March 2020
Coronavirus won’t stop Consumer Choice!
The last weeks were definitely crazy for us. After some great policy victories in Brazil and Canada we published two more indices and now find ourselves as an international consumer organization in the midst of the Coronavirus hysteria. Let me share what we have been up to in the last four weeks:
On the road: Washigton, DC!
Yael and I went to Washington DC and met the Federal Communications Commission’s Commissioner Brendan Carr to discuss 5G, NetNeutrality, and #consumerchoice.
The FCC has been recently doing many positive things towards more choice for consumers and showed us its open doors for consumer involvement.
On a diet: Good that the FCC is very close to a stellar donut shop near the DC waterfront
Event on Vaping: Is Nicotine really a Public Health Enemy?
The Consumer Choice Center hosted a panel discussion at Students For Liberty’s LibertyCon 2020 in Madrid. Our Senior Policy Analyst Bill Wirtz joined me to debunk some urban legends on vaping.
CCC at LibertyCon promoting consumer choice!
Last weekend, the Consumer Choice Center was in Madrid attending LibertyCon. It was an amazing opportunity to talk about freedom and choice directly to consumers from all around the world.
Fabio received in our booth hundreds of people, from students, sponsors to speakers interested in finding out more about consumer issues and consumer choice!
On Science: Greenpeace vs. Science – New pesticides report is misleading consumers
A new report by Unearthed — Greenpeace’s “investigative journalism” platform — claims that a large chunk of pesticides sold to farmers are “highly hazardous”.
Their claims are highly misleading and outright wrong, and can have potentially life-threatening consequences.
On Food: Gene Editing Regulation Index
Food could be so much cheaper and better in Europe if the EU would allow novel breeding techniques such as gene editing for plants.
The Gene-Editing Index produced by the Genetic Literacy Project and us shows which countries currently lead the way in offering consumers the future of agriculture.
On Cannabis: Cannabis Europe Event
It’s always hard to get the 2-meter-something of Bill in one picture but this shot shows him in Madrid at Cannabis Europe, discussing European and global efforts towards medical and recreational use of #cannabis.
Our North American colleague David was published in Canada’s Financial Post about commercial cannabis consumption, a topic we are very excited to be working on moving forward.
On the London School of Economics (LSE) beef ban:
Our European Affairs Associate Maria wrote about why banning beef on campus won’t help save the planet.
Nannying students is easy; encouraging them to become responsible consumers mindful of the importance of their freedom to choose is harder.
On Air: Consumer Choice Radio
Our two usually very harmonious radio hosts David and Yael showed some rifts on the airwaves when discussing probably the most controversial debate after sports: Are you allowed to recline your seat on short flights?
See how this pans out on our YouTube Channel.
On the Mountain: Cannabis Conclave Video
Earlier this year we hosted our annual Cannabis Conclave in the beautiful mountains in Davos, Switzerland. An amazing event that we have mentioned many times.
Thanks to our friends at the Canadian Securities Exchange you can also watch a longer video of our Davos Cannabis Conclave. Enjoy!
On Rail: Europe’s Railway Stations
Europe’s Railway Stations – And the winner has been choo-choo-chosen! Our first ever European Railway Index kept many news busy across the continent. We got over 600 media hits in February alone covering the sister index of the European Airport Index. Proud winners of this year are London St. Pancras, Zurich Main Station, and Leipzig Main Station. Stay tuned for more consumer indexes coming your way!
Growing our team
On the other side of the world: Welcome our new Indonesian Policy Fellow Haikal who already published several articles on some of our core issues such as innovation in medicine and harm reduction.
Onwards: While the measures trying to contain the Coronavirus might slow down some of our in person activities and conferences such as meetings of the Innovation, Intellectual Property, and Brands Interest Group, we are committed to continue our battle for consumer choice through media and online!
Stay tuned for a much more entertaining newsletter by our new colleague Bia in April.
In the meantime please consider joining us as a card-carrying and dues paying member of the CCC – We need your support to fight for YOUR right to choose!
Fred Roeder
