Do products with the Rainforest Alliance seal contain vaccines, and are they manufactured by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation? No, that's not true: The Rainforest Alliance´s seal is used on consumer products of farms and companies that meet international criteria for sustainable agriculture, and the Rainforest Alliance is a global nonprofit organization that promotes sustainable farming and forestry. Among its donors are Bill and Melinda Gates.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on July 19 with a text in Czech saying that products with the Rainforest Alliance seal contain substances that act as a "vaccine" or "poison" and are made by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The person in the video speaks Czech, which Lead Stories staff translated into English as :
Look at the websites, where you can see the seal. It is the World Economic Forum or the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation. Watch out for it. I would definitely avoid it, if those two organisations are involved, it is definitely bad for our health. The seal is a trend now, I have seen it used massively in Europe. So let´s take the seal as a sign to avoid the product.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Jul 25 07:41:20 2023 UTC)
The Rainforest Alliance is an international non-profit organization founded in 1987 by US environmental activist Daniel Katz. It aims to protect forests, improve the lives of farmers and forest communities, as well as promoting their human rights, and helping them to adapt to climate change, according to its website. The Alliance green frog certification seal can be used by farms and companies for products that meet international standards for sustainable production and can be found on thousands of consumer products around the world, the organization says.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation lists the Rainforest Alliance as a recipient of its grants on its website, and there is no other evidence linking the two organizations. Details of the Alliance funding can be found here and in its 2022 annual report. The World Economic Forum website also features articles by the Alliance representatives.
The person speaking Czech in the video is identified in a caption as Michal Shark, an alias used by Michal Hasek, a person who spread misinformation on social media during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Czech debunking site Manipulatori.cz.
Lead Stories has previously debunked claims that the food supply contains mRNA vaccines here. Similar allegations that products bearing the green frog Alliance seal include insects were debunked by AFP here.
The Rainforest Alliance itself has faced criticism in the past from consumer organizations, which question whether the criteria for using its green frog are strict enough to reach its goals. The Alliance withdrew its license from two companies in May 2023, following revelations that workers' rights were being abused on African tea estates, the Nation reported.
