Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Musings: Bite the Hand

Though the Hawaii anti-GMO movement is adopting an “anti-corporate” theme as it converges on the state Capitol today, nearly all of its funding is derived from corporate profits.
A review of the newest batch of foundation and nonprofit tax returns shows that anti-GMO groups like Center for Food Safety (CFS), Hawaii SEED and Gary Hooser's HAPA receive nearly all their money from corporate sources, including manufacturing, oil and multinational pharmaceuticals.

The corporate funding is especially ironic in light of the groups' recent Food Justice Summit, where speakers railed against Western corporations while ignoring both their own benefactors and the expanding, often devastating, actions of Chinese corporations in the developing world.

The sharp disconnect between rhetoric and actual funding underscores the deep hypocrisy of the groups. But the money that's being donated points to another, much bigger concern. As these anti-GMO groups actively lobby politicians and field candidates, they are helping a few wealthy mainlanders exert undue influence on Island politics and policies, with virtually no public scrutiny, awareness or accountability.

The primary benefactors of the Hawaii anti-GMO/anti-ag groups are the Ceres Trust and Ceres Foundation, which were founded by Judith Kern using profits from the sale of her father's Midwestern generator manufacturing company, and the Marisla Foundation, started by oil heiress and occasional North Shore Kauai resident Anne Getty Earhart. Marisla is endowed with a wide range of corporate stocks.

Though HAPA's mission statement directs the group to “catalyze community empowerment and systemic change towards valuing ʻaina (environment) and people ahead of corporate profit,” it nonetheless runs on corporate profits . The group reported income of $121,446 in 2014. Though HAPA claims to be grassroots, in 2014 it received $50,000 from Ceres Trust, a grant of an undisclosed sum from the Hawaii People's Fund and a grant from CFS to make a video. In 2015, it received $50,000 from Marisla and $10,000 from the Herb Block Foundation. Though it's still unknown what additional grants it got in 2014 and 2015, due to the long lag in tax return filings, it's clear that its funding is more foundation-based than “grassroots.”

Marisla also gave CFS $75,000 in 2014 and $125,000 to the Center for Media and Democracy, a source of slanted reporting against GMOs. It gave another $445,000 to the Hawaii Community Foundation (HCF) for grants funded under the "Marisla Fund," but the HCF website does not reference that fund, and its own tax return is not yet available.

But the bigger money comes from Ceres, which in 2014 gave CFS $20,789 for "Hawaii Strategy Meeting Expenses," $600,000 for "General Operating Support," $10,000 for a speaking tour co-hosted with Hawaii Seed and the Pesticide Action Network (a group that also spent money advocating for GMO/pesticide regulatory Bill 2491 on Kauai), for a total of $630,789.

The Hawaii anti-GMO groups frequently work in tandem, and though they maintain a facade of independence, they're frequently populated with the same activists using money from the same source. In 2014, for example, the Ceres Trust gave Hawaii SEED $76,396 to fund an Oahu outreach coordinator and $84,885 for seed workshops. It also gave the Kohala Center, which is linked to Nancy Redfeather of Hawaii SEED, $84,885 for general operating support.

As an aside, Kern and her husband, Kent Whealy, previously contributed to the campaign of Walter Ritte, secretary of Hawaii SEED, when he made a failed bid for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Meanwhile, the Ceres Foundation, Kern's other Milwaukee-based charity, separately gave $500,000 to the Center for Food Safety in 2014. An already filed 2015 return for the Ceres Foundation shows that it has dissolved and transferred the balance of its funds to the Ceres Trust.

The Ceres Trust also provides nearly all the funding for E Kupaku Ka Aina (Hawaiian Land Restoration Institute), a group that has worked against GMO taro. In 2014, it received $328,735 from Ceres for a "Taro Project" and another $50,000 for a kalo production video documentary. As an indication of the impact wielded by the Ceres money, consider that E Kupaku's budget was $11,638 in 2010 and just $50 in 2009.

What's more, the Ceres money allows E Kupuku to engage in largesse, such as awarding 2013 subgrants to the Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in Kona ($23,741), which has been active in anti-GMO efforts, and Maui Nui Botanical Gardens ($47,294). This trickle-down approach allows anti-GMO groups to endear themselves to a wider constituency.

Ceres and Marisla also funded the National Tropical Botanical Gardens on Kauai and Marisla donated to Moanalua Gardens on Oahu as well, allowing them to broadly carry the torch for indigenous ag (taro), organic ag and popularization of seed saving. This strategy is likely building a broader, networked support constituency in Hawaii than they'd be able to focusing on their anti-GMO message alone.

This outsider funding of local anti-GMO movements is repeated in Vermont and California, where Ceres has been a major player in the labeling fight.

The overall objective is influencing the national legal and regulatory framework via select county ordinances and state laws, with the hope that the rest of the nation follows suit. They know they can't win everywhere, which is why the Hawaii GMO court cases are so important.

Meanwhile, the local anti-GMO groups — eager for cash, and not too astute — are allowing themselves to be used as political pawns by the 1%. No doubt most of their followers are unaware, which is why they don't even realize they're biting the hand that feeds them as they take their anti-corporate message to the Capitol today.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent report, Joan. I hope this type of expose is picked up in other media outlets.

Allan Parachini said...

This is simply a terrific piece of reporting, putting facts around a situation that has long been suspected. Congratulations!! Great work!!!

Anonymous said...

Joan Conrow at 8:16 AM "Meanwhile, the local anti-GMO groups — eager for cash, and not too astute — are allowing themselves to be used as political pawns by the 1%. No doubt most of their followers are unaware, which is why they don't even realize they're biting the hand that feeds them as they take their anti-corporate message to the Capitol today."

Why would the 1% pay their pawns to bite their hands? Sounds like a loony conspiracy theory to me.

Anonymous said...

And that event at the capitol today is sadly attended.

Anonymous said...

Since you're all about disclosures, go ahead and disclose your former business relationship with Anne Earhart.

Anonymous said...

corporate funding is sort of like GMO. Its in everything already.
The 1% eats organic.

Joan Conrow said...

1:22 -- I have "disclosed" that relationship numerous times already on this blog. But to reiterate, I was managing a property on Kalihiwai Road that was sold to Anne Earhart. I stayed on and worked for her until I got frankly fed up with helping to support her unconscious lifestyle and quit. That was some 15 years ago, well before she ever gave a penny to Hawaii anti-GMO groups.

And since you're all about disclosure, maybe you can get the Babes and CFS to disclose the funding sources for their registered lobbying activities.

Anonymous said...

January 20, 2016 at 1:29 PM - And since you're all about disclosure, maybe you can get the Babes and CFS to disclose the funding sources for their registered lobbying activities.

Here is how BAB is funded http://www.babesagainstbiotech.org/#!calendars/c1vzp

Anonymous said...

1:29 I stayed on and worked for her until I got frankly fed up with helping to support her unconscious lifestyle and quit.

Was she like drunk or on pills or just lacking in total awareness?

Joan Conrow said...

1:56 -- I'm quite sure that cheesy calendar is not the sole source of BAB funding.

2:00 -- Lacking in awareness.

Anonymous said...

Hottest year on record and people whining about GMOs.

Anonymous said...

Great report, Miss Joan.
1:06 PM--The elite rich heirs, most of whose forefathers made their largess on the backs of the working man and by exploitation of Mother Earth may be trying to pay for the sins of their ancestors.
Pretty common theme, rich parents and spoiled brats.
I hope our Kauai people behave better than they did during the Kauai debacle.
Mayor Carvalho had extreme patience and calm demeanor during his "explanations" at the Round Building. Some Kauai citizens were embarrassingly aggressive, including Andrea Brower's daddy-bones, Rob. A review of the videos of any of these mob scenes is enough to make anyone gag.
How is it the so many people blessed with so much can be so ungrateful and threatening?
Gone are the days of peaceful discussion.
The elites have come to Kauai and somehow as their population grows, civility dwindles.
And as many in your previous posts have wondered...Yes, Da Hoos, JoAnn, Mason and Jay Furfaro all by their actions and disrespect of the working people have made many a Howlee "persona of suspicion". JoAnn and Mason have dranked the water and become Coconuts, while Jay I hope was just confused. Da Hoos and Bynum have always been out for themselves...ce la vie, lies and deceit.

Anonymous said...

"Gone are the days of peaceful discussion."

Da brain stay all rotten. Looking at the past with rose tinted glasses.

Anonymous said...

Having dealt for years with some of these trust fund babies (TFB), they’re somewhat of a stereotype. It’s not the hardworking creative people who built or led these hugely profitable corporations, but their less than exemplary heirs that had nothing to do with the business’ invention and productivity. These heirs flit about clubs and parties with huge allowances and trust fund distributions set up by their ancestors. They have the luxury of not having to account for their wealth as they’re usually absent from board meetings (“It wasn’t me who did that. I was in Hanalei and I totally disagree with what they did!!!”) and in order to be a Paris Hilton-type celebrity and part of the Hollywood, music, TMZ party circuit moneyed social scene, make sure that the foundations on which boards they sit (by accident of birth) and whose meetings they attend so that they can get their latest pet issue funded. But it could also be their personal donations of the money they have too much of to spend on another designer pocketbook, and their burning desire to be cool and accepted by their fellow shallow TFB’s and therefore give money to the activists, who actually do something to further these issues, right or wrong. It’s called “Buying Cool”. It’s this stereo-type that activists search out and work on to whom to sell legitimacy as it makes the TFB’s feel better about themselves and their tremendous wealth disparity and lack of income justice (Oh, my!) , i.e. rich pseudo-liberals (We can afford to be oblivious-types).
I can just hear them echo, ‘Well, I wanted to be part of the Occupy Wall Street resistance but my limo driver had a personal emergency and couldn’t take me, and out of loyalty I only use him for my transportation.”

Manawai said...

Joan, re: Anne Earhart – Assholes are assholes no matter what their politics.

Anonymous said...

@4:09 PM - I’m not sure it’s the elites as much as the transplant cocktail waitresses, tour boat sailors and construction workers who have this furor you talk about. Elites fund; workers perform.

Anonymous said...

Are we entitled to see how HAPA spends their money? I'm curious if Hooser receives any compensation in any form.

Manawai said...

Non-profits, in exchange for us taxpayers granting them their tax-free status, must be far more transparent to us than tax-paying entities.

Anonymous said...

The IRS does not require 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations to identify their donors and the amount(s) of their gifts. And there once was a good reason for this: to broadly encourage charitable donations, acknowledging that many donors wish to remain modestly anonymous. The problem nowadays is that many nonprofits have avowedly political agendas, so there is reason to support full and timely disclosure of donations. Such donations -- Ceres Trust and Marisla Foundation $50,000 grants to HAPA, for instance -- can only be found by examining the tax returns of donors,not recipients. Typically, these 990-PF tax forms are not available for public inspection until 1-2 years have passed after the grants were made. Thus, we are only now discovering grants to HAPA in 2014 and will only learn of their 2015 grants in 2017. Nonprofit activists know the current system protects them from timely disclosure. As a result, we're seeing more political organizing via 501(c)(3) groups nowadays. It's far more discreet, or perhaps covert, than persuasion via political action committees or old-fashioned political parties, which must disclose their donors. It's a problem ripe for reform.

Anonymous said...

Joan, you allege that virtually none of HAPA's funding in 2014 was raised locally. I am not sure I believe you based on the sources you cite because I checked those links. You cite HAPA's 2014 tax form showing an income of $121,446. I checked that link and concur with that amount. But then you list Marisla as providing $50,000, Ceres as providing $50,000 and the Herb Block Foundation as providing $10,000, and you mention that undisclosed amounts were provided by Hawaii Peoples Fund and CFS. You make it seem that $110,000 at a minimum was provided by those donors in 2014 and I think that is what led you to surmise that HAPA receives little local funding. Since HAPA does not list its funding souces in its tax return, one has to examine the tax returns of those grantors. Marisla's return lists "Grants Paid" in 2014 and HAPA is NOT on that list. Rather HAPA is listed on Marisla's "Grants Approved" in 2014. That's a big difference and it means that HAPA may not have been paid that money in 2014, and hence it may not have been part of its 2014 revenue. So I ask how do you know it was? Likewise, the $10,000 from Herb Block is shown going to HAPA in 2015 (see Herb Block Foundation webpage). Note: I could not find the Herb Block Foundation tax return for 2014 online. (The $50,000 from the Ceres Trust to HAPA did indeed appear on Ceres tax return for 2014, as you said.). My point is that after examining the evidence, it appears that as much as $60,000 MAY NOT have gone to HAPA in 2014 as you allege, which is roughly half of their reported revenue for 2014. So perhaps HAPA has raised more local funds than you are aware of. --Reader in Kapaa

Anonymous said...

"Problem? What problem?" said Lois Lerner.

Joan Conrow said...

It's possible, 11:43. It's also possible they received even more funding from other foundations. Since HAPA doesn't disclose its funding sources, we just have to look at the returns of foundation likely to support them. Many 2014 organization and foundation returns are not yet available, so we can't tell. Meanwhile, put the focus on "grassroots." Has HAPA hosted publicly announced chili-and-rice fundraisers? Done any direct-mail fundraising? I mean, c'mon.

Anonymous said...

Actually HAPA has done direct mail fundraising and been very active via email.

Joan Conrow said...

Well, they didn't declare any income from fundraising on their tax return.

Anonymous said...

And then back to the "lobby bill" Da Hoos introduced.
Most of the power for change on Kauai comes from FORMER County workers.
All development is handled by Mr Belles-former County Attorney, Mr Youn-former County Planning Director, Mr Chung former Senator...and Mr Kouchi, who in his brief hiatus from elected office worked for Kauai Lagoons and FIXED and uploaded their density. And many others.

But the complex part is that the above mentioned people are paragons of virtue and honesty. Smart and caring. Good ethical people.

Da Hoos is the only politician who has no power or influence from his former comrades. He is pissed off by the lack of respect and influence given him from the Senate and others he has touched thru the years in his powerful positions. This really really hurts his jiggly feelings.
Maybe honesty, integrity and virtue do stand for something after all.
Thus the lobby Law. If he gots no power..no one gets no power.

Penny said...

Dear Joan;
You know very well that E kupaku ka aina does not engage in the GMO issue. In fact, you were paid as a grant writer by EKKA as the fiscal sponsor of the Taro Security and Purity Task Force for two years. The funding from the Ceres Trust to EKKA goes specifically and entirely to the critically important work of preserving and propagating traditional Hawaiian kalo varieties, including critical support for several public collections such as the Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden, which is sadly being dispensed of by the Bishop Museum, Maui Nui Botanical Gardens, the UH CTAHR Molokai collection and UH Lyon Arboretum; as well as researching the traditional agricultural practices that once accompanied their planting. Some of our other work includes research in the control of apple snails, something any taro farmer plagued by this pest will tell you is a major priority. EKKA, unlike the some entities, neither regulates nor dictates the personal opinions of its staff (by the way, you (or actually GLP and Jon Entine) continue to refer to testimony that dates back to the GMO Taro ban issue more than 5 years ago which clearly establishes personal testimony). First and foremost, I personally, will always stand by the need to be responsible for 70 years of poor soil practices and to heal our soils before ANY approach that does not address the real problem, no matter how good the science. Disappointed that you are repeating the same unsubstantiated rhetoric of the pro-GMO lobbyists. Continuing to drag EKKA's name into the GMO discussion is only a reflection on the caliber of the journalists, or lack thereof, that continue to repeat this nonsense. You pride yourself on being a good journalist. So, have the honesty of a better journalist and the decency of someone who claims to care for our local communities to correct your disingenuous and libelous statement that EKKA is a funder of and/or involved in the anti-gmo movement merely because we receive funding from the Ceres Trust - and to post this in its entirety so that others will also know the truth. Lawa.
Penny

Joan Conrow said...

Oh come on, Penny. We both know EKKA and the Taro Task Force are antiGMO but pretend they aren't because the Legislature mandated that the task force is supposed to be impartial.

Anonymous said...

There was also a connection between the SHAKA movement and Gamble of Proctor and Gamble through the THRIVE Group?