Professors on the Take

...The answer is no...

...Nutrition professor Eleanor Williams of the University of Maryland has worked with both student and citizen activists...

...One of Foster's colleagues is Dr...

...Ferry May 1961 Magic Carpet of Graft The railroad, whiskey, and sugar money that once formed the lifeblood of the grafter in this capital was nothing to the billions that have been flowing since World War II began...

...He has, moreover, testified in recent years at Congressional and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hearings on behalf of Kellogg, Nabisco, Carnation Milk, the Cereal Institute, the Sugar Association, and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association...

...Although Stare's widely syndicated newspaper column notes his Harvard affiliation, it makes no mention of his food industry connections...

...His advice contradicts one of the few widely accepted nutritional principles — that Americans eat far too much sugar...

...The Villain We are deluding ourselves when we think that we can defend the undefendable, control the uncontrollable, and inspect the uninspectable...

...The public receives most of its information on food problems from newspaper reports and television and radio interviews which quote consumer advocates, industry spokesmen, and apparently unbiased professors...

...Cobalt, used to stabilize beer foam, was finally banned in 1965 after killing dozens of heavy beer drinkers...

...George Shepherd April 1959...

...The Office of Maternal and Child Health's scientific adviser is Dr...

...In the last analysis, it is more important that African children go to school, that malaria and other killers are eliminated, and that new industries for earning higher incomes are created than that African states are committed to engage in mutual nuclear annihilation in the event of a third world war...

...The chief tools of these self-styled consumer advocates, and...

...Various other members of the NAS-NRC food committees work for food and chemical companies full-time...

...Regardless of his objectivity and his competence, it appears there is a conflict of interest...

...As long as collaboration with industry continues to be viewed by the academic community as ethical and respectable, it is important that the public know about potential sources of bias...

...Samuel Epstein, for instance, a pharmacology professor at Case Western Reserve University, has long worked with citizens groups and Congressional committees on problems related to food additives and environmental pollutants...

...The Department of Pediatrics at the University of Iowa, a major research center for infant nutrition, receives about 20 per cent of its research support from companies, including Gerber and infant formula manufacturers...

...Their affiliations must be carefully scrutinized to assure unimpaired judgments...

...In the late 1960s, MSG (monosodium glutamate), a common flavoring, was alleged to cause severe burning sensations and other painful symptoms and was later shown to cause brain damage in young mice...

...Violet No...

...At the most prominent universities, eminent nutritionists have traded their independence for the food industry's favors...

...they use them well, are exaggeration and facts taken out of context...

...Alfred E. Harper, chairman of the Department of Nutritional Sciences, to which the Food Research Institute also funnels grants...

...When professors are in a position to influence public policy, by speaking to the press or sitting on advisory committees, this information is vital...

...Brewers Association...

...Stange is a leading manufacturer of flavorings, colorings, spices, and other food ingredients...

...Despite such ringing platitudes and noble aims, many professors are on the take, according to our extensive survey...

...The professorial practice of maintaining ties with industry is an old one which is certain to continue...

...It is difficult to know the extent to which their philosophies have been molded by industrial grants and honoraria...

...The quality of the American diet has been the subject of many Congressional hearings, documentaries, and exposes...

...George Owen, professor of pediatrics at the Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, published an unrelated study supported entirely by Gerber...

...Its influence on infant feeding patterns is negligible compared to the role of baby food and formula manufacturers...

...Harvard's working relationship with industry has been a sound financial investment for Stare and the department, judging from the plethora of corporate grants it has received...

...Later that year, when consumer groups criticized high-sugar breakfast cereals in a petition filed with the FDA, the Cereal Institute (a trade association) praised the Harvard study in a press release headed "Scientific Studies Prove Cereals Don't Cause Cavities, Are Vital in Nation's Diet...

...It is impossible to link a particular death to a food additive consumed long before...

...This approach would provide the public with necessary information regarding conflicts of interest, while completely respecting the privacy of the professors...

...New mechanisms are needed to ensure industrial research support without impairing the professor's objectivity...

...In sharp contrast to the pervasive and multifarious links between professors and industry, professorial associations with consumer groups are rare...

...Predictably, industry-financed studies generally support the industry's interests...

...Frances Larkin, head of the University of Michigan's nutrition department, helped students form the Food Action Coalition and organize the nation's most active Food Day activity in 1975...

...Foster's scorn of consumer advocates is consonant with industry's...

...Tight connections between the academic community and industry bode ill for responsible corporate practices, a safe food supply, and vigorous investigations...

...For the past five years Dr...

...They must also disclose any significant financial interests which may bear upon these issues...

...Mayer has a syndicated nutrition column comparable to Stare's...

...In such matters, respect for individual privacy must yield to society's right to know...

...Funds would be dispensed by a panel composed of scientists without industry ties, consumer leaders, and a few industry representatives...

...Lechowich, head of the Department of Food Science and Technology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, was another department head who refused to disclose his corporate connections, stating, "Since control of conflicts of interest are exercised, the request for names of firms and consulting fees are not pertinent to the question...

...The Office of Maternal and Child Health in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare is the only Government agency concerned with infant nutrition...

...There has never been a single proven case of humans being hurt from eating normal quantities of food containing additives...

...However, the composition of the Food Protection Committee of the Board indicates that potential conflicts of interest are of little concern to it...

...For example, the pesticides 2, 4, 5-T (birth defects), DDT, aldrin, and dieldrin (cancer) have all been banned from food crops...

...Any grant will induce a certain amount of gratitude on the recipient's part and discourage him from being a major critic of the donor — particularly if there is a chance for a second grant...

...His columns and articles in defense of sugar and food additives have neglected to disclose his intimate ties to the sugar and chemical industries...

...Although industry spends far more on advertising than on academic research, it does dispense millions of dollars in grants to hundreds of professors...

...One probable reason for this silence is the grants and supplies given by baby food and formula manufacturers to researchers in the field...

...Intimate working relationships between professors and executives inevitably lead to friendships, sympathy, and reluctance to alienate future sources of grants or job possibilities for oneself or one's students...

...Pediatric nutritionists, for example, have been singularly uncritical and close-mouthed about high-sugar baby food desserts and the switch from breast-feeding to canned formula...

...According to Ralph Nader, "The Academy can be considered the preeminent forum through which individual scientists, acting as responsible citizens and rendering their best professional judgments, can have a significant impact on major technological events...

...For all but the most scrupulous, there is one huge charge account...

...Members of NAS-NRC committees and consultants are asked to submit a routine statement listing potential sources of bias...

...Yet the Academy has no criteria for deciding whether a conflict of interest actually exists...

...Biases can also develop indirectly — through fraternization with industrial executives at conventions and scientific meetings, conducting seminars at Benjamin Rosenthal is a Democratic Representative from New York...

...He has supplemented his income by consulting for G.D...

...Professor R.V...

...He is, however, known to serve on the board of directors of Universal Foods, a manufacturer of specialty products and a leading importer of gourmet and fancy processed foods...

...Stare has been on the board of directors of Continental Can Company, a major food packaging firm, for twelve years...

...Filer was subsequently selected to chair the Food and Nutrition Board, a position he held until 1975...

...and the National Automatic Merchandising Association, the vending industry trade association...

...Harper acknowledged under oath at an FDA hearing that he receives about 20 per cent of his income from consultant fees...

...The villain in today's great melodrama is not Russia, not the United States, but the versatility of technology...

...Professor Elwood Caldwell, head of the University of Minnesota's Department of Nutrition and Food Science, remarked, "All continuing consulting or retainer agreements at this university must be disclosed to and approved by its central officers and are public information obtainable from the University...

...Foster, recently named to a U.S...

...The University of Massachusetts Department of Nutrition and Food Science, for example, receives more than one-third of its research funds from industry...

...The group would use a small part of the pool to develop priorities and criteria for giving grants...

...professors would apply for grants, as they do to the Government...

...Society needs the academic community's help in offsetting this powerful advantage...

...The shaping of public policy by professors who have ties with industry goes far beyond teaching and interviews...

...The songs many nutrition professors sing indicate that the bread they eat is baked by Ralston-Purina, Quaker Oats, Gerber, Pillsbury, General Foods, or other corporate giants...

...Despite the compelling need for experts who can subject the food industry to critical examination, the nutrition and food science communities have fallen under the $200-billion industry's influence...

...Because government is the largest supporter of university research, industry support usually amounts to only a fraction of a department's budget...

...Our recent survey of nutrition and food science departments reveals that eminent nutritionists have abandoned their professional independence to curry the favor of the food magnates...

...If a chairman — particularly one who has served for more than three decades — can be presumed to influence his department's philosophy, Stare's influence certainly encourages good will toward corporations...

...But for the sake of healthy debates and healthy bodies, we can only hope that some food science professors will choose this recipe for action...

...The column, like Stare's, notes the Harvard affiliation and neglects the corporate ties...

...Requests to University President C. Peter Magrath and others, however, proved fruitless...

...Industry has impressive resources with which to communicate its opinions to the public, particularly through publications and advertising...

...It provides important information and support to companies while supplementing professors' salaries...

...It can even be made into a magic carpet that will circle the globe in junkets for Senators, junkets for businessmen, junkets for publishers, junkets for government officials, junkets for reporters, junkets, if he knows how to get aboard, for everybody...

...Two other committee members also had done research for interested parties: Lloyd Hazelton, founder of the Hazelton laboratory, had been hired by IMC to conduct MSG studies...

...Percy commented, "He is judge and jury...

...The turgid prose of the University of Wisconsin's pamphlet on Faculty Rights and Responsibilities solemnly defines the independence of a scholar: "In serving a free society the scholar must himself be free...

...The concern is not so much that additives will kill on the spot, but that they contribute to cancer and other problems which show up only after many years...

...The committee cannot find, however, that the usage confers any benefit to the child, and therefore recommends that MSG not be added to foods specifically designated for infants...

...Phillip Boffey, author of an expose of the political and corporate pressures which undermine the Academy's objectivity (Brain Bank of America), has described the Academy's response to the partisanship of these committee members: "Filer defends these relationships by pointing out that the Committee needed knowledgeable experts and that there are few proficient food scientists who have not, at one time or other, received research support from the food industry...

...But the committee did note, "The risk associated with using MSG in foods for infants is extremely small...

...In order to help the companies, Labuza has sold his services to General Mills, Searle Biochemics (a drug company), Pillsbury, Hunt-Wesson, and Quaker Oats...

...Financial ties to huge food corporations may shade the 'expert testimony' of nutritionists Professors on the Take BENJAMIN ROSENTHAL, MICHAEL JACOBSON, and MARCY BOHM "Whose bread I eat, his song I sing," was former Senator Sam Ervin's down-home way of describing the biases that can develop when money changes hands...

...A less suitable policy would be disclosure of how many professors have ties with which companies, naming the businesses, but not the members...

...The three baby food companies (Gerber, Heinz, Beech-Nut) and three formula companies (Ross, Mead-Johnson, Abbott) sponsor full-page ads in magazines read by new mothers, send salesmen to visit doctors, offer free formula to hospitals and new mothers, and place free promotional materials in government-funded clinics...

...Stare has refused to disclose to us the companies which currently employ him...

...The food industry provided about $2 million from 1971 to 1974...

...Industry would contribute money to a central pool...

...Joan Gussow, chairperson of the Nutrition Education Department at Columbia Teachers College, has been especially critical of junk-food advertising aimed at young children and has worked closely with Action for Children's Television...

...He has assisted consumer advocacy groups as well as the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, which deserves credit for alerting the public to nutrition problems...

...The University's Food Research Institute received $635,390 in 1975 from dozens of food, packaging, and drug companies and trade associations...

...Bringing the industry-academy nexus into the open would be the most reliable way of discouraging corporate co-optation...

...Individuals who work with such organizations as NAS on government contract jobs become, in effect, public employes...

...Even the University of Wisconsin, which declares that "the scholar must himself be free," is ensnared in a web of corporate connections...

...While a great many professors work closely with industry, only a small minority of professors has shown a deep commitment to working with citizens groups...

...Senator Charles Percy, Illinois Republican, expressed concern about Dr...

...Harper heads a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) committee which meets every five years to determine "recommended dietary allowances" of vitamins, minerals, and protein...

...Women's Wear Daily, for example, interviewed Stare, who declared that "most people could healthily double their sugar intake daily...

...The Harvard School of Public Health's Department of Nutrition receives a substantial percentage of its budget from industry, but declines to disclose the exact amount...

...The basic annual membership fee seems to be $20,000, and the funds support research projects at the Institute as well as at several other departments in the university...

...It should include all outside activities, amounts of time spent, and payment [if any] received...

...Inquiries to the university department heads met with equal evasiveness...

...He declines to disclose the names of the companies for which he consults...

...Americans worry about mounting evidence that our foods contribute to such widespread health problems as diabetes, tooth decay, obesity, allergies, heart disease, constipation, and bowel cancer...

...A number of pesticides (such as DDT) and other "incidental" additives also have been banned...

...In an article entitled "Nutrition Experts Cite Information Foul," Clydesdale wrote: "In order to supply wholesome, high quality food in today's over-populated, urbanized world, nearly all foods must be processed and preserved...

...Several members serve simultaneously as professors and corporate consultants or directors...

...Unless an author's name is appended, the material appeared as editorial comment...

...Michael Jacobson and MarcyBohm are associated with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a public interest organization with headquarters in Washington, D.C...

...Mayer has repeatedly voiced his concern over food industry advertising and the quality of the American diet...

...Such a sacrifice does not seem to be an undue infringement of privacy where the decision rendered affects millions of lives...

...The Food and Nutrition Board is one of the most influential advisory committees...

...When a copy of the record is requested, it would not be unreasonable to follow the example of Federal agencies and to make a charge for providing a copy...

...Yet the special seven-member committee appointed by the Food Protection Committee to study MSG had close ties to industry...

...In the three years after Stare told a Congressional hearing on the nutritional value of cereals that "breakfast cereals are good foods," the Harvard School of Public Health received about $200,000 from Kellogg, Nabisco, and their related corporate foundations...

...Searle Company (which produces drugs and some food additives) for up to $10,000 per year, Procter and Gamble (the giant soap and detergent manufacturer that also produces Folger's coffee, Pringles, and Jif peanut butter), McGaw Laboratories, Abbott Laboratories, General Mills, and Pillsbury...

...Many professors of nutrition, food science, and toxicology have been appointed to public or private committees that advise the Government and issue public statements that receive wide publicity...

...Among the benefactors were Kellogg ($20,000), McDonald's ($20,000), Nestle ($20,000), Campbell ($20,000), Kraftco ($20,000), General Mills ($10,000), and the Institute of Shortening and Edible Oils ($60,000...

...that honor has belonged to Jean Mayer (who was recently named president of Tufts University...

...So unreliable was the study that other dental specialists, including Dr...

...Professors should examine current practices with a critical eye, cooperating with citizens groups and speaking out publicly when problems come to light...

...One alternative is establishment of a non-profit, public interest group to "launder" contributions before they reach the university...

...Not unexpectedly, the Cereal Institute hid the fact that the Kellogg Company helped finance the study...

...In fact, one nutrition expert from the University of California estimated that diet-related illnesses cost consumers $30 billion a year...

...There is nothing wrong with any product you people sell, nothing...

...Developing ties to industry causes one to overlook problems, rationalize faults, and defend policies...

...Both Clydesdale and Labuza were reluctant to disclose their current outside affiliations to us...

...Ervin was talking about politicians, but the observation applies equally to professors...

...It issues authoritative reports on nutrition and food safety under the imprimatur of the National Academy of Sciences — National Research Council (NAS-NRC), a quasi-governmental agency established by Congress...

...Heightened consumer awareness in recent years has led press and public alike to rely on the academic community for objective analyses of controversial consumer problems...

...he believes that consumer advocates "hold the uncompromising view that industry and the regulatory agencies are in league to rip off the consumer, and they are determined to change matters through restrictive legislation...

...The statements are never made public...

...The Kifer article failed to mention that he was a "food expert" at Ralston-Purina, a major agribusiness and grain conglomerate, for almost sixteen years before he moved to Oregon State...

...The security of the scholar protects him not only against those who would enslave the mind but also against anxieties which divert him from his role as scholar and teacher...

...Of the eighteen professors responding to our survey who noted any association with consumer groups, half of the links consisted of token involvement, such as subscribing to Consumer Reports or belonging to Common Cause...

...One need go no further than the front door for the first indication— a wall plaque thanking General Foods for funding the research facilities...

...As a key adviser to the Federal Government, one would expect the Academy to avoid potential conflicts of interest by limiting participation of individuals with corporate ties...

...Harper had held a faculty chair sponsored by General Foods at M.I.T., and when he moved to Wisconsin, the $50,000 support went along with him...

...If any system of restraint and non-recourse to arms can be made to work in the face of this versatility, it will have to be self-imposed----Self-restraint is not difficult when we know that the penalty is death...

...The comparative impact of government and industry efforts can be judged by noting that only 25 per cent of American babies are breast-fed for more than a week, and that supermarkets stock dozens of high-sugar baby foods (some providing up to 44 per cent of their calories by added sugar...

...corporate headquarters, or pursuing industry contacts to help graduate students obtain jobs...

...The rewards for this, of course, are psychological rather than financial...

...The chemical additives which saturate our foods have often been found dangerous...

...And World War II added devices that are still with us, the cost-plus contract and the excess profits tax...

...Clydesdale consults for the Carnation Co...

...The Center's statement of policy stipulates: "Participants in the Center's research studies are required to disclose their past, present, or anticipated consultant or other relationships, whether or not compensated, with special interest groups, labor unions, corporate entities, and other institutions which may have positions on particular issues of concern to the Center in its work...

...Yet few reporters inquire into corporate ties which might bias the judgments or philosophy of the professors they cite...

...From there, one can proceed to the annual Treasurer's Financial Report to the Board of Overseers of Harvard College...

...At the same time, it impinges on professors' commitment to their students and their allegiance to professional objectivity...

...The 1973 report (the 1971, 1972, and 1974 reports are similar) lists as donors to the Department of Nutrition the Amstar (sugar) Corporation, Beatrice Foods, Carnation Company, Coca-Cola, Continental Can Company, Gerber Products, International Sugar Research Foundation, Kellogg Company, Kraftco (cheese), Oscar Mayer & Co., Miles Laboratories, Monsanto, Nutrition Foundation, the Sugar Association, and more than a dozen other food industry giants, plus a smattering of drug companies...

...The chairman of the MSG committee, Iowa Pediatrics Professor Lloyd Filer, admitted that members of his research team had recently received grants from International Minerals and Chemicals Corporation (IMC), the major producer of MSG (it makes Accent), and Gerber Products Company, which had used MSG in baby foods until public pressure forced it to stop...

...Rivaling direct payments to professors as a source of bias are research grants funneled through the departments...

...Foster, who, in responding to our survey, noted his membership in Consumers Union (i.e., he subscribes to the magazine Consumer Reports) but neglected to mention his membership on the board of directors of the Stange Corporation since 1972...

...The Center for Law and Economic Studies, based at the Columbia University Law School, is one of the few academic institutions to adopt such a guideline...

...Filer, in addition, had been the medical director of Ross Laboratories, an infant formula manufacturer, for twelve years...

...Some professors who moonlight for industry, such as Stare and Clydesdale, defend industry and attack consumer activists so vehemently that they have become known as food-industry apologists...

...Fredrick Stare, who has conducted respected studies on heart disease, has been chairman of the nutrition department at Harvard since it was founded in 1942...

...A more active and formal policy is appropriate for government advisory committees...

...Unfortunately, many professors have developed extensive ties with the same industries of which they are asked to be objective analysts...

...THE WAY WE SAW IT These excerpts from articles and editorials published during The Progressive's sixty-seven year history have been edited only to achieve brevity...

...Instead, each referred us to university administrators...

...The final report on MSG, quoting both Filer's and Hazelton's research, concluded that MSG was safe...

...What Lechowich, Schweigert, and other corporate consultants realize is that secret review of conflicts of interest is tantamount to no review at all...

...Clydesdale has defended the use of sodium nitrite as a preservative in baby food — a practice which not even baby-food producers defend...

...Department of Agriculture advisory committee (as the sole university representative), has charged that consumer activists "have complicated and confused the decision-making process," which has long been dominated by corporate giants...

...The FDA contracted with the Academy to investigate the evidence...

...To maintain such a record, and update it, would not be a particular burden...

...The director of the Food Research Institute is Dr...

...The vending machines which are overpopulating the world preclude nutritious choices, since coffee and soda pop account for 60 per cent of all vended food, with candy, gum, and other non-nutritious items constituting another 20 per cent...

...However, even the Academy's own staff later acknowledged that Filer should probably not have been asked to serve as chairman of the panel, though it defended Filer's probity and saw no reason why he should not serve as a member of the Committee...

...But an even more serious consequence than creating a professional advocate is the gag-effect of company money...

...These individuals should be willing to disclose such information as professional consultantships when public policy is involved...

...Professor Fergus Clydesdale of the Nutrition and Food Science Department at the University of Massachusetts is a frequent public defender of the food industry...

...Even if we leave aside the many persons who are severely allergic to food additives (one young boy who was sensitive to peanuts died a few years ago after eating ice cream that contained a little peanut butter), Kifer's statement is highly misleading...

...Clydesdale's resume also notes: "Informal counseling to several major food industries, as well as major [artificial] color equipment manufacturers...

...Dean Abrahamson, professor of public affairs at the University of Minnesota, has offered his own prescription to discourage conflicts of interest: "At a minimum I think that a listing of each faculty member's outside activities — whether recurring or not — should be maintained in the departmental office and that this file should be open to any and all that wish to look at it...

...Kifer assured the readers: "Don't worry about food additives...

...When interviewing professors about matters that may affect a corporation or industry, reporters should routinely inquire into that professor's industrial ties...

...Nevertheless, Mayer, like Stare, has lent his prestige to food and chemical companies...

...Work in close cooperation with several food industries who are currently funding research in the color and chemical area...

...Filer currently consults for a variety of companies and received more than $17,000 between 1970 and 1974 for his services...

...Mayer has been on the board of directors of Monsanto, which manufactures food flavorings, preservatives (such as sodium benzoate and sorbic acid), pesticides, fertilizer, and other food industry chemicals...

...Professor Theodore Labuza of the University of Minnesota's Department of Nutrition and Food Science has said: "Let's face it, the food industry has to make a profit, otherwise it will not be able to keep providing us with food...

...Herschel Horowitz of the National Institute of Dental Research, wrote to the Journal of the American Dental Association, where the Har-vard-Kellogg study was published, to attack it...

...At a convention of vending industry executives, Clydesdale declared, "There are no such things as junk foods, scientifically they don't exist...

...It is possible that some of Fomon's lack of zeal in getting HEW to inform women about breastfeeding and to exercise greater control over the composition of baby foods is attributable to the grants and consulting fees which he and his laboratory at the University of Iowa receive from Gerber, Mead-Johnson, Wyeth, Nestle, Ross Laboratories, and CPC International (Mazola margarine, Skippy peanut butter...

...W. McNeil Lowry September 1951 Outdated in Africa We are wedded to outdated security commitments in Africa...

...Copyright® 1976 by Benjamin Rosenthal, Michael Jacobson, and Marcy Bohm...

...The Office publishes a few poorly distributed pamphlets on infant care and feeding...

...That people should indeed worry about food additives is suggested by the FDA's ban on at least twenty-five apparently safe food additives over the last six decades...

...Only thus can he seek the truth, develop wisdom, and contribute to society those expressions of the intellect that ennoble mankind...

...He now receives an annual honorarium from Ralston-Purina and serves on an advisory board of the U.S...

...Since 1972 he has also served on the board of directors of Miles Laboratories, which makes food flavorings and other additives, imitation meat substitutes, and even synthetic fruit bits...

...Harvard University's Department of Nutrition, one of the most prestigious, is riddled with corporate influence...

...When the members of a committee are announced, corporate ties should also be listed...

...Samuel Fomon, a widely respected expert on infant nutrition...

...Such ties take many forms, from providing one-shot advice to accepting long-term research grants, from representing companies at Congressional hearings to maintaining consultant relationships and even serving on trade association committees and boards of directors...

...W.H...

...Professor Bernard Schweigert, chairman of the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of California-Davis, also refused to disclose any information...

...Yet Fredrick Stare is not the most prominent member of the Harvard nutrition department...

...Hazelton's conflict of interest after the doctor testified on behalf of the Grocery Manufacturers of America, the food industry's major lobbying group...

...It is very hard to justify having people serve on a panel who have been in the employment of the very companies that are making products that they are called forth to judge...

...Caldwell worked for nineteen years for Quaker Oats Company before forsaking his position as director of research...

...1 food dye (cancer), DEPC (cancer), and some uses of sodium nitrite (cancer) have also been banned in the past decade...

...When asked whether his corporate ties cast a shadow on his pronouncements, he maintained, "I really honestly feel I have not reduced my credibility...

...the public is simply asked to place its faith in a nebulous and ineffective process...

...It should also include all grants and contracts that support either that faculty member, staff and students...

...In a recent column, Stare tried to dismiss the food-additive controversy: "Is there any reason for concern about food chemicals...

...The fields of nutrition and food science are typical...

...Receiving Consumer Reports entails rather less influence than serving on a corporate board of directors or receiving a $15,000 industrial grant...

...Nevertheless, industrial grants are often substantial and they become more crucial to some departments as the Federal Government reduces its science budget...

...Harvard's reputation was invoked in defense of breakfast cereals in 1974, when two researchers at the School of Dental Medicine published a paper purporting to show that pre-sweetened cereals do not contribute to tooth decay...

...The study, moreover, was designed in such a way that tooth decay caused by sugar-coated cereals never could be detected...

...About 20 per cent of Filer's research funds come from industrial sources...

...Food and chemical companies donate research funds to professors directly, as well as through their conduit, the Nutrition Foundation...

...The high-fat, high-sugar, low-fiber content of the American diet has been identified as a major factor in hundreds of thousands of deaths annually...

...Professor Paul Kifer, head of the Department of Food Science and Technology at Oregon State University, was referred to in one article as "a top food expert...