Friends of the Earth (FOE) is a Washington DC-based environmental nonprofit that claims “corporate power and agriculture science” have “created a powerful river of toxic, energy-intensive factory farming.” GMOs are partly to blame for this trend because “emerging biotechnologies are used to develop products that benefit companies’ bottom lines at the expense of people and the planet.”
To counter these advances in modern farming, FOE opposes the use of several technologies that experts say are necessary to increase crop yields. Gene editing, for instance, which allows scientists to make specific changes to a plant’s DNA, could cause “genetic havoc,” FOE says. Similarly, the organization pressures US grocery stores “to step up and protect bees!” by refusing to sell “food produced with bee-killing pesticides,” like neonicotinoids and glyphosate. Since most crops are treated with glyphosate, neonicotinoids or both, the campaign is meant to push grocers to offer more organic foods. None of these chemicals pose a risk to bees, experts say.
Like other prominent environmental nonprofits, FOE has deep ties to anti-GMO advocacy groups. Arlie Schardt, founder and director of Environmental Media Services (EMS), is Chair of FOE’s board of directors. EMS is the sister organization of Fenton Communications, the public relations firm that worked with Natural Resources Defense Council to foment the Alar cancer scare in 1989, which turned out to be unjustified. Schardt previously served as executive director of Environmental Defense Fund as well. Whitey Bluestein, also an FOE board member, previously served as executive director of Vermont Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit that believes the USDA’s GMO labeling rule is “a sham.”
Financial Data
Annual Revenue: $13,022,023 (2017)
Total Assets $11,091,183 (2017)
Major Donors (total contributions 2012-present)
Foundation for the Carolinas $5,000,000
Packard Foundation $600,000
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation $500,000
Greater Kansas City Community Foundation $420,000
Ford Foundation $328,500
Rockefeller Brothers Fund $300,000
Silicon Valley Community Foundation $300,000
Gould Family Foundation $290,000
The Ceres Trust $270,000
John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation $250,000
Contribution totals only reflect publicly reported donors and may not include significant contributions from corporations, litigators and governments, domestic and foreign, through percent of sales agreements and allocations through various arrangements such as state lotteries and aid programs. Many claims by nonprofit organizations that they receive no contributions from governments or corporations are misleading or false.