If you look at their web site, you'll find that The Hunger Project describes itself as a "a strategic organization and global movement committed to the sustainable end of world hunger" which emphasizes "the empowerment of women" in various regions. That sounds noble. What you won't find, however, is much about their past connection with Werner Erhard and his "est" (Erhard Seminars Training) organization (in fact, he seems to have been the one who started The Hunger Project). Even worse, it appears that they are actively working to suppress such information on the internet. That doesn't sound so noble.

Rick Ross explains:

Much of THP's touted "framework of thinking," worldview, working vocabulary and philosophy appears to come from the mind of the much-criticized Erhard and his "est" mindset. Not to mention the fact that staffers at THP historically often came from est, including current THP President Joan Holmes. ... Since the departure of Werner Erhard from THP's board in 1990 and his subsequent sale of est to brother Nathan Rosenberg and a group of employees in 1991, it seems that Erhard's intellectual progeny want to disassociate from their controversial creator.

Ross goes on to document several instances where The Hunger Project has brought legal pressure on sites where critical or negative reports about their connection with Erhard were discussed. According to Ross, they even managed to get a person's America Online account pulled until she agreed purge the material critical of THP from her site. Taking those and other legal actions to silence critics is outrageous - far worse than any past connections to Erhard might be. If true, I hope that information about this is spread far and wide.

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