Who wouldn’t want to support organizations with names like “CropLife America,” “Coalition for Sustainable Organics,” or “Food Science Matters?” But, be careful! Just because something is stated in a title, doesn’t make it so.

It turns out that industry trade/lobby groups, the progenitors of corporate propaganda, can be highly deceptive when naming themselves and it takes a bit more research to find out the true make-up and intent of an organization.

CropLife America actually represents the interests of pesticide manufacturers. And, right now, the “Coalition for Sustainable Organics” is squaring off with farmer-members of the Cornucopia Institute, a non-profit public interest group where I serve as the Farm and Food Policy Analyst. How could the farmers we work with be against “sustainable organics?”

However, this is actually a front group for industrial-scale hydroponic operations, substituting the term “container growing” for "hydroponics."