheating." American Council On Science And Health . Deceptive Practices Undermine Credibility of Consumer Group. American Council on Science and Health press release, June 22, 1998 {Link without Title}


  • The for more.)


  • "We have a totally different view on food and nutrition than (CSPIs head Jacobson ) does. He takes all the pleasure out of eating by scaring people and using terror tactics," {evidence of terror tactics?} according to Dr. Ronni Chernoff, past President of the American Dietetic Association . [http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:4Vj_q9rrnJoJ:www.sirc.org/articles/public_interest.shtml+%22We+have+a+totally+different+view+on+food+and+nutrition+than%22+&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1]




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