Greenpeace powerhouse David McTaggart--whose organization made millions from anti-toxic campaigns--was manufacturing gourmet extra virgin olive oil containing dioxins, at the time of his death, Toronto Free Press has discovered.
Tests for dioxins conducted on the late McTaggart's Pax Jani olive oil, conducted by Phillips Environmental at the request of TFP, not only indicate the presence of dioxins (2.06 parts per trillion), bottles containing the oil come with plastic seals.
The sealed Pax Jani bottle was sent to the lab for testing two weeks prior to McTaggart's March 23, 2001 death in a head-on car crash, on a country road near his home in Umbria, Italy.
"David McTaggart, producer of Pax Jani and founder of Greenpeace International...'When I decided to retire to Umbria in (the) Green heart of Italy, I chose a farm in an area producing some of Italy's finest olive oils," says the small tag attached to each bottle. "Since ancient times, my land has always been cultivated without the use of chemicals. We have retained this wholesome, natural method of farming, handpicking just over 3000 trees each year. Our oil is cold-pressed from seven varieties of olives, using methods handed down from the Etruscans and Romans. The town Paciano takes its name from Pax Jani after the Roman god Janus, whose twin faces look to the future and to the past...My oil was one of the first Italian olive oils CERTIFIED ORGANIC. The oil is unfiltered to retain its unique flavours and texture. This exquisitely tasting gourmet oil is part of a healthy, natural diet. Hope you enjoy it." The Pax Jani website bills the product, which sells for about $16 per bottle Canadian, as "one of the world's premium olive oils." When McTaggart bought the derelict farm, he recovered hundreds of overgrown olive trees that had been cultivated for decades, before planting 2000 new trees.
From a humble beginning with first year sales of just 800 bottles, production and sales had risen to over 20,000 bottles in 1999. Production is expected to double over the next three years as thousands of trees planted in the last five years begin to bear fruit.McTaggart had remained a powerful figurehead for the Greenpeace movement since his retirement in 1991--running the $110-million per year environmental pressure group from his olive farm--as honourary chairman.
Surrounded by Eco groupies
His untimely death is as mysterious as his life. At press time, not even Greenpeace founding members knew the precise place or appointed hour of the guru's funeral. Newspaper obituaries pointed readers to a testimonial on the Greenpeace International website, and stated only that "a service will take place in Italy this weekend."
(TFP was unable to confirm whether there would be a police investigation into the March 23 head-on car crash that claimed McTaggart's life.)
Paul Watson, co-founder of Greenpeace and founder of the Sea Shepard Conservation Society said not even Bob Hunter, a founding Greenpeace member asked to deliver the eulogy, knew where the funeral was to take place.
"There's been infighting at Greenpeace for a long time," said Watson. "It takes about six months to make a decision about how to tie your shoelaces."
Watson, who maintained a running battle with McTaggart for many years, described the late leader as a "heavy drinker", "excessive speeder" and "a womanizer."
"Anyone who really knew him could tell you that he has always been a playboy surrounded by Eco groupies."
In an extensive telephone interview, he said not all of McTaggart's women were of the blonde bombshell variety. "One of them went on to become a highranking German government official."
Watson disagrees with colleague Hunter's portrayal of McTaggart in his 'retirement' years: "It was like an old Roman epic with the general returning to his farm after his campaigns."
"When it came to Greenpeace, McTaggart had his fingers in there running things from the farm," said Watson.
Recalling McTaggart's stinging personality and sometimes-outrageous demands of people, Watson accused Greenpeacers spinning flowery phrases in the aftermath of his death as "hypocrites".
"He may have made brilliant strategic moves to get rid of people like Patrick Moore, but he basically screwed all of us."
Part of McTaggart's strategy in gaining power for Greenpeace International was to "isolate Greenpeace Canada and to keep it weak."
McTaggart demanded a high price from some of his members said Watson. "Once when I was in Portugal when he was there, he called me to meet him at a hotel, where I found him wearing sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt. The only reason he had invited me there was because he wanted me to break into Richard Shepherd's hotel room to steal his briefcase. That it was illegal and that I could go to prison didn't seem to bother him." Watson flatly refused the mission.
The dark side of Greenpeace
According to Watson, the dark side of Greenpeace runs much deeper than what was exposed in a Forbes 1991 article which portrayed McTaggart as someone arrested for smuggling and being bailed out by Greenpeace and as a "failed real estate promoter who left investors and relatives in the lurch and departed before his projects failed.
Gertrude Huberty, mother of the third of McTaggart's wives, and one of several people who lost money with him, remembers him as a ruthless businessman. "David once told me that when you want something badly enough, you have to be willing to do anything to get it. Anything."
Asked what he meant by the dark side, Watson replied, "There have been suicides and drug deals never unearthed by any media."
Several media outlets have noted how Greenpeace frequently takes to the courts when unfavourable publicity surfaces.
"Reykjavik, Iceland-based independent filmmaker Magnus Gudmundsson can testify to this,"states Forbes. Gudmundsson's 1989 documentary Survival in the High North shows the struggle between hunting peoples of the far north and environmentalists.
Gudmundsson's film reexamines evidence produced in 1986 by award-winning Danish journalist Leif Blaedel, which shows that one propaganda film used by Greenpeace was faked by using paid animal torturers.
"Greenpeace has tried to silence Gudmundsson, with demands for injunctions and/or damages in the courts of Iceland, the U.K. and Norway. Gudmundsson has spent about $40,000 in legal fees so far."
'Buy Organic' is a current Greenpeace consumer campaign.
When it comes to things organic, McTaggart is not the only prominent Greenpeacer exposed for hypocrisy and conflict of interest.
As reported in the Farmers Weekly (March 19, 1999) Lord Melchett's of the British House of Lords 800-acre farm in north-west Norfolk was not farmed organically at all. Reams of newspaper articles were written about the supposed organic farm of this personal friend of Prince Charles and Sir Paul McCartney.
According to The Herald (Glasgow): Lord Melchett: The Payoff and the Hypocrisies: "Indeed, Melchett acknowledged this fact, according to a letter from him in response to that article (April 2, 1999), noting that he was only then in the process of converting about 30% of his fields (none yet converted). One can reasonably assume that since the conversion process takes three years all of Lord Melchett's farm is still 'non-organic' today."
"After a vigorous few years attacking biotechnology, hiring anti-GM/pro-organic 'marketing campaigners' and spreading fear about conventional foods to help create a market for 'organic' products, Lord Melchett is leaving Greenpeace to go to work for organic industry retail leader Iceland Foods," stated The Herald.
Meanwhile with Greenpeace under attack by those who accuse the organization of fear mongering and non-scientific attacks on industry, it is difficult to know who will be the next Mr. Greenpeace.
There is no doubt the influence of Greenpeace has become widespread.
There are some who say Greenpeace wants to form its own political party.
Watson says one of McTaggart's fondest dreams was "to launch a Greenpeace satellite."
"Greenpeace is still the largest feel good organization in the world, and the death of Mr. Greenpeace safely enshrines him as an icon."
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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