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Sustainable Food Trust and Patrick Holden: Organic industry front group and head operative lobby for organic agri-businesses, aligns with discredited biotech activist-critics, disguises funding sources

Updated January 30, 2022 |

Genetic Literacy Project

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The Sustainable Food Trust (SFT) is one of the most prominent organizations in the UK promoting organic food. It also acts as a primary critic of genetic engineering in agriculture, including genetically modified and gene edited crops.

SFT was founded in 2011 by Patrick Holden, a former UK Soil Association director (1995-2010), as an organic and biodynamic farming advocacy and anti-GMO activist organization. SFT promotes organic agroecology farming systems that it claims are best positioned to provide solutions to food system problems. SFT states it is “committed to facing challenges and exploring natural and organic solutions for a food production system that causes the least possible harm to both humans and the environment.” It lobbies against GMOs, gene edited crops and the use of synthetic pesticides.

SFT has a tangled financial structure, and is notorious for hiding funding sources. It traces its roots to the U.S.-based Sustainable Food Alliance (SFA). Originally called the “Friends of the Soil Association”, SFA was co-founded in 2005 by Holden in partnership with U.S. organic publishing scion Anthony Rodale, now Rodale Organic’s Chairman Emeritus, but with no intention of doing any outreach work in the U.S.; it was set-up as a shell fund-raising organization, originally to support the Soil Association, the UK pro-organic trade and lobby group. SFT and SFA are chaired by Rodale, while Holden serves as executive director of both organizations. Rodale is one of the SFT/SFA’s largest donors.

img e x — Patrick Holden (left) with Anthony Rodale at 2015 Food Tank Summit in Washington DC

The two groups even share the same logo, a styled “S”.SFT is known as much for its attacks on conventional agriculture, genetic engineering in particular, as for its promotion of organic agri-business interests. It has funded multiple discredited activist scientists critical of genetically modified technologies, including Gilles-Eric Séralini [see GLP Profile], the scientist behind the retracted study claiming GMO corn/glyphosate caused cancer; and Judy Carman [see GLP Profile], notoriously known for a 2013 study in the little-known open access Journal of Organic Systems purporting to show evidence of a link between genetically modified maize and inflammation of the stomach in pigs.^[1]^[2]^[3]SFT paid more than $2 million to King’s College London researcher Michael Antoniou, an anti-GMO activist scientist notoriously known for his suspect research on glyphosate toxicity. It also funded his King’s College colleague Robin Message, a toxicologist, who works as a consultant for U.S. glyphosate litigators and for an integrative, holistic and natural medicine fasting clinic in Germany that sells organic detoxifying supplements.

All of the scientists funded by SFT have failed to report their funding sources in various academic studies or to the European Parliament. (Throughout the entire time Mesnage was at King’s College and publishing his deceptive research on glyphosate, 100% of his salary reportedly was provided by the Safe Food Alliance – essentially making him an employee of Patrick Holden.)

The SFT became a UK registered charity in August 2012, but its finances remain murky. [See “Funding Sources” below]. Total income in the latest fiscal year reported, ending in 2020, were £919,197. SFT does not disclose all of its actual donors; almost all are hidden because they funnel money through the SFA in the United States. SFA represents on its website that it stands for “transparency” in the agriculture sector but its funding and operational structure are anything but. SFA provides no information on the donors behind its funding except to state on its website that it “currently receives the majority of our funding from individual donors and grant making trusts”. SFA has no paid staff or expenditures in the U.S.; it’s expenditures each year are for the support of SFT operations and SFT-campaigns. In essence, SFT’s ‘grant making trust’ in part exists as a shell entity, with the U.S.-based SFA its largest annual donor, providing nearly US$10 million since its creation.

Intentionally or not, this structure allows SFT to effectively circumvent standard UK Charities Commission government disclosure requirements. Unlike rules in the U.K., U.S. NGOs are not required to publicly disclose individual donor names,^[4]and SFA does not do so voluntarily unlike many other organizations (such as the Genetic Literacy Project). Since SFA raises funds from undisclosed donors in the U.S. and elsewhere that are then “contributed” surreptitiously to SFT, SFT in effect side-steps the UK Charities Commission government-required reporting requirements.

In sum: SFT is structured in part as front group, with its primary financial support coming from its U.S.-based sibling, Sustainable Food Alliance, which appears structured to disguise its primary funders. Critics have called the SFT-SFA structure a form of ‘donation laundering’ with a shell company set up to disguise the actual donors, including organic farming interests, with much of the money used not to promote sustainable agriculture but as a slush fund for propaganda campaigns and questionable research by notorious, discredited fringe critics of crop biotechnology.

History & Organization

Founded in the U.K. in 2011 by organic farming advocates Anthony Rodale (USA) and Patrick Holden (UK), the Sustainable Food Trust was created as a non-profit lobbying and influence vehicle by which co-founder and executive director Holden could (after leaving the Soil Association trade lobby group) continue to promote adoption of government standards and market policies to benefit supporters of organic production and marketing interests while restricting, increasing costs or outright banning non-organic conventional farming practices in the UK and beyond. Early board members supporting Rodale and Holden included anti-fast food author Eric Schlosser and Welsh organic farmer Peter Segger. Initial (and ongoing) funding came from Rodale (Rodale Publishing and Rodale Organic) and undisclosed donors to the U.S.-based Sustainable Food Alliance NGO charitable and lobbying arms.

Early campaigns mainly focused on discrediting competing farming interests and practiced and included promotion of various discredited studies claiming GMOs, pesticides (glyphosate in particular), and other modern farming tools cause human health and environmental harms.

SFT claims it now operates in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, Germany, Guernsey, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Scotland, South Korea, Sweden, Turkey, United States of America and Zimbabwe.

The Sustainable Food Trust (UK) and sibling organization Sustainable Food Alliance (USA) should be viewed as co-joined organizations. The relationship between SFT and SFA allows the NGOs to receive and transfer financial support with less transparency and public reporting requirements. SFA chair Rodale is also chairman of trustees for SFT and Holden serves on as executive director of both SFA and SFT, SFT and SFA also share the same board secretary Claire Peeters – making the organizations essentially the same entity. Peeters and Holden are also paid by both SFA and SFT.

Sustainable Food Trust (SFT)
email: [email protected]
Sustainable Food Trust
38 Richmond Street, Totterdown,Bristol,BS3 4TQ
UK company number: 07577102
UK Charity register: 1148645 – SUSTAINABLE FOOD TRUST^[5]Telephone on +44 (0) 117 987 1467
Employees 11/ Volunteers 10 (2020)
Income/expenditures (year):£ 919,197/£818,981 (2020); £721.06k/£743.11k (2019); £742.95k/ £737.94k (2018); £677.87k/£624.22k (2017); £801,734/£619,262 (2016)^[6]

Domain Name: SUSTAINABLEFOODTRUST.ORG^[7]
Domain ID: D159871619-LROR
Creation Date: 2010-08-11T09:21:16Z
Updated Date: 2013-10-11T00:20:15Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2018-08-11T09:21:16Z
Sponsoring Registrar:Mesh Digital Limited (R1728-LROR)
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 1390
Registrant ID:MNTF7730199018
Registrant Name: Nicholas Ian Rogers (formerly with Organic Growers Inc, at the time of registration he was manager of Stongate organic farm)^[8]Registrant Organization: Nicholas Rogers
Registrant Address: 1 Pengover Heights, Liskeard, Cornwall,:PL143UA, GB (address for Blue Marble Consultants)^[9]Registrant Phone:+44.7710632852
Registrant Email:[email protected]

Campaigns/Activities

Via their SFA arm, SFT helped fund and promote various anti-pesticide initiatives including the discredited 2014 Séralini, GMO/glyphosate health risk and 2017 Jack Heinemann claims which alleged the herbicide glyphosate causes higher risks of conveying antibiotic resistance.^[10] SFT also promoted and helped finance other discredited research of Gilles Eric Séralini, claiming glyphosate and GMOs were linked to cancers and other health risks.^[11] Similarly, SFT also promoted the discredited Judy Carman claims that a GMO diet causes gut diseases.^[12]

However, SFT’s largest and longest ongoing campaign is linked to attacking glyphosate and herbicide-tolerant crops via more than $2 million in “research grants” from its SFA-arm to Michael Antoniou at Kings College. SFT’s statements about their role in promoting the 2012 Seralini and Antoniou glyphosate research (later discredited and retracted) claimed only “Professor Séralini, approached The Sustainable Food Trust to help communicate the results of the study on a global scale with Dr Michael Antoniou who is a Member of the CRIIGEN Scientific Council.”^[13] They did not disclose that SFA was in fact the donor (more than $500,000 at the time) to Antoniou for the glyphosate research. During this time neither Antoniou nor Seralini disclosed their financial relationship with SFA. The published article did not acknowledge the funding from SFA and the authors claimed, “The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests, and that, in contrast with regulatory assessments for GMOs and pesticides, they are independent from companies developing these products.”^[14]

SFT is active lobbying in support of organic-only agroecology food policy adoption in the post-Brexit U.K. National Food Strategy.^[15] Beyond organic principles, organization campaign themes and campaigns include:

True Cost Accounting
Sustainable Markets Initiative
Lobbying for agroecology organic policy adoption via U.N. Climate conferences
Nitrogen reporting on the negative climate impact of conventional, synthetic fertilizer use.
Steering committee roles with the Global Alliance for the Future of Food and the Oxford Impact Evaluation group.
The Harmony Project to inject organic promoting philosophies and claims in school children education – a passion project of Anthony Rodale and Prince Charles to inject the “grammar of nature” into education. Funds supported Anthony Rodale marathon running, photography and fundraising in support of organic farming.^[16]

In addition to glyphosate, SFT has also been active in lobbying against other herbicides (dicamba, 2,4-D) and insecticides (neonicotinoids) in the UK and EU. In many pesticide-related campaign examples, SFT’s sibling organization SFA funded ‘pesticide research’ with reliably anti-pesticide activist academics including Gils-Eric Séralini, Michael Antoniou, and Robin Mesnage whose views the SFT then helped coordinate publicity and amplify, although the scientists represented themselves as simply interested third-parties.^[17] SFT documents reveal close coordination between the NGO and hired researchers throughout the entire processes.^[18]

Key people

Patrick Holden, chief executive (also listed as the executive director for the U.S.-based Sustainable Food Alliance) Holden is paid a reported £120,000 – 130,000 in salary from SFT based on UK Charities reports while SFA tax filings claim to have no paid employees. Notably, virtually all of the SFA annual expenditures are noted as transfers to foreign charities – specifically and the largest beneficiary being SFT, other beneficiaries are STF campaigns and pesticide researchers working closely with SFT.
Henry Rowlands, former employee (SFT Chief editor 2011-2012), currently runs Sustainable Pulse, GMO-Séralini and various campaigns attacking plant biotechnology and conventional agriculture.^[19]
Claire Peeters, company secretary, head of operations (also corporate secretary for the U.S.-based Sustainable Food Alliance) reportedly paid between £90,000 – 100,000 by SFT, like Holden, SFA reports no payments for her services to that organization).

Board of Directors/Trustees

Anthony Rodale (USA) Chairman – see Rodale Institute (appointed March 2018).
Thomas Harttung (Denmark) – a farmer and forester on a 1,800 acre biodynamic estate in Jutland, Denmark. In 1999, he co-founded Aarstiderne (“the seasons” in Danish), an organic box scheme that went from being a small scale network supplying friends and family to one of the world’s largest organic box scheme with over 45,000 customers across Denmark and Sweden. Thomas also serves on the board of the Nordic Food Lab and the MAD Food Symposium.
Christina Lee Brown (USA) – lives in Louisville, Kentucky. The Brown family business, Brown – Forman, includes such brands as Jack Daniels, Southern Comfort, Old Forester and Woodford Reserve.
George Kailis (Australia) – a prominent food producer in Australia. His family has enjoyed a long history of successful large-scale food businesses (seafood, farming, processed food, restaurants), as well as fast food chains such as Red Rooster and Pizza Hut. From 2000, the focus of the Kailis family was inspired towards a more sustainable seafood production in line with MSC certification. Building on his extensive connections in the Australian Food Movement, he is a key member of the Australian sister institution, the Safe Food Foundation/Institute.
Peter Seeger (UK)- one of Britain’s organic pioneers. Since 1974, he has owned and run a 45-acre farm in West Wales producing organic fruits and vegetables for a box scheme, local farmers and shops. In the 1980’s he founded Organic Farm Foods, which is now the largest specialist supplier of organic fresh produce in the UK. He has been a member of the Soil Association Council for over 35 years.
Jane Parker – Lady Jane Parker, organic farm holder in the UK.^[20]

Staff

Richard Young, Policy Director
Erica Davies, PA to the Chief Executive
Adele Jones, External Relations Manager, Deputy CEO
Megan Perry, Policy and Communications Officer
Alicia Miller, Website Editor
Hannah Steenbergen, Projects Officer
Morwenna Lewis, Senior Finance and Administration Officer
Bonnie Welch, Projects Assistant
Ian Fitzpatrick, Senior Researcher

Funding sources

In 2020, SFT reported 32% of fund from trusts and foundations, 55% from individual donors, and 13% from consulting and other fees. The U.S.-based Sustainable Food Alliance is the largest annual donor to SFT accounting for at least 20% or more of it’s income annually.^[21] Notably, nearly 100% of SFA’s budget is transferred annually to SFT or SFT-campaigns (allowing SFT to fund/promote activities without required UK Charities-related reporting). For example, in 2019 SFA transferred US$618,000 of its $640,000 budget split between SFT and Kings College (Michael Antoniou) for research into the “toxic health risks of glyphosate” — a campaign promoted by SFT.^[22]

Acknowledged donors (2016-2020) included:^[23], ^[24]

The Sustainable Food Alliance, Inc (USA) (largest annual donor to SFT – see supplemental information below)
Anthony Rodale
The New Venture Fund (a donor-directed U.S. based philanthropy which allows individuals, corporations and other groups to fund projects without disclosing their identities).
Prince of Wales Foundation (one of the largest annual donors to SFT)
The Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Foundation (one of the largest annual donors to SFT; Esmee is one of the UK’s largest charitable groups which also supports various “natural world” projects and promotes meditation and mindfulness health similar to that of the Maharishi movement.)
The Ashden Trust
The Mark Leonard Trust
The RH Southern Trust
Garfield Weston Foundation
Camilla Davidson
Earthsong Foundation
Farming the Future Fund
B&J Lloyd family Charitable Trust
Allen Sanguines Krause
Sarah Brook
AHDB Beef and Lamb
The Matthew Eyton Animal Welfare Trust
Jeremy and Britta Lloyd
Bryan and Tara Meehan
Sir Alan and Lady Jane Parker
The Rafphael Trust
The Rothschild Foundation
The Persula Foundation
Patricia Ross
various Anonymous Donors
Little Rollright Farm

The Sustainable Food Alliance (SFA). The SFA is a US tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization which works in partnership with the Sustainable Food Trust and raises funds to support sustainable food programs. SFT discloses donations from SFA, but not the actual donors whose support of the SFA benefitted the SFT. Those SFA donors included:

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (US – see also the AgroEcology Fund
The TomKat Charitable Trust (US) – U.S. Billionaire and politician Tom Steyer foundation which provides tens of millions to anti-GMO and anti-pesticide, organic promoting NGOs
The Grace Communications Foundation (US)
The Marisla Foundation (US)
The McKnight Foundation (US)
The Owsley Brown II Charitable Foundation (UK) – liquor empire heir.
John & Jessica Moussouris
Nancy G Schaub
RSF Social Finance
Jo Ann Kaplan
Laurie Benensen
Myra Goodman
The Fances and Benjamin Benenson Foundation
The Planet Heritage Foundation
Anthony Rodale (US)
The Work in Progress Fund of the Tides Foundation (US – Tides is a donor directed philanthropy which like New Venture allows grantees to mask the identity of actual income sources.)

Other donors from non-SFT or SFA public reporting:

The Schmidt Family Foundation (Google CEO Eric Schmidt), in 2012 paid $125,000 to the Sustainable Food Alliance (Portland, OR) Sec. 509A(1) “to support the Sustainable Food Trust.”^[25]

Partners

SFT acknowledged the following “partner” organizations:^[26]

Soil Association (U.K. organic trade promotion group formerly led by Patrick Holden)
Safe Food Foundation (Australia-based funder of anti-glyphosate research)
Food Tank
The Pasture-Fed Livestock Association
Animal Welfare Approved
FoodCycle
Natural Beekeeping Trust
Future Farmers in the Spotlight
Summer of Soil
Southern Solar
Urban AG
Food For Life Partnership
Nourish 9 Billion
The Edible Schoolyard Project
The Making-Of
Compassion in World Farming
Triodos
Ecotricity
Health Education Trust
Garden Organic
Focus on Food Campaign

Affiliations

Sustainable Food Alliance
Rodale Institute
Global Alliance for the Future of Food

Resources

References

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