A Public Resource Compiled by the

U.S. Right to Know

6026A Harwood Avenue, Oakland, CA 94618
501c3
USRTK.org

Recipient: focus on public health and biotech-related topics

Key People
  • Gary Ruskin, Co-Founder and co-Executive Director
  • Stacy Malkan, Co-Founder, Media Director, and co-Executive Director
  • Carey Gillam, Research Director
  • Lisa Graves, Founding Board Member
  • Charlie Cray, Founding Board Member
US Right to Know

Established with seed money from the Organic Consumers Association in 2014, U.S. Right to Know is one of the most prominent anti-biotech advocacy groups in North America. The organization is best known for filing Freedom of Information requests to acquire the emails of researchers and popular science writers, which prove, USRTK says, the scientific community conspires with Bayer and other biotech companies to conceal the dangers of their products. These accusation have so far proved to be incorrect. A growing body of evidence suggests that USRTK has collaborated with Russian state-funded media outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik to promote misinformation about the safety of GMOs and widely-used agricultural chemicals, including the popular herbicide glyphosate.

Financial Data

Annual Revenue: $360,885 (2017)

Total Assets $47,829 (2017)

Major Donors (total contributions 2014-present)

Organic Consumers Association: $554,500

Laura and John Arnold Foundation: $198,800

Dr. Bronner’s Family Foundation: $183,000

CrossFit Foundation: $50,000

Westreich Foundation: $25,000

Panta Rhea Foundation: $20,000

Community Foundation of Western North Carolina (Little Acorn Fund – M): $5,000

 

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.

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Note that there are three “levels” of both donors and recipients.

Donors
Donations to advocacy groups are sometimes designated to support a specific cause, such as organic agriculture or mitigating climate change. There is no way for us to know from publicly-available documents on what the money will be spent, as we can only see the total amount donated. When we assign the levels below to donors and recipients, we assume that all donations are available to the recipient for all advocacy, including anti-GMO advocacy.

  • Level 1: Donates primarily to dedicated anti-GMO organizations
  • Level 2: A large portion of donations go to anti-GMO organizations; some donations go to organizations without a position on GMOs
  • Level 3: A small portion of donations go to anti-GMO organizations
    * Most donations go to organizations without a formal position on GMOs but which have aligned themselves with anti-GMO activists

Recipients
For Level 1 recipients, all donations are used for anti-GMO advocacy. For Level 2 and 3 recipients, we don’t know how much of each donation is used for anti-GMO advocacy.

  • Level 1: Dedicated to anti-GMO advocacy
  • Level 2: Involved in anti-GMO advocacy along with other causes
  • Level 3: No specific anti-GMO advocacy, but general support
    * Organizations without a formal position on GMOs but which have aligned themselves with anti-GMO activists