Talk:Frederick J. Stare

18 May 2009 Stewart, When referencing items from the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library, please use the URL of the DATA page on the document, and NOT the URL of the image of the page. The data page contains key information that should properly be included in a reference, such as author, title, date, Bates No. The image does not contain this information reliably.

Also -- very important -- please be certain that you provide references for all information added to Sourcwatch. I had to remove a substantial amount of additions to this article because no references were not included, for example, the entire "Biography" section lacked references.

I removed and parked the following information from the article pending addition of authoritative references:

He was also secret channel for tobacco-industry funding, and a long-term lobbyist for the processed food and chemical industries.

Together with Whelan he started the first main scientific astroturf operation, American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) which bolstered its public health credentials by being virulently anti-tobacco, while being funded by chemical industry groups. At the time of ACSH's creation, the chemical and tobacco industry lobbyists were trying to blame each other for the growing rate of lung-cancers -- Stare and Whelan tried to trade off between the two.

At the same time Stare was acting as a channel for laundering tobacco industry funds paid to scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health through his control of a special bank account at the Nutrition Department. --

I parked the entire "Biography" section here, pending the addition of reference(s):

Biography
Stare's family owned Continental Can Company, the largest canned food organisation in the USA, and he remained a director throughout his life. He was well educated, and became a specialist in animal nutrition in his local univeristy.

During the Second World War when academics were scarce and knowledge of nutrition was needed by the armed forces, he relocated to Harvard University to set up the Department of Nutrition (human), which ended up in the School of Public Health. Over the years he attracted enough funding from his family associations and compliant companies to create his own chair, and effectively carved out his own empire within the school. He appears to have been allowed to operate outside the normal university controls.

In 1970 he testified before Congress for Kelloggs, Nabisco and the Cereal Institute. Stare said at the time that he took no fees from the cereal makers, but it transpired that he did receive retainers from them. He asserted that their products (up to 70% sugar) were better for children than the old fashioned breakfast. "People say that all you get out of sugar is calories, no nutrients…. There is no perfect food, not even mother's milk."

"There is no convincing evidence that in the average American diet decreasing the intake of sweets will lessen tooth decay."

"Those who speak with disdain of the empty calories of sugar or fat in processed foods as though they were a blight are also doing a fair share of exaggeration. The empty calories of sugar and fat have always been important to any normal, well-balanced, nutritious diet and add taste, zest and pleasure to a meal.

In 1950 with others from the nutrition world, Stare set up the Food Protection Committee (FPC) of the National Research Council and National Academy of Sciences with grants from the food industry and the government, Their first report assured the country that DDT and other pesticides were quite safe. - I removed the following information about Seltzer, since it, too, lacked a reference:

Seltzer was a low-level physical anthropologist graduate who worked as a honorary (self-funded) researcher through Peabody Museum on the Harvard campus. He was therefore able to use Harvard University letterhead. -

Thank you.

Anne Landman, TobaccoWiki editor