OCA is one of the most aggressive of North America’s anti-GMO activist groups and its website contains advertisements for a wide variety of organic products and alternative medical cures.
The group touts on its homepage that it campaigns “for health, justice, sustainability, peace, and democracy.” Many of the causes and organizations that it supports have drawn fierce criticism from the scientific community.
OCA campaigns relentlessly against many aspects of conventional agriculture, and biotechnology in particular. It has contributed $554.000 to start up and fund US Right to Know, an organization that targets scientists and science communicators with controversial Freedom of Information requests in an attempt to tie them to the biotech industry. See Biotech Gallery: USRTK
According to the website Rational Wiki,
…the OCA frequently reposts articles from woo-pushers and conspiracy theorists such as Joseph Mercola, NaturalNews, and Alex Jones on subjects such as water fluoridation, food irradiation, 9/11 conspiracy theories, raw milk, vaccines, homeopathy, nuclear power, and more. They have a long history of using fear mongering and pseudoscience to push their agenda of converting the world to organic agriculture…
According to OCA’s financial statements, it paid out more than $500,000 in “grants to governments and organizations” inside and outside the U.S. in 2013 and more than $600,000 in 2014. Since 2009 the trade group has contributed $230,000 or more to bolster its political causes in this fashion. It spent $924,575 in 2015, according to its 990 tax form on Charity Navigator.
Financial Data
Annual Revenue: $4,005,101 (2016)
Total Assets: $1,576, 335
Major Donors (total contributions 2012-present)
Natural Health Research Foundation: $2,101,000
Forrest C & Frances H Lattner Foundation: $413,250
Meshewa Farm Foundation: $100,000
Marisla Foundation: $60,000
Robert P. Rotella Foundation: $37,000
Major Grant Recipients (total contributions 2012-present)
Oregon Vote Yes On Measure 92 Right To Know (GMO Labeling): $702,000
U.S. Right to Know: $554,500
Citizens for GMO Labeling: $60,000
Right To Know Colorado Yes On Prop 105: $50,000
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.