Veggie burger rumors are flying! Some readers and other news organizations have alleged that the Cornucopia Institute study I wrote about on Monday—which found that the many popular veggie burgers are made with the air pollutant and neurotoxin hexane—was funded by the pro-meat, anti-soy group the Weston A. Price Foundation. But this morning, I spoke with Cornucopia Institute director Mark Kastel, who said that the Weston A. Price Foundation did not contribute any funding to the “Behind the Bean” (pdf) study. Thanks to Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing for setting the record straight.
Wonder where the rumor came from? Could be that a Weston A. Price spokesperson is quoted in the study:
However, not all researchers and advocacy groups agree about the benefits of soy in the human diet. The Weston A. Price Foundation’s (WAPF) president, Sally Fallon, objects to the widespread promotion of soy foods as a miracle health food. WAPF’s web site lists scientific studies indicating that soy consumption, especially excessive consumption of isolated soy ingredients, may be harmful to one’s health. Fallon says, “The propaganda that has created the soy sales miracle is all the more remarkable because only a few centuries ago the soybean was considered unfit to eat—even in Asia.”
The Weston A. Price Foundation seems to be dedicated to promoting the research of the doctor for whom it’s named, who claimed that humans “achieve perfect physical form and perfect health generation after generation only when they consume nutrient-dense whole foods and the vital fat-soluble activators found exclusively in animal fats.” The group has an interesting collection of beliefs: They’re all for saturated fat, raw milk, unprocessed foods, and sustainable agriculture. They’re also vociferously anti-soy. They’ve been heavily criticized by vegetarian groups—this piece over at VegSource makes some interesting points about how the Foundation has strayed from the original beliefs of Price himself.
Interesting organization—and probably worth taking a closer look at—but not a funder of “Behind the Bean.”
