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They're all winners of the 2002 Tarnished Halo Awards.  The Center for Consumer Freedom awards prizes annually to America's most notorious animal- rights zealots, environmental scaremongers, celebrity busybodies, self- anointed "public interest" advocates, trial lawyers, and other food & beverage activists who claim to "know what's best for you."

The Tarnished Halo Awards highlight the winners' use of misinformation, duplicity and even violence to further a political agenda or fatten their own wallets.  A photo of this prestigious, highly coveted award can be viewed at www.ConsumerFreedom.com .

2002 was a banner year for misguided activists, and the field of nominees was unusually rich.  These winners represent the best of the worst in the following categories:

The "Billions and Billions Sought" Category  

Awarded to legal sharks Samuel Hirsch and John Banzhaf, for suing fast-      food chains, on the preposterous basis that restaurants are somehow  

responsible for their customers' lack of discipline and common sense.

The "Most Callous Exploitation of a Tragedy" Category  

Awarded to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who was not the slightest bit sorry  

after declaring that U.S. pork farmers are "a greater threat than Osama  

Bin Laden."  Kennedy made the comment during a speech on behalf of his  

Waterkeeper Alliance, which has waged its own Jihad against those who  

bring America's little piggies to market.
The "Better Dead Than Fed" Category  
Awarded to Greenpeace, for pressuring Zambian dictator Levy Mwanawasa to  
deny his 2.5 million starving people access to U.S.-provided food aid,  

because it contains the same genetically enhanced corn (or, as he called  

it, "poison") that Americans have been eating for years.

The "Excuse Me, But Your Agenda Is Showing" Category  

Awarded to Ingrid Newkirk, president and co-founder of People for the  

Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), who admitted to U.S. News & World  

Report in a rare, candid moment: "Our nonviolent tactics are not as  

effective.  We ask nicely for years and get nothing.  Someone makes a  

threat, and it works."  PETA made news in 2002 when its tax filings  

disclosed a $1,500 donation to the North American Earth Liberation Front,  

an FBI-labeled "domestic terrorist group" whose crime spree has caused  

over $40 million in damage.

The "Don't Drink And Number Crunch" Category  

Awarded to former cabinet secretary Joseph Califano and his National  

Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, for their  

deeply flawed study that willfully overestimated underage drinking by  

50%, provoking a New York Times headline that read: "Disturbing Finding  

on Youth Drinkers Proves to Be Wrong."

The "Fishing For the Truth" Category  

Awarded to the National Environmental Trust, for its high-profile  

campaign aimed at convincing America's elite chefs to stop serving the  

supposedly "endangered" Chilean Sea Bass, even though the U.S. government  

says that the fish species is not threatened.

The "In Your Face!" Category  

Awarded to U.C. Berkeley researcher and organic agriculture activist  
Ignacio Chapela, who claimed that genetically enhanced crops were  
"polluting" Mexico's traditional fields.  Unfortunately for Chapela, the  
prestigious journal Nature issued a complete retraction of his study,  
declaring: "The evidence available is not sufficient to justify the  
publication of the original paper."

The "Bringing Home The Bacon" Category  

Awarded to Farm Sanctuary, whose activists truly brought home the bacon  
in 2002 by illegally funneling $465,000 into a campaign to add the  
"rights" of pregnant pigs to Florida's constitution (Farm Sanctuary paid  
a $50,000 fine).  After this animal-rights measure passed, several  
Florida hog farmers were forced to slaughter their animals due to the  
high cost of complying with the new law.

The "Weapons Of Mass Distortion" Category  

Awarded to the immodestly self-named Physician's Committee for  

Responsible Medicine (PCRM), which is actually a pseudo-medical front  
group for PETA's radical animal rights agenda.  PCRM's advertising in  

2002 recklessly labeled U.S. school lunches "weapons of mass destruction"

because they include meat and milk.

The "Scientific Illiteracy" Category  

Awarded to the Los Angeles Unified School District, for banning all sales  

of soda pop in its schools, on the basis of well-debunked flimsy science  

promoted by political activists.

The "Nobody Listens To Techno-Vegans" Category  

Awarded to pop star Moby, for calling on his fans to join PETA in  
sabotaging a popular Thanksgiving hotline, which provides free advice  
about cooking turkeys.

The "Captain Obvious" Category  

Awarded to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, for calling a  
press conference to announce that the nutritional information provided by  
pizza chains is accurate, that adding sausage to your pie will also add  
calories, and that consuming side dishes will further increase the  
calorie count.

The "I'm From the Government, and I'm Here to Help" Category  
Awarded to the state of Maine for its taxpayer-funded "Enough is Enough"
advertising campaign, which spent heavily on print and broadcast ads  
advising citizens to steer clear of soft drinks by urging them to "cut  
the crap."

The Center for Consumer Freedom is a non-profit coalition supported by restaurant operators, food and beverage companies, and concerned individuals, working together to promote personal responsibility and protect consumer choices.  To learn more, visit www.ConsumerFreedom.com .

SOURCE  The Center for Consumer Freedom  

CO:  Center for Consumer Freedom; Waterkeeper Alliance; Greenpeace; People      for the Ethical Treatment of Animals; National Environmental Trust; Farm      Sanctuary; Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine; Center for      Science in the Public Interest

ST:  District of Columbia, California, New York