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This post shows how four grants for a total of $3.6 Million were re-written by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation during the early spring of 2007. One of these grants ($453,400 to Living Oceans Society) was made in October of 2003, for 15 months. Thus, when this grant was re-written in the spring of 2007, about two years had lapsed since the period covered by the grant had expired.
Here are links to these four grants as they currently appear in the Moore foundation's database:
- $453,400 to Living Oceans Society, October of 2003 for 15 months.
- $560,000 to SeaWeb
- $1,125,000 to Living Oceans Society
- $1,525,000 to the National Environmental Trust (The Pure Salmon Campaign)
The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform has (or has had) two campaigns:
These campaigns sway consumers and retailers towards wild salmon - most of which is Alaskan, and away from the competition: imported, farmed salmon. With all the bad press over farmed salmon, consumers have been swayed towards wild salmon and the value of Alaskan salmon has TRIPLED. The logos of these two campaigns are shown below:
Originally named "Wild Salmon, Consumers and Conservation Project," a grant to SeaWeb for $560,000 was re-named "Aquaculture Market Research Tools." According to U.S. tax returns, the purpose of this grant was "to provide a high-quality tool-kit and co-ordination infrastructure for use by ENGOs in their campaigns to shift consumer and retailer demand away from farmed salmon."
The re-written version of this grant says that the $560,000 was "to provide a 'markets campaign' tool-kit informed by robust, quantative research into consumer preferences related to farmed vs. wild salmon." When I spoke with the program officer of the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation whether I could have a copy of the final report for this project - worth more than a half a million dollars, I was told that there wasn't one, just a Power Point presentation. I was told that I could only have a copy of that Power Point presentation if I signed a Confidentiality Agreement.
Below, here is the information about a grant for $453,400 to Living Oceans Society. Originally named "Farmed and Dangerous Market Campaign," the grant was re-written to be titled, "Aquaculture Education Campaign."
As shown below, grant for $1,125,000 for the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform was re-written to exclude the words, "Outcomes for this grant include agreement of at least one major salmon producer, from British Columbia, to plan for transitioning aquaculture industry to more sustainable practices, with government support.
Below, this shows how the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation re-wrote the details of a grant for $1,525,000 to the National Environmental Trust which implements the Pure Salmon campaign. In the re-written version, these words are excluded: "Outcomes for this grant include adoption of farmed-salmon purchasing standards which require suppliers to mitigate threats to wild fish and the environment, by a major retailer and adoption of policies consistent with codification of these market-driven reforms by regulators."
The re-written version specifies that the standards to be adopted are for "wild" salmon. This may have been an inadvertent mistake. The standards that envirionmental organizations have been pushing for are definitely for farmed salmon, not for wild salmon.
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