International

Earlier this year, the investments held by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in companies which had adverse health and environmental impacts were scrutinised by the Los Angeles Times. The foundation, which aims to improve health and reduce extreme poverty, said they would review their investment policy, but then subsequently retreated.

A report by the European Commission (EC), which favours weaker regulatory standards on the advertising of prescription drugs, has been dismissed as biased by a coalition of consumer groups and health professionals.

Poor Adidas, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald's

David Hancocks, a former director and architect of zoos in the United States and Australia, is skeptical of the conservation benefits often claimed by zoos. While many zoos tout breeding as a success story, Hancocks sees it as "merely basic zoo business: zoos must breed their animals to preserve their collections. Hardly any animals born in zoos are introduced to the wild." Despite this, he wrote in an opinion column, "They nonetheless loudly position themselves as leaders in wildlife conservation.