Ketchum 2

=<div>see main</div><div>
</div><div>12/15</div><div>promoted to primary, evil pending

=</div><div><div style="font-size: small;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jon Entine and Genetic Literacy Project are Monsanto Trolls</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As the founder and executive director of the Genetic Literacy Project (GLP), Jon Entine bills himself as an objective authority on science even though his contribution to the field centers on attacking scientists, journalists, and others at the behest of the corporations that pay him.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Demonstrative of this cozy relationship is a 2015 Monsanto PR plan that identified Genetic Literacy Project as one of its “industry partners.” Monsanto planned to engage GLP and numerous other similarly affiliated “independent” third parties to “protect the reputation” of Roundup and “orchestrate outcry” about the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) conclusions about glyphosate. In 2015, IARC performed an exhaustive scientific review on glyphosate and concluded the chemical is a “probable human carcinogen.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As of today, GLP has posted over 280 articles about IARC. Some of these articles include personal attacks concerning the scientists who served on the IARC Working Group tasked with evaluating glyphosate, calling them “frauds,”“liars,” and “greed-driven.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tax records show that the Council for Biotechnology Information (CBI), a chemical industry trade group, paid Ketchum public relations firm more than $11 million from 2013-2016 to run GMO Answers, a website where consumers purportedly get straight answers from “independent experts” about genetically engineered foods.</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">A CBI / Ketchum document unearthed in the Roundup litigation lists Jon Entine, Bruce Chassy, Kevin Folta and others as“target authors.” Entine was to rebut the review, ‘GMO Myths and Truths’ by Dr. Michael Antoniou, which asserted, “Roundup has never been tested or assessed for long-term safety for regulatory purposes but independent studies show it is highly toxic to animals and humans.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Monsanto (now Bayer) was and is a member of CBI and provides funding to GMO Answers. According to the website, the independent experts on GMO Answers “are not paid by GMO Answers to answer questions.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The notion that “experts” like Entine were not paid for their contributions to GMO Answers runs counter to an internal email from Monsanto’s Eric Sachs. Sachs worked on a plan for Monsanto and other companies to support an “Academic Review” (a similar website where pro-industry academic Bruce Chassy and others could respond to and attack the work of those critical of GMOs). In the email, Sachs wrote: “From my perspective, the problem is one of expert engagement and that could be solved by paying some experts to provide responses…The key will be keeping Monsanto in the background so as not to harm the credibility of the information.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 2014 and 2015, Entine partnered with Chassy and Folta to organize industry-funded conferences at the University of Florida and UC Davis “to train scientists and journalists to frame the debate over GMOs and the toxicity of glyphosate,” as Paul Thacker reported in The Progressive.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Paul D. Thacker</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">@thackerpd</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">1/6 Emails on behind the scenes maneuvering by #Monsanto consultants and third party groups. First, @KarlHvM of @biofortified emails Agbiochatter complaining about @tomphilpott of @MotherJones and #FOIA https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6382789-Karl-Von-Mogel-Complaining.html …</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">View image on Twitter</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">10</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">3:38 AM - Sep 10, 2019</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Twitter Ads info and privacy</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See Paul D. Thacker's other Tweets</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Litigation documents show that Chassy and other pro-industry experts like him aren’t known for pulling any punches in the framing of the GMO / glyphosate debate. To the contrary, his inflammatory language discussing the pro-industry side of the debate is downright abusive.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In one document, Chassy likens reporting from a journalist discussing health risks associated with GMOs to “playing Whack-a-mole at the carnival.” He tells Daniel Goldstein, a Monsanto executive, “[w]e’ll be working on this too. Isn’t freedom of speech wonderful?”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In another email, Chassy discusses the Open Letter to Monsanto from Moms Across America, a non-profit organization critical of Monsanto and Roundup. “That’s your enemy,” Chassy says to another academic and Goldstein. “Beat the shit out of them and put them on the defensive and you won’t have this problem.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By Baum Hedlund|September 10th, 2019|Blog, Monsanto Roundup News</div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div></div><div></div><div>8/17</div><div>...6. Three Cornell academics write for the agrichemical industry PR site GMO Answers.</div>Peter Davies, professor emeritus at Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Xiaohua Yang, postdoctoral associate in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; and Shelton all write for GMO Answers. On the site, users ask questions about GMOs and hundreds of experts, including academics and officials for corporate agriculture companies, answer.The website is <a href="https://gmoanswers.com/about" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">funded</a> by the Council for Biotechnology Information, whose members include Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont, Bayer, Dow AgroSciences and BASF.The website is <a href="http://usrtk.org/gmo/gmo-industry-doesnt-want-you-to-see-this-video/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">run by</a> U.S. Public Relations company Ketchum, the same company that <a href="http://www.alternet.org/world/meet-corporate-pr-firm-hired-sell-murderous-foreign-regime-american-public" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">represented</a> the Honduran government amid a potential human rights crisis and which also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/01/business/media/pr-firm-for-putins-russia-now-walking-a-fine-line.html?r=1" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">represented Russia</a>. There are also <a href="http://www.prweek.com/article/1265718/ketchum-named-greenpeace-espionage-lawsuit" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">allegations</a> that Ketchum committed espionage acts against non-profits like Greenpeace.The website provides a one-sided view of GMOs, including saying GMOs caused <a href="https://gmoanswers.com/studies/top-10-gmos-increase-pesticides" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">a decrease</a> in pesticides, when <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-study-pesticides-idUSBRE89100X20121002" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">alternative studies</a> say pesticide use has increased.Davies said he has never been paid to answer questions on the website, and that his answers are put directly on the website unedited.“So from that point of view, they do not influence what I say, and they do not censor what I say,” Davies said. “I write what I know and understand from the science.”Yang declined to comment on the record for this article.It is not made clear who owns or funds the website aside from its About Page, which discloses the seven agribusinesses that provide funding.Schmidt said this lack of transparency is a problem.“Think of the average person. Do they even know who Monsanto is and why they would care about GMOs,” Schmidt said. “Is it fair for members of the general public to be accessing information, not realizing that behind that information is a vested interest?”Assault on academic freedom...<div>=<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/03/russia-hired-edelman/">https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/03/russia-hired-edelman/</a><div class="entry-content" style="margin: 5px 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">FLYNN former national security adviser was <a href="https://www.fara.gov/docs/6406-Registration-Statement-20170307-1.pdf" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">paid more than $500,000 last fall</a> by a group linked with the Turkish government to discredit exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen, an enemy of the Turkish president. An Egyptian intelligence agency hired public relations firms Weber Shandwick and Cassidy & Associates to improve its image. Iraq sent letters <a href="http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/322622-iraqs-lobbyists-mobilized-after-travel-ban-documents" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">to top Trump officials</a> such as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis requesting meetings in the wake of the new president’s first travel ban, which included Iraq. The second iteration of the ban took Iraq off the list.These stories could not have been told without the help of filings required by FARA, or the <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/resources/learn/glossary.php#F" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Foreign Agents Registration Act</a>. Passed in 1938 in response to secret Nazi propaganda efforts in the U.S., the law requires anyone representing a foreign government or quasi-governmental agency (as well as individual citizens of other countries and sometimes foreign companies) to file extensive reports with the Justice Department. The filings must disclose who they’re representing, how much they’re being paid, what they’ve been hired to do, the meetings and other contacts they’re having, the content of materials they’re distributing and more. But the data is normally <a href="https://www.fara.gov/quick-search.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">locked in PDFs</a> with limited search functions.In the spirit of Sunshine Week, the Center for Responsive Politics today releases a tool that makes looking through FARA filings a whole lot easier: <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/fara" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Foreign Lobby Watch</a>.We standardized registrants, foreign principals and locations, and parsed the PDF text to allow for full-text searching. (We inherited this project from the Sunlight Foundation, which previously hosted a tool called Foreign Influence Explorer.)For example, a quick search of “Russia” in our database found 77 firms represented 170 governmental or pseudo-governmental entities, pulling up 274 records since 1950. The last Russian lobbying registration shows that a group created by the Russian Federation hired the PR firm Edelman last year to help influence U.S. opinion on a massive court verdict involving the oil giant Yukos.That ruling was the latest twist in a complicated set of events that started in the early 2000s, when the Russian government dismantled and sold off Yukos, Russia’s largest fully privatized oil company after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Kremlin jailed two high-ranking Yukos executives, including its head, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an act that was seen as retribution for Khodorkovsky’s political opposition to Vladimir Putin. (Khodorkovsky was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/20/mikhail-khodorkovsky-freed-putin-pardon-russia" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">freed and pardoned</a> in 2013 and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/19/russia-oligarch-mikhail-khodorkovsky-no-obligations-vladimir-putin-pardon" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">lives in exile</a>.)Yukos went bankrupt after the Russian government charged it with tax evasion, embezzlement and money laundering. Its former stakeholders sued the government, winning a $50 million verdict in 2014 at The Hague, the largest arbitration penalty ever. But a higher court overturned the award two years later.Yukos stakeholders are appealing the ruling and have pending enforcement lawsuits in a half-dozen countries, including the U.S., in efforts to collect Russian assets. The D.C. case in the district court of appeals has been put on pause until 2019, as the Netherlands case will impact what happens in the U.S. proceedings.Amid the wrangling, the Russian Federation created a task force, the International Centre for Legal Protection, headed by a former director in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrey-kondakov-70704b90/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Andrey Kondakov</a>, to help coordinate the various ministries involved in the case. And the task force hired Edelman to help turn the tide of public opinion — <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/1642/russia.aspx" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">often suspicious of anything Russia</a> — in their favor. Kondakov did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication. 
Signing the contract on Edelman’s side was Randall Corley, the firm’s global compliance officer.<div style="margin: 5px 0px;">Filings can fall short</div><div style="margin: 5px 0px;">FARA filings are only as good as the filer, of course. We see Edelman was hired for public relations work, including drafting press releases, media outreach, helping build a website and “strategic counsel.” However, it’s not clear from the reports alone how much Edelman did. According to the FARA file, ICLP issued just one press release, on Aug. 8, which also appeared on <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/key-yukos-insider-reveals-billion-dollar-bribery-scheme-300310582.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">PR Newswire</a>: “Key Yukos Insider Reveals Billion-Dollar Bribery Scheme.”<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ICLP.png" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;"><img class="wp-image-20823 aligncenter" src="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ICLP.png" alt="ICLP" width="620" height="198" srcset="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ICLP.png 829w, https://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ICLP-300x96.png 300w, https://www.opensecrets.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ICLP-768x246.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px" style="border: none; vertical-align: middle; display: block; margin: 10px auto;" /></a>The release describes a filing in the D.C. case from a Yukos insider, Dmitry Gololobov, who “learned firsthand how the Oligarchs rigged the Russian government’s ‘loans-for-shares’ auctions in 1995 and 1996 to illegally acquire ownership of Yukos.”“Mr. Gololobov’s testimony represents another step forward,” said Kondakov in the press release. “It confirms the corruption, fraud and bribery perpetrated by the Oligarchs at the expense of the Russian people and it validates the position that the Russian Federation has maintained throughout the Yukos case – that the Oligarchs’ arguments are just lies about lies.”As for media outreach, Kondakov is quoted in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/21/business/international/yukos-russia-50-billion-ruling.html?r=0" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">New York Times</a> piece reporting the overturning of the arbitration fine, but that was published before ICLP hired Edelman in June 2016. Filings and the press release show at least nine people at Edelman were affiliated with the project, and the agreement was <a href="https://www.fara.gov/docs/3634-Supplemental-Statement-20170302-27.pdf" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">terminated on September 30, 2016</a>.An Edelman representative said that they do not comment on clients, and that they filed all the necessary paperwork with FARA.<a href="https://www.fara.gov/docs/3634-Exhibit-AB-20160615-50.pdf" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">The original filing</a> said “Work for client has begun and the contract is still being negotiated. This filing will be amended to included the contract once a signed copy is executed.” Yet OpenSecrets Blog found no amendment or contract in the filings that followed. And an August filing that lists receipts and disbursements for other clients <a href="https://www.fara.gov/docs/3634-Supplemental-Statement-20160830-26.pdf" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">showed no line items</a> for ICLP from Feb. 1 through July 31, 2016. It’s unclear, without the inclusion of the required contract, how much Edelman was paid.“If you comply with FARA, the information is very extensive and does tell the public and the press most of what they would want to know,” said Joseph Sandler, Democratic attorney and FARA expert. “But there could be holes with what they actually include, or could include filings from nonprofit front groups and think tanks that are hard to immediately understand who is backing them.”<div style="margin: 5px 0px;">A history of Russian lobbying</div><div style="margin: 5px 0px;">There are plenty of other Russia-related nuggets in the FARA files. For instance, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/oleg-deripaska/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">billionaire</a> Oleg V. Deripaska paid <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3315551-5934-Exhibit-AB-20090508-1.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Endeavor Group</a> a $40,000 monthly retainer in 2009 and 2010 to provide “general legal advice involving his U.S. visa, as well as commercial transactions.” The State Department had revoked Deripaska’s visa in 2006 due to concerns about his possible links to organized crime ties, which Deripaska has denied.“Endeavor Group expects to engage with the U.S. government regarding the status of the foreign principal’s visa application; interact with the United States Trade Representative office to encourage U.S. participation in the intra-governmental global aluminum discussions; and engage with the Department of Treasury’s Auto Task Force regarding the prospective acquisition of General Motor’s European operations,” <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3315551-5934-Exhibit-AB-20090508-1.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">the FARA filing says</a>.Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, <a href="https://www.fara.gov/docs/5934-Exhibit-AB-20101006-3.pdf" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">also wrote a letter</a> to Adam Waldman, the founder of Endeavor Group, asking for updates on the case and saying he appreciates the work the firm is doing.“[O]ver the past several years, there has been certain ambiguity upon his visa status in the United States,” Lavrov wrote. “A persistent state of limbo regarding Mr. Deripaska’s ability to travel freely between our two countries has become an impediment to the promotion of mutually advantageous contacts between the business communities of the two countries.”State-owned banks also hired up in an effort to ease sanctions levied in 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea. One of them, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3302651-6353-Exhibit-AB-20160511-1.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">VTB Group</a>, a financial services firm owned by the Russian government, brought on board Emaunuel Manatos (a lobbyist who <a href="http://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/514/201604159012556514/201604159012556514.pdf" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">bundled almost $40,000</a> for Hillary Clinton this election) in May 2016 for $17,500 a month to “lobby Congress and Executive that affect imposition of US sanctions on Russian-affiliated banks.”And the name that crops up again and again is that of the PR firm Ketchum Inc., which has earned more than $60 million working for Russia over the past decade or so, <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/putins-washington-113894_full.html#.WMA9IW8rKUl" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">according to a POLITICO analysis of FARA filings</a>.The Russians first enlisted Ketchum’s help for “communications support” when it hosted the G8 summit in St. Petersburg in 2006, paying the company $2 million. (The country was in need of a media revamp after Russia’s energy company Gazprom <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/02/world/europe/russia-cuts-off-gas-to-ukraine-in-cost-dispute.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">cut off natural gas to Ukraine</a>.)Ketchum also works with subcontractors such as <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3264378-5549-Exhibit-AB-20140108-10.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Alston & Bird to monitor foreign policy legislation</a>, and <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3285220-5914-Exhibit-AB-20120106-7.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Clark & Weinstock</a> and <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3285424-5931-Exhibit-AB-20100621-5.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Venable LLP</a> to lobby on behalf of Gazprom and keep an eye on energy policy.<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/from-russia-with-pr-ketchum-cnbc" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">ProPublica</a> reported in 2012 that the Huffington Post and CNBC published pro-Russia op-eds linked to Ketchum without noting the connection to the Russian government in the pieces. A year later, Ketchum placed an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">op-ed by Putin</a> in the New York Times.</div><footer class="entry-meta" style="line-height: 15px;">
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usrtk GMO
<a href="http://usrtk.org/russias-pr-firm-runs-the-agrichemical-industrys-big-pr-salvo-on-gmos/">Ketchum</a>: The Agrichemical Industry’s PR Firm

<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stacy-malkan/pr-firm-attacks-organic-food-then-pitches-itself-to-organic-companies_b_9462308.html">Ketchum PR Firm Attacks Organic Food</a>, Then Pitches Itself to Organic Companies
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</div><div></div><div><div class="table_of_contents fl" style="margin: 0px 1.2em 1.2em 0px; padding: 10px 0px 15px; border: 1px solid rgb(205, 205, 205); font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19.5px; vertical-align: baseline; float: left; display: inline-block;"><ol style="margin: 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none inside none; counter-reset: chapter 0;"><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none;"><a href="http://www.truthwiki.org/ketchum-public-relations-firm/#section-1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">Ketchum enlists up to 100 "independent experts," "journalists" and "public scientists" who are really corporate-bought posers for GMO</a></li></ol></div>

http://www.truthwiki.org/ketchum-public-relations-firm/Ketchum is a nearly hundred-year-old public relations firm based out of New York and specializing in corporate communication services, having serviced some of the largest corporations in the US for their advertising needs, no matter the product or practice. From FedEx to Kodak and from Delta Airlines and Wendy’s fast-food to the California Raisins Advisory Board, Ketchum has written the “script” for some of the big guns, but that’s not all. Ketchum has also “fulfilled” contracts for the US federal government totaling $100 million. From the US Army to the Department of Education, Ketchum tells you how to think about something in a different light. They are paid to “reconnect” the public with a new image of something that’s losing ground or recognition, or is getting a very BAD name or reputation. This is public relations at its best, but questions of ethics and health safety are abound. Here’s where it starts. <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/051284_Ketchum_public_relations_Kevin_Folta.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">(1)</a> Public relations firm distorts and “reshapes” reality for 100 yearsOver the past nearly 100 years, since 1919, in fact, Ketchum has “sanitized” western medicine and processed foods for positive public perception. They are basically contracted to lie and paid millions because they are so good at it. Recently, in 2003, large contract increases at Ketchum MIRROR the PR spending BOOST for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This means Ketchum’s role with Medicare and Medicaid is much more extensive than the public would ever know.Ketchum, Inc. and its subsidiary Gplus Europe are employed (paid millions) by the Russian Government to push the benefits of working with Russia as a partner. In fact, Gplus recruits eminent journalists and former EU officials. Now, if you’re pro-Russia and pro-chemical and pro-GMO, would you be pro-USA? Ketchum hires industry spokesmen for pro-Russia campaigns (that was in 2009). In January, 2015, Politico magazine reported that Ketchum took in $60 million from the Kremlin in just 8 years. Now, Russia has completely banned GMO, yet the PR firm representing their government HIGHLY RECOMMENDS them for Americans. This demands deep consideration. Russia Bans GMO 100% while Ketchum promotes GMO as healthy in AmericaRussia says American (GMO) food is poisonous to the body, so they’ve completed banned all growing, importing and exporting of genetically modified and mutated food in order to protect the health of their citizens and leaders alike. <a href="http://naturalnewsconnection.blogspot.com/2015/09/russia-announces-total-ban-on-gmo-crops.html?view=magazine" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">(3)</a> But in the USA, home of the preventable disease epidemics, it’s a “horse of a different color.” And with the fake universal chronic sick care agenda called the “<a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/042344_obamacare_ransom_demands_coercive_government.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">Affordable Care Act</a>,” we are seeing massive hikes in insurance rates that only cover surgery and chemical therapies like chemotherapy, which only work 2% of the time and only stave off cancer, but don’t cure or prevent it. Most cancer is caused by ingesting chemicals, and chemical pesiticides make up the core ingredients in GMO and conventional staple crops, such as <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/051096_science_for_sale_Monsanto_financial_influence.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">corn, soy, canola, alfalfa, sugar beets, cottonseed</a> and more. Ketch PR firm is a key player in convincing Americans that it is perfectly safe to consume chemical pesticides every meal, every drink, every snack, every beverage. <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/051096_science_for_sale_Monsanto_financial_influence.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">(2)</a> These frankenfoods (GMOs) have been around for thirty years, but recently a new website gained popularity and public scientist support (<a href="http://www.truthwiki.org/gmo-answers-biotechnology-website-gmoanswers-com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">GMOAnswers.com</a>) that <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303691-kevin-folta-uoffloridadocs.html#document/p10/a237532" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">auspiciously fostered connections</a> between academics at well-known US universities and agri-chemical corporations that manufacture, distribute, advertise and push GMO, genetically modified organisms on Americans. Most Americans, in fact over 90%, want labels on their food in order to know if the ingredients have been genetically modified or not. This is of great concern to humans that suspect that eating chemical pesticides could cause cancer, Alzheimer’s, lowered immunity, suppressed brain function, disrupted central nervous system functioning, and a host of other chronic-care, yet preventable diseases and disorders. The website gmoanswers.com is ironically not scientific at all, but rather a response to this valid, monumental concern that health enthusiasts have about this new technology that is experimental and infantile in it’s depth of true research regarding safety, efficacy, and resistance to bugs, weeds and crop disease. Top questions go unanswered at “GMOAnswers”The <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Council for Biotechnology, a biotech industry group openly funded by BASF, Bayer, Dow, DuPont, Monsanto, Syngenta, hired Ketchum to produce its major PR campaign and website, GMO Answers. It’s a tough job to lie this well, but Ketchum seems to excel at this. Their job was to answer the toughest questions posed by concerned Americans. Why would anyone want to eat a product that contains pesticide on the inside and outside when organic foods have been proven safe for thousands of years? What is the true difference in cost, when true yield is examined, and the healthcare costs for those who suffer from GMO toxicity and exposure to these chemicals on the farms and fields of America? Are we actually using MORE pesticide, since the superbugs and superweeds have become immune or “resistant” to the new super-toxic cocktails of pesticides?These are the concerns that gmoanswers.com must address in order to quell public fear of their practices, and companies likeMonsanto, Dow, Dupont, BASF, Bayer, Cargill and Syngenta want to be sure they’ve countered every major concern, so they’ve hired and <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303691-kevin-folta-uoffloridadocs.html#document/p10/a237532" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">paid scientists</a> and PR firms to draft up some user-friendly propaganda. 2015: Ketchum PR caught recruiting public scientists to regurgitate Monsanto’s propaganda word-for-word on GMOAnswers.comKetchum supposedly gathered some academics from reknowned universities and public scientists to simply answer some hard line questions about GMOs, but upon closer look, the <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303691-kevin-folta-uoffloridadocs.html#document/p10/a237532" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">dirty public relations firm</a> helped Monsanto trade luxurious favors and unrestricted grants to academics and scientists who never actually came up with their own answers, but rather transcribed or “cut and paste” scripted lies onto a website in order to sound more convincing per the industry hacks descriptions of what those corporations want to say they do. A massive hidden inner-network of biotechnology companies had scientists, journalists and academic hacks and shills promote their propaganda as if the science had real research behind it, and real professional analysis and opinions. They basically lied through their teeth about GMO sustainability, pesticide safety and “drought-resistant” crops. August, 2011: The infamous “Sotto Terra Dinner”New York City bloggers were invited to dinner events organized by Ketchum and hosted by a top chef and also a food industry analyst. The meals were actually served at a fictitious restaurant called Sotto Terra. The hidden reason for the dinner was to see if the invitees realized the food was cheap ConAgra frozen foods while being filmed on video for reactions. This was all for promotional purposes of course for ConAgra. Many of the guests, who all found out days later, were furious and would not allow Ketchum to use the footage, which was useless because Ketchum never had them sign a release. Sloppy and slick public relations doesn’t get very far in the long haul, but Ketchum was willing to stick their neck out. They were more or less forced to make a public apology to all their guests, who thought they were being served a quality meal instead of cancer-causing processed food. Dial it back to 2004: Ketchum produces prepackaged news stories told by lying actors who push allopathic drug propagandaAds produced by Ketchum that ran on at least three dozen TV stations violated a federal propaganda ban as the messages really came from the US government! The actors told the viewers how great the prescription drugs were doing for them. ???<h1 id="section-1" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">Ketchum enlists up to 100 “independent experts,” “journalists” and “public scientists” who are really corporate-bought posers for GMO</h1>Ketchum’s at it again – – at the center of DIRTY TRICK to fool Americans into ignoring the dangers of GMO. Several biotechnology experts and those with expert opinions of chemical agriculture are crawling out from under rocks to testify to city councils, food regulators and Congress in order to make a fast buck, and it’s all documented in a long string of emails from one scummy end to the other. At the front of the pack is an arrogant but sloppy University of Florida public scientist named Kevin Folta, who has conspired to promote GMO propaganda as his own findings–that language and brain-washing diction that was written by the manufacturers, word-for-word at times. At least 100 paid public officials posed as science experts and promoted one of Ketchum’s core accounts–Monsanto and their core GMO mission, which is the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303691-kevin-folta-uoffloridadocs.html#document/p10/a237532" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">mis-“education”</a> of the masses who are concerned about the toxic effects of biotechnology and genetically modified organisms, including deadly synthetic pesticide combinations, on soil, water, animals and humans consuming them. It’s all revealed in <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303691-kevin-folta-uoffloridadocs.html#document/p10/a237532" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">this document cloud being shared by Alternative News worldwide</a>. <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Click below to view full collection of documents exposing Ketchum: (<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303691-kevin-folta-uoffloridadocs.html#document/p10/a237532" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303691-kevin-folta-uoffloridadocs.html#document/p10/a237532</a>) It also appears that <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303691-kevin-folta-uoffloridadocs.html#document/p10/a237532" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;"><u style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Folta was being prompted about what to say</a>regarding their agenda by Monsanto’s PR firm, Ketchum, which operates the GMO Answers site. In some cases, Ketchum even scripted his “responses” on the website. From Nature.com: <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">…Folta’s e-mails show him to be frequent contributor to GMO Answers. Ketchum employees repeatedly asked him to respond to common questions posed by biotechnology critics. In some cases, they even drafted answers for him. ‘We want your responses to be authentically yours,’ one Ketchum representative wrote in a message on <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">5 July 2013<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. ‘Please feel free to edit or draft all-new responses.’ It’s abundantly clear that in this case, a private-sector scientist has completely compromised his credibility by denying that he was a paid propagandist for Monsanto. If it weren’t for the efforts of US Right to Know, we would probably have never learned the truth. Ketchum PR supports Monsanto, Bayer, BASF, Dupont, Dow and SyngentaWhat’s important to understand is that Folta is just one of many sellouts who receive compensation from companies like Monsanto. Of course, the industry and the recipients of such compensation do their best to conceal their ties, but often legislators and regulation agencies depend on the testimony of these scientific prostitutes when determining which policies to implement. Pushing for transparency in these matters is an important part of the fight against Frankenfood companies like Monsanto, Dow, Dupont, Bayer, BASF and Syngenta. Organizations such as US Right to Know deserve the public’s wholehearted appreciation and support. On several occasions over the years, Folta has been known to viciously attack the efforts and character of Vani Hari, the “Food Babe,” who’s tireless research has revealed chemicals and chemical agents in foods that even the “Big Food” companies had to respond to and remove from their meals or products to quell public concerns. Ketchum PR loves “hitmen” and character assassins like Folta, well, until he got caught. Now Ketchum’s top <a href="http://www.truthwiki.org/gmo-answers-biotechnology-website-gmoanswers-com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">GMO answers</a> guy has been caught red-handed being a complete biotech industry shill, and all of his credibility (and Ketchum’s) is lost, again. From Vani Hari’s website: “<a href="http://foodbabe.com/2015/02/12/dirty-pr-campaign/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">Food Babe</a>” <a href="http://foodbabe.com/2015/02/12/dirty-pr-campaign/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">(5)</a> <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Recently an activist friend reached out to me in desperation looking for advice, counsel and support. My friend is being attacked, threatened, cyber-bullied and harassed because of her recent critical work in exposing Monsanto’s glyphosate in popular food products that children eat. Unfortunately, I know all too well what’s happening to her because it’s happening to me too. This is why I think it’s absolutely critical for us to stick together and not be afraid to tell the truth. These bullies want to intimidate us into submission. They want us to be too scared to write, investigate and share our findings. So scared, that we quit. Well, we cannot let that happen. I need you to read this shocking new <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303691-kevin-folta-uoffloridadocs.html#document/p10/a237532http://usrtk.org/gmo/seedy-business/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">report </a>and tell everyone you know. The non-profit group <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303691-kevin-folta-uoffloridadocs.html#document/p10/a237532http://usrtk.org/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">U.S. Right To Know</a>‘s report “<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Seedy Business: What Big Food is Hiding with Its <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303691-kevin-folta-uoffloridadocs.html#document/p10/a237532" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">Slick PR Campaign</a> on GMOs” couldn’t have come out at a better time! This is an expose (with lots of details, evidence and facts)<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> on the shady public relations tactics that the biotech industry has been employing. After reading their report, everything is starting to make sense to me now. I have personally experienced these tactics and finally can pinpoint what’s happening to me and other activists. The big players in the industry – Monsanto, Dow, Syngenta, DuPont, Bayer – are engaging in an extensive public relations, advertising, lobbying and political campaign to make sure that genetically engineered crops (GMOs), and the pesticides they require, continue to proliferate in the U.S. To improve their public image, they are attempting to manipulate everything we see and hear about GMO crops in the media and on TV, the internet and print articles – using propaganda-laden commercials, “mommy-blogger” articles, farmer endorsements, and front group websites. The biotech industry is feeling threatened, and their profits hang in the balance. This is their last stand.<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” <u style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(5)<u style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">rest:<h3 style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Actor; line-height: 40px; color: rgb(20, 20, 20); text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Their agenda is clear. They desperately want you to believe:</h3><ol style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 25px; color: rgb(20, 20, 20); font-family: Actor; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="line-height: 22px;">GMOs are safe,</li><li style="line-height: 22px;">Anyone who disagrees is untrustworthy, and</li><li style="line-height: 22px;">The biotech companies that produce GMOs care about our farmers, families and a sustainable environment.</li></ol>I’m not going to go into great detail about all the juicy details that are aptly described in the U.S. Right To Know’s report, because I want you to read the <a href="http://usrtk.org/seedybusiness.pdf" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">entire report</a> yourself. But – here are some of the most important highlights:<h3 style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Actor; line-height: 40px; color: rgb(20, 20, 20); text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Biotech Industry is using the same PR firms used by Big Tobacco.</h3>The tobacco industry wants us to forget their <a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19540302&id=iUExAAAAIBAJ&sjid=2w8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6862,1715033" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">deceptive advertising from the 1950s</a> that depicted smoking as“Best for You” as approved by “50 years of scientific tobacco research”. The truth is the tobacco companies only cared about their own profits and not about the health of their customers. They hired big public relations (PR) firms to spin their message and to help them manage the flow of information and truth that was coming out about cigarettes and disease. This is similar to what’s happening in the biotech industry today. Several of the PR firms hired by biotech companies were “once employed by the tobacco industry in its efforts to evade responsibility and liability for the millions of Americans they killed. These PR efforts on behalf of the tobacco industry – perhaps the most significant and destructive PR campaign ever – raise questions about whether these same firms are spinning a similarly deceitful PR campaign for the agrichemical industry to hide any health or environmental risks of genetically engineered food”.Fleishman Hillard – Monsanto retained the PR firm Fleishman Hillard in 2013, to help them “resuscitate its image”. A couple decades ago, Fleishman Hillard represented <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tobacco_Institute" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">The Tobacco Institute</a>, the main tobacco industry lobbying organization that was forced to disband following a suit brought against the tobacco industry by the U.S. National Association of Attorneys General. Fleishman Hillard has been implicated in converting Healthy Buildings Institute into a <a href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/uzr55a00/pdf" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">front group for the tobacco industry</a> to hide the dangers of second-hand smoke. So, next time you see those Monsanto commercials on TV (and <a href="https://www.change.org/p/oprah-winfrey-oprah-and-o-magazine-drop-your-monsanto-ad" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">ads in Oprah’s magazine</a>!), keep in mind that this is who is behind them. Ogilvy & Mather – DuPont Pioneer hired this PR firm that had an agreement with The Tobacco Institute to provide strategy development, writing assignments, media tours, and contact with target coalition groups.Ketchum – The Council for Biotechnology (a biotech industry group openly funded by BASF, Bayer, Dow, DuPont, Monsanto, Syngenta) recently hired the PR firm Ketchum to run their website, GMO Answers “to help promote the industry’s views on genetically engineered food”.  Ketchum worked on cigarette advertising campaigns in the 1970s, trying to convince Americans that Fact brand cigarettes were <a href="http://legacy-dc.ucsf.edu/tid/tbl53f00/pdf" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">safer than regular cigarettes</a>. Now their focus is on GMOs. This firm is actively communicating with some of my detractors, who brag about getting included in news media about me. Jayne Thompson & Associates and White House Writers Group – Both of these PR firms hired by Syngenta, previously worked for cigarette-maker Philip Morris to help them with a public relations crisis a little over a decade ago.<h3 style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Actor; line-height: 40px; color: rgb(20, 20, 20); text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Attack anyone that disagrees…</h3><div>http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090902/full/461027a.html</div><div>
</div>Scientists that speak out against GMOs do so courageously, <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090902/full/461027a.html" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">knowing they will likely be attacked</a> by the biotech industry’s PR minions. If a scientist publishes findings that go against what the industry wants the public to believe, they are harassed, their findings are suppressed, and some careers have been destroyed. Syngenta <a href="http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2013/atrazine-page2" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">has been known</a> to have “trained critics” that have undergone media training follow scientists to speaking engagements that have <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/10/a-valuable-reputation" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">dared to speak out</a> against their products, in an attempt to discredit them. Some notable victims of the biotech industry’s wrath are Dr. Tyrone Hayes, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/may/14/greenpolitics.digitalmedia" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">Dr. Ignacio Chapela</a>, <a href="http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/4305-the-sinister-sacking-of-the-worlds-leading-gm-expert--and-the-trail-that-leads-to-tony-blair-and-the-white-house" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">Dr. Arpad Pusztai</a>, <a href="http://www.thehastingscenter.org/Bioethicsforum/Post.aspx?id=6684" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">Dr. Gilles-Eric Séralini</a>, Manuela Malatesta, and <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090902/full/461027a.html" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">Emma Rosi-Marshall</a>.This same thing is happening to<a href="http://foodbabe.com/2014/12/06/food-babe-critics/" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;"> myself</a> and other activists as well…As part of their “multi-million dollar” campaign for the biotech industry, Ketchum closely monitors Twitter conversations and “seeks out negative (biotech-related) tweets on Twitter”, and attempts to counter their arguments. They are being paid by the biotech industry to discredit any negative information about GMOs, just like Monsanto’s new <a href="http://livingmaxwell.com/vance-crow-monsanto-director-millennial-engagement" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">Director of Millennial Engagement</a>, Vance Crowe, who recently claimed on Twitter that he’s“paid to help untie the knot of fear and misinformation woven together by people making money selling snake oil”. 
Ketchum is described as “notoriously secretive” and has a history of targeting consumer and food activist groups like the Center for Food Safety, Friends of the Earth, and GE Food Alert, through their work with the private investigation firm Beckett Brown International (BBI), which apparently <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/feb/15/activism-protest" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">hired officers to spy</a> on the activist’s computers, phone records, and trash during Taco Bell’s GMO scandal in 2000. Likewise, Monsanto’s PR firm Fleishman Hillard has targeted public health advocates in the past, conducting espionage and secretly taping tobacco control meetings and conferences. Monsanto has also been caught using “<a href="http://modernfarmer.com/2014/09/monsanto-courts-mommy-bloggers-social-media-set/" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">mommy bloggers</a>” to promote the idea that they are a sustainable company that cares about farmers, and about you. Meanwhile, they are largely responsible for the <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/02/us-usa-study-pesticides-idUSBRE89100X20121002" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">millions of pounds</a> of harmful pesticides that are dumped on crops, polluting our land, water and food.<h3 style="margin: 10px 0px; font-family: Actor; line-height: 40px; color: rgb(20, 20, 20); text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">GMOs don’t benefit customers, just the biotech industry’s pockets.</h3>Don’t believe for one minute that GMOs were created with your best interests in mind. Companies are spending over 100 million dollars to prevent us from knowing the truth!<ul style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 25px; color: rgb(20, 20, 20); font-family: Actor; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="line-height: 22px;">Most GMO crops were genetically engineered to either be (1) pesticide-resistant or (2) herbicide-resistant (or both), and not to be more healthy for us.</li></ul><ul style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 25px; color: rgb(20, 20, 20); font-family: Actor; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="line-height: 22px;">The GMO crops that we eat most here in America – soybeans, corn, sugar beets, canola – are not more nutritious or tastier than non-GMO crops, and are definitely no improvement.</li></ul><ul style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 25px; color: rgb(20, 20, 20); font-family: Actor; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="line-height: 22px;">Just like the overuse of antibiotics can create “super bugs”, these resistant crops are creating “super weeds” and “super bugs” that require them to be sprayed with heavier doses of poisonous chemicals – which are often made by the same companies.</li></ul><ul style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 25px; color: rgb(20, 20, 20); font-family: Actor; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="line-height: 22px;">The biotech industry is contributing to a “pesticide-treadmill”, by creating an environment that fosters the growth of <a href="http://static.ewg.org/agmag/pdfs/pesticide_use_on_genetically_engineered_crops.pdf" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none;">pesticide-resistant weeds and pests</a>. This allows them to sell more of their toxic chemicals along with their GMO seeds, to further increase their bottom line – and it’s escalating fast.</li></ul><ul style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 25px; color: rgb(20, 20, 20); font-family: Actor; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="line-height: 22px;">Remember that the companies that produce GMO seeds often also produce the chemicals that are sprayed on them – it’s a win-win situation for them!</li></ul><ul style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 25px; color: rgb(20, 20, 20); font-family: Actor; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="line-height: 22px;">The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/18/business/altered-to-withstand-herbicide-corn-and-soybeans-gain-approval.html?r=0" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none;">USDA recently approved</a> Dow’s new GMO corn and soybeans (<a href="http://www.enlist.com/en/how-it-works/enlist-traits#corn" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none;">Enlist</a>) that are billed as being resistant to Dow’s herbicide (<a href="http://www.enlist.com/en/how-it-works/enlist-duo-herbicide" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none;">Enlist Duo</a>) made with glyphosate and 2,4-D, a component of Agent Orange. Just last month, <a href="http://deltafarmpress.com/cotton/usda-announces-deregulation-dicamba-tolerant-trait-cotton-and-soybeans" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none;">another USDA approval was made</a> for Monsanto’s new dicamba-resistant crop, with plans to roll-out a <a href="http://www.roundupreadyplus.com/xtendcropsystem?gclid=CMnHq7ato8MCFSho7AodjVQAPg" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none;">new herbicide system</a> soon.</li></ul>If you are not following <a href="http://usrtk.org/" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">U.S. Right To Know (USRTK)</a> on Twitter, please do <a href="https://twitter.com/USRightToKnow" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">here</a> – they are doing some great things and really need our support! They just filed a <a href="http://usrtk.org/gmo/u-s-right-to-know-foias-profs-who-wrote-for-gmo-pr-website/" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">Freedom of Information Request</a> for correspondence from science professors employed in public universities who write for the GMO Answers which is a website<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/gmo-answers-website_n_3671483.html" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">funded by the biotech companies</a>. U.S. Right To Know wants to better understand how these<a href="http://usrtk.org/gmo/an-open-letter-to-professor-kevin-folta-on-foia-requests/" target="blank" style="color: rgb(0, 136, 204); text-decoration: none; word-break: break-word;">professors</a> (including one that has attacked me personally) are working with biotech companies and PR firms, such as Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont, Dow, Ketchum, Fleishman Hillard, Ogilvy & Mather. I never thought in a million years I would be subjected to this disgusting PR game. The only way I and other activists can continue our work is for you to share the truth and spread the word!!! Please share this report with everyone you know.Thank you so much for standing with me and with everyone who is working for a better food system. Xo,Vani  Ketchum wrote copy for <a href="http://usrtk.org/what-the-agrichemical-and-tobacco-industries-have-in-common-pr-firms-operatives-tactics/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;"><u style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Brown & Williamson’s</a> cigarette campaignsIt’s true; Ketchum, McLeod and Grove also wrote copy for Brown & Williamson’s cigarette advertising campaigns and prepared that copy to convince Americans to smoke! They twisted the thinking of Americans with the old “close by choice” sales trick by speaking of a “safer cigarette.” No commercial cigarettes in America are safe, by any means, but the lingo appeared to trick consumers: “You like to smoke. You enjoy it. But just to be on the safe side, you settle for a low-tar.” <u style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;"><a href="http://usrtk.org/what-the-agrichemical-and-tobacco-industries-have-in-common-pr-firms-operatives-tactics/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">(4)</a>Yes, Ketchum wants the world to forget their DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING from the 1970s that tried to convince America that smoking (Fact brand cigarettes) was good for health and approved by “50 years of scientific tobacco research.” Fifty years? Let us see just ONE of those scientific studies, and we’ll put it on the shelf with the falsified biotech safety studies. All Ketchum cares about is their client’s image and a huge paycheck. They will say, print and publish ANYTHING to sell ANY product or service to ANYONE who will buy it, as long as the dividends keep streaming in. From Big Tobacco lies to Biotech lies, Ketchum spans the years, “sanitizing” lethal chemicals as food and leisure consumption recommendations, and they pay public scientists and officials big money to say what they write, which is a pack of lies, just like on GMOAnswers.com. Did you know most of the Big Tobacco lies were published in peer review Journals like JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association? Shouldn’t Ketchum take on the responsibility and liability for the people who get cancer from smoking cigarettes and eating pesticide-laden genetically modified food? What about the lead scientists for Adolf Hitler in WWII who just “did what they were told?” Were they innocent? They were convicted of mass-murder at the Nuremberg trials. These are destructive PR campaigns that Ketchum is running and spinning, weaving in more sickness and death for Americans, year after year, decade after decade. The agenda for Ketchum with regards to selling the public on GMO is clear–convince the unknowing and confused consumers that:<ol style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19.5px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none inside none; counter-reset: chapter 0;"><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none;">GMOs are safe.</li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none;">Anyone who disagrees with biotechnology is anti-science.</li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none;">Biotech companies that produce GMOs care about farmers, families and a sustainable environment<a href="http://www.truthwiki.org/gmo-answers-biotechnology-website-gmoanswers-com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">.(7)</a></li></ol> As part of their <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">“multi-million dollar” campaign for the biotech giants, Ketchum closely monitors Twitter conversations and seeks out negative biotech-related tweets on Twitter and then makes counter arguments. Ketchum is notoriously secretive and targets consumer and food activist groups like the Center for Food Safety and GE Food Alert. Ketchum even hired a private investigation firm (BBI) to spy on activist’s computers and phone records, and even their trash way back in 2000 during <strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Taco Bell’s GMO scandal. We are talking about trash digging, spying propagandists here, not just a business that does PR work to “pay the bills.” <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/049193_Cornell_University_GMOs_Bill_Gates.html#ixzz3mkWV3oRc" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">(6)</a> Four key facts to realize about dangers of GMO in the face of Ketchum PR tactics:<ol style="margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19.5px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none inside none; counter-reset: chapter 0;"><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">GMO crops were engineered with pesticides inside the gene makeup of the seeds so that the plant grows immune to synthetic herbicides and chemical-based insecticides to be spraid on them in the fields.</li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none;">Pesticide genes found inside GM food can replicate inside the human gut, killing good bacteria, causing central nervous system and digestive disorders.</li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none;">Similar to the overuse of antibiotics, GMO in crops are creating “super bugs” and “super weeds” that are immune or resistant to heavy doses of poisonous chemicals, but the humans that eat them are not.</li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Biotechnology is contributing to the “pesticide treadmill” that feeds the growth of unnatural plants and toxifies the environment all around them.</li></ol> 2003: Ketchum firm was paid $700,000 to promote George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” using fake news videosKetchum allegedly diverted around a quarter million dollars in taxpayer money to a prominent conservative columnist and talk radio host (Armstrong Williams) to relentlessly promote the agenda of “No Child Left Behind” scam the Bush Administration ran. Then Ketchum was hired to push the Medicare Part D drug prescription scam, which added hundreds of billions of dollars to the nation’s debt over the years, according to the 2013 Medicare trustees report, where the CBO described Ketchum’s PR campaign as “covert propaganda” since Ketchum failed to disclose that taxpayers funded their BOGUS video “news” releases. <a href="https://www.ketchum.com/d%25C3%25BCsseldorf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">(8)</a> 2010: Greenpeace files lawsuit against Ketchum for hiring spies to steal their documentsKetchum hired spies to trespass and steal documents from Greenpeace because they were challenging Dupont (Ketchum’s client) on toxic pollution schemes. Ketchum functioned to target Greenpeace for their anti-pollution efforts and gather as much Intel as possible, even using clandestine and illegal methods to do so. 2013: More covert propaganda by Ketchum to give Honduran government a “makeover”The Honduran government paid Ketchum half a million dollars to give its embattled government a “facelift” after a multimillion-dollar corruption scandal sparked major protests calling for the president to resign. Was this more covert propaganda and corporate espionage committed against the public and for the infamous Bush Administration? If so it’s a violation of U.S. federal law. Ketchum did what they do best and that is provide crisis management lies to salvage and rebuild someone’s or some entities’ reputation, at any cost, with out regards to ethics, morals or legalities. During the huge controversy, Ketchum worked for and reported to President Juan Hernandez’s sister Hilda Hernandez, who served as Honduras’ minister of strategy communications. Hernandez’s National Party siphoned nearly $100 million from their country’s social security institute to fund their 2013 election campaign, which they won. <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Embattled-Honduran-Govt-Hires-Controversial-US-Based-PR-Firm-20150909-0038.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">(9)</a> <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2005/05/3632/why-armstrong-williams-wants-us-forgive-and-forget" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">(11)</a> U.S. Right to Know group leader Gary Ruskin has this to say about GMOAnswers.com:“We taxpayers deserve to know the details about when our taxpayer-paid employees front for private corporations and their slick PR firms,” Ruskin said. “This is especially true when they do work for unsavory entities such as Ketchum, which has been implicated in espionage against nonprofit organizations.” <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303691-kevin-folta-uoffloridadocs.html#document/p10/a237532" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">(10)</a> The U.S. Right to Know is a nonprofit organization working to expose what the Big Food industries do NOT want the public to know. USRTK stands up for the right to know what is in our food and how it affects our health. <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303691-kevin-folta-uoffloridadocs.html#document/p10/a237532" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">USRTK exposes politics</a> of the marketplace where big food companies, biotechnology firms and shady PR firms hide the immense dangers of GMO in their quest for profits and control of the worlds seeds.Sources:(1) <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/051284_Ketchum_public_relations_Kevin_Folta.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">http://www.naturalnews.com/051284_Ketchum_public_relations_Kevin_Folta.html</a>(2) <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/051096_science_for_sale_Monsanto_financial_influence.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">http://www.naturalnews.com/051096_science_for_sale_Monsanto_financial_influence.html</a>(3) <a href="http://naturalnewsconnection.blogspot.com/2015/09/russia-announces-total-ban-on-gmo-crops.html?view=magazine" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">http://naturalnewsconnection.blogspot.com/2015/09/russia-announces-total-ban-on-gmo-crops.html?view=magazine</a>(4) <a href="http://usrtk.org/what-the-agrichemical-and-tobacco-industries-have-in-common-pr-firms-operatives-tactics/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">http://usrtk.org/what-the-agrichemical-and-tobacco-industries-have-in-common-pr-firms-operatives-tactics/</a>(5) <a href="http://foodbabe.com/2015/02/12/dirty-pr-campaign/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">http://foodbabe.com/2015/02/12/dirty-pr-campaign/</a>(6) <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/049193_Cornell_University_GMOs_Bill_Gates.html#ixzz3mkWV3oRc" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">http://www.naturalnews.com/049193_Cornell_University_GMOs_Bill_Gates.html#ixzz3mkWV3oRc</a>(7) <a href="http://www.truthwiki.org/gmo-answers-biotechnology-website-gmoanswers-com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">http://www.truthwiki.org/gmo-answers-biotechnology-website-gmoanswers-com/</a>(8) <a href="https://www.ketchum.com/d%25C3%25BCsseldorf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">https://www.ketchum.com/d%C3%BCsseldorf</a>(9) <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Embattled-Honduran-Govt-Hires-Controversial-US-Based-PR-Firm-20150909-0038.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Embattled-Honduran-Govt-Hires-Controversial-US-Based-PR-Firm-20150909-0038.html</a>(10) <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303691-kevin-folta-uoffloridadocs.html#document/p10/a237532" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303691-kevin-folta-uoffloridadocs.html#document/p10/a237532</a>(11) <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2005/05/3632/why-armstrong-williams-wants-us-forgive-and-forget" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none;">http://www.prwatch.org/news/2005/05/3632/why-armstrong-williams-wants-us-forgive-and-forget</a> </div><div></div></div></div>