A government that does an end-run around the spirit of its own laws? And by exploiting green activists in the process? Impossible, you say? Then perhaps you believe that there was no gambling a Rick’s Café Americain?
A recent opinion column, titled “The Multinationals’ Dilemma — Gratify the Greens or Protect the Poor?” and written by James M. Roberts of The Heritage Foundation, made these very assertions, but without the tongue-in-cheek suggestion of disbelief. In his article, Mr. Roberts discusses many different issues, perhaps too many for the space allotted him, the foremost of which is the issue of how multinational corporations may actually damage economic progress when they acquiesce to the protest demands of various activist groups. This is a complicated and controversial issue, one which I have often discussed on this blog. But, this issue is not the topic of today’s post.
Rather, the topic of today’s posts is one of the minor issues as raised by Mr. Roberts in his opinion article. That issue is the financing of activist groups by governments and the reason for such financing. I previously dealt with this topic in my April 2010 post “Nice Work . . . If You Can Get It? Friends of the Earth Does.”
In that post, I noted that in 2008 Friends of the Earth Europe received over 50% of its annual income from a European government grant. Of their €1.5 million budget for that year, Friends of the Earth Europe received €790,000 in the form of a grant from the Directorate General Environmental, the environmental commission of the European government. (Figures per the International Policy Network (IPN). Please see my previous post for full citation.) As I said in the title of that previous post, nice work if you can get it, eh? For sure. But what’s even more interesting is the reason for the awarding of such financing.
There’s much doubt that the EU would admit this reason, but as it seemed to Mr. Roberts in his opinion article, and as it would seem to me here, one of the reasons for such environmental non-governmental organization (ENGO) support might be to help protect the European vegetable oil industry. In taking this approach to protectionist measures, the European government may be able to achieve a degree of protectionism without having to pass extremely controversial and potentially politically repercussive protectionist legislation.
Vegetable oils and palm oils are competing ingredients in many prepared foods. Friends of the Earth Europe, along with several other ENGOs, are currently conducting anti-corporate campaigns against various multi-national corporations (MNCs) in order to persuade those MNCs to change their purchases of palm oil from various southeast Asian producers of that product. (For more about these types of anti-palm oil campaigns, please see my posts concerning “The Kit Kat Incident.”)
Friends of the Earth Europe, the recipient of the large European government grant as referenced above, is one of the ENGOs engaged in a campaign against the usage of Asian palm oil. Then, perhaps it is only coincidental that the European vegetable oil industry is concerned with “competition from Third World oil-producing nations, and unfair commercial practices.”
Only coincidental? I think not. After all, there was gambling at Rick’s Café Americain, though the prefect of police was “outraged” upon discovering such even as he pocketed his winnings.
I agree with Mr. Roberts’ suggestion that the European government is doing an end-run around protectionist legislation, but still attaining the desired effect. The information concerning the European government’s grant to Friends of the Earth Europe is convincing and especially so given that the European vegetable oil industry has cited concerns about unfair competition from Third World food oil producers. The government’s support of ENGO anti-corporate campaigns aimed at discouraging European import of Asian palm oil, through the public relations demonization of MNCs using Asian palm oil as an ingredient in their food products, can still have the desired outcome of an outright legal ban or import quota upon palm oil. And all without the political flap against a “protectionist” European government. Very neat and tidy.
I wonder if Friends of the Earth Europe knows that they are being “played?” And if so, do you think they would even care?
