About
Feed the Truth is committed to realizing a food system that prioritizes the future of our planet, equity, and public health over short-term corporate wealth.
Our Vision
FEED THE TRUTH BELIEVES A WORLD IS POSSIBLE WHERE FOOD SYSTEMS HEALTHFULLY NOURISH ALL PEOPLE AND ARE GOVERNED BY HUMAN NEED NOT CORPORATE GREED.
Our Values
TRUTH AND TRANSPARENCY
We believe all stakeholders across the food system should act transparently and with integrity and that food corporations should necessarily be truthful about their products, practices, and political engagement.
ACCOUNTABILITY
The corporations that dominate our food system must be directly accountable to people, not just their boards and investors. In the face of growing inequality, a climate crisis and skyrocketing levels of diet-related disease, corporations can no longer be allowed to externalize harm at people’s expense. And as Feed the Truth holds the powerful to account, we hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards, including avoiding conflicts of interest that could compromise our ability to realize our mission.
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Op-ed: We Need to Get Food Industry Dollars Out of Politics to Save Our Democracy
A new report pulls back the curtain on how the $1.1 trillion food industry uses trade associations to block public health measures and harm frontline communities and workers of color.
FEBRUARY 26, 2021
While tens of millions of Americans are struggling to put food on the table and pay their bills, many of the world’s largest food corporations are lobbying against one of the most powerful tools we have to fight hunger, poverty, and racial inequality: raising the minimum wage. Corporations such as Pepsi and McDonald’s invest heavily in promoting their concern for essential workers and initiatives to “empower” communities of color, yet they hide behind trade associations like the National Restaurant Association, which is fighting tooth and nail against the Raise the Wage Act currently being considered by Congress.
The National Restaurant Association (the lesser-known NRA) is just one of roughly 6,300 IRS-classified food trade associations that are part of a deep and powerful ecosystem of influence-peddling—a Big Food swamp, if you will. These well-funded groups are bending democracy to the will of corporate interests, and it’s not just the minimum wage that’s at stake.
As food and agriculture trade groups continue to buy influence and access in Washington, D.C., the health of our country—and that of our democracy—is suffering. A staggering 40 percent of American adults are obese thanks to an overabundance of ultra-processed foods and sugary beverages made cheap by agriculture subsidies for commodities like corn and soy. Federal farm subsidies—which increased by $24 billion in 2020—continue to buoy global conglomerates including Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, and Bayer, as America’s family farms decline by the thousands each year.
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Feed the Truth was founded by Daniel Lubetzky—a philanthropist and entrepreneur best known for creating the snack company KIND [https://www.kindsnacks.com]—with the intent of holding “all of us in the food community accountable for what we say and claim” and counteracting the food industry’s alarming sway over both policy and science.
Maker of delicious and nutritious foods, KIND created a new healthy snacking category with the introduction of its first fruit & nut bars in 2004. Established as not-only-for-profit®, KIND is also committed to using its business as a vehicle for social change. Its KIND Movement inspires everyday acts of kindness (seventeen million and counting!), and The KIND Foundation works to create kinder, more empathetic communities. Most recently, the Foundation unveiled Empatico – an idea that Daniel conceived more than a decade ago. Empatico is a $20MM multi-year initiative that will broaden kids’ world views through meaningful interactions with peers across the globe.
Drawing on his experiences with KIND and more than two decades in the food industry, Daniel founded an independent organization called Feed the Truth in 2017. This nonprofit seeks to improve public health by making truth, transparency and integrity the foremost values in today’s food system. A social entrepreneur working to build bridges between people, Daniel is also the founder of PeaceWorks Inc., a business that fosters cooperative ventures among neighbors in the Middle East. Additionally, he co-founded Maiyet, a fashion brand that partners with artisans to promote entrepreneurship in developing economies, and the OneVoice Movement, an international grassroots effort that amplifies the voices of moderate Israelis and Palestinians seeking to end the conflict.
His commitment to creating economically sustainable and socially impactful business has been lauded by BusinessWeek, Time, Fast Company and Entrepreneur. Daniel has also been recognized by the World Economic Forum and the Skoll Foundation, and in 2015 President Barack Obama and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker named him a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship. In 2017, Daniel was celebrated as a Common Ground awardee for his accomplishments in conflict resolution, community building and peacebuilding. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Do the KIND Thing and a Guest Shark on Season 11 of Shark Tank.
Daniel is married with four children and enjoys spending time with his family and practicing magic.
