Campbell's Big Fat Green BPA Lie -- and the Sustainability Activists that Enabled It

By John Entine

  

How did the world’s largest soup company go from pariah to paragon over its use of the controversial chemical bisphenol A? It lied, and credulous NGOs and chemophobic campaigners played willing patsies. Here’s an ugly story of what happens when ideology corrupts science.  “I just don’t understand how Campbell’s is doing it,”……. Campbell’s, like many canned good companies, such as Heinz, ConAgra, Del Monte, Kroger and Wal-Mart, to name just a few, has faced strident attacks from a coalition of advocacy groups and what’s known as the “socially responsible business community” for using epoxy liners made in part with BPA in its canned goods. Regulators around the world uniformly say BPA safely protects against spoiling and poses no danger at the minute levels used in cans, but many activist groups portray it as a ‘child killer’……“Activism Works,” was the self-celebratory headline at TruthTheory.com. “Campbell’s Drops BPA in Response to Health Activism, Outrage.”….. For the rest of its canned business—95% or more— Campbell’s has known since March 5 that the media was wrongly praising it for something it hasn’t done, and doesn’t even believe in.  Campbell’s, like its competitors, will stick with what’s safe and effective: BPA…..This is a sad story—for Campbell’s, for advocacy groups that may mean well but have lost their way and for large swaths of the “sustainability” and “progressive” communities, which increasingly rely on litmus test ideology….(To Read the Entire Article)

###