Chassy, B

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">chassey on team entine used retraction watch to go after seralini, then hoist on own petard?</font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://progressive.org/magazine/how-the-biotech-industry-cultivates-positive-media/</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">july 2017</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">flaking for gmo's</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p class="lead" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On April 2016, Monica Eng of WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR station, published a <a href="https://will.illinois.edu/news/story/why-didnt-an-illinois-professor-have-to-disclose-gmo-funding" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">critical story</a> revealing that the agrichemical giant Monsanto had quietly paid a professor at the University of Illinois to travel, write, and speak about genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and even to lobby federal officials to halt further GMO regulation. In a grueling, year-long reporting project, Eng uncovered <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303693-bruce-chassyuofillinoisdocs.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">documents</a> proving that Monsanto made the payments to University of Illinois professor <b>Bruce Chassy</b>, and that he <a href="https://will.illinois.edu/news/story/why-didnt-an-illinois-professor-have-to-disclose-gmo-funding" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">advised Monsanto</a> to deposit money in the university’s foundation, where records are shielded from public disclosure.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">
What she didn’t expect was the massive blowback: The university accused her of being an activist, not a journalist, and she was hounded by Twitter trolls who jumped on her story and waged a campaign to discredit her personally.</span><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I knew that this would be a big story,” Eng says.</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">“I’ve worked as a professional journalist in Chicago for more than three decades,” Eng says. “I’ve uncovered questionable activity in government groups, nonprofits, and private companies. But I don’t think I have ever seen a group so intent on trying to personally attack the journalist covering the issue</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Eng’s experience is just one example of a strategy first invented by Big Tobacco to smear critics, spin reporters, and tamp down information that could damage the industry’s image.</font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.6em 2.6em 1em 0px; padding: 1.6em 2em 1.6em 0px; order: 0; border-top: 3px solid rgb(57, 130, 106); border-bottom: 3px solid rgb(57, 130, 106); width: 385.922px; float: left;"><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 38.22px; order: 0; font-weight: bold;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I don’t think I have ever seen a group so intent on trying to personally attack the journalist covering the issue.”</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 38.22px; order: 0; font-weight: bold;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">—Monica Eng</font></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In recent months, media outlets have reported on a disturbing trend of corporate-sponsored journalism</b>. <em style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">The British Medical Journal</em> <a href="http://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j1638" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">exposed</a> a multiyear campaign by Coca-Cola to influence reporters covering obesity by secretly funding journalism conferences at the University of Colorado. The watchdog group Health News Review <a href="https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2017/04/journalism-ethics-questions-swirl-around-u-of-kansas-opioid-survey-pharma-funding/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">reported</a> that two journalism professors at the University of Kansas asked more than 1,100 health-care reporters about their views on opioids in a survey that was funded, in part, by the <a href="https://www.practicalbioethics.org/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Center for Practical Bioethics</a>, a group the <a href="https://www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-news/baucus-grassley-seek-answers-about-opioid-manufacturers-ties-to-medical-groups" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">U.S. Senate Finance Committee investigated</a> for its ties to opioid manufacturers.</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The biotech industry is particularly focused on taming controversies surrounding GMOs and the chemicals that are used on genetically modified crops, including Monsanto’s weedkiller glyphosate. The <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/glyphosate-now-most-used-agricultural-chemical-ever-422419" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">world’s most widely used herbicide</a>, glyphosate is critical for the successful cultivation of GMO corn and soybeans. A recent <a href="https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-016-0070-0" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">study</a> found that the chemical’s use by farmers has jumped fifteen-fold since 1996. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has <a href="https://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVolume112.pdf" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">identified</a> glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In January, a judge <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-roundup-cancer-20170127-story.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">overruled</a> Monsanto’s objections, and the state of California will add a label with <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-glyphosate-california-idUSKBN19H2K1" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">a cancer warning</a> to the popular glyphosate-based weed killer RoundUp.</b> The Inspector General for the Environmental Protection Agency just <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/epa-inspector-general-probing-collusion-with-monsanto_us_59372108e4b0aba888b99dca" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">announced</a> he is investigating whether a former high-ranking EPA official colluded with Monsanto. In addition to filing lawsuits and hiring lobbyists, the chemical industry is deploying industry-allied scientists and using pro-GMO websites to discredit journalists covering glyphosate and GMOs.</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">New York Times</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> investigative reporter Danny Hakim has dealt with online abuse in recent months for writing </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/business/gmo-promise-falls-short.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">articles</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> critical of the agrichemical industry. Google Hakim’s name and you find little mention of seventeen years at the </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">Times,</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> during which time he won a</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Pulitzer Prize. Instead, you’ll find articles criticizing his reporting at sites like the American Council on Science and Health (<a href="http://acsh.org/news/2017/03/15/glyphosate-nyts-danny-hakim-lying-you-11001" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">“Glyphosate: NYT’s Danny Hakim Is Lying to You”</a>) and the Genetic Literacy Project</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> (</span><a href="https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2016/10/31/danny-hakims-new-york-times-gmo-expose-misleads/" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">“Why Danny Hakim’s New York Times GMO exposé misleads”</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">).</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The industry’s PR campaign to reframe the GMO debate and intimidate journalists through harassment and name-calling has been remarkably successful in my view,” says food author and journalism professor Michael Pollan. “I think this is partly a function of the political and public relations naiveté of many of my fellow science writers.”</font></p><hr style="background-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; order: 0; clear: both; height: 1px; border: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 1.2em auto; opacity: 0;" /><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One tactic industry allies employ to discredit questions about GMOs is to narrow the discussion to food safety. Pro-GMO scientists and writers <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/democrats-reject-science-of-gmo/article/2003176" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">mock</a> experts and critics, by portraying them as loonies who think eating a bag of corn chips is akin to ingesting a bottle of arsenic. But this is a misleading line of attack, since GMO concerns are wide-ranging, including how well they are tested for safety, their <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/behind-the-monsanto-deal-doubts-about-the-gmo-revolution-1473880429" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">impact on agriculture</a> and the ecosystem, and the toxicity of glyphosate.</font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.6em 2.6em 1em 0px; padding: 1.6em 2em 1.6em 0px; order: 0; border-top: 3px solid rgb(57, 130, 106); border-bottom: 3px solid rgb(57, 130, 106); width: 385.922px; float: left;"><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 38.22px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The industry’s PR campaign to reframe the GMO debate and intimidate journalists through harassment and name-calling has been remarkably successful in my view...”</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 38.22px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">—Michael Pollan.</font></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most of all, there is legitimate debate about whether industry should be engineering a crop that requires the heavy use of pesticides. Industry and its allies attempt to discredit such questions by comparing GMO critics to climate denialists and vaccine safety denialists.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hints of the biotech industry’s media tactics have leaked from court cases filed against Monsanto alleging glyphosate causes cancer. Several filings reference internal Monsanto documents that describe the company’s social media strategy called “<a href="https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/MDLLetNothingGomotion.pdf" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Let Nothing Go</a>”—a program in which individuals who appear to have no connection to the industry rapidly respond to negative social media posts regarding Monsanto, GMOs, and agrichemicals.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><a href="https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/MDLLetNothingGomotion.pdf" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Lawyers in one case told a judge that</a> documents show Monsanto funnels money to the Genetic Literacy Project and the American Council on Science and Health in order to “shame scientists and highlight information helpful to Monsanto and other chemic</b>al producers.”</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Industry has also secretly funded a series of <a href="http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/education/gsbs/documents/2-12-015BLPProspectus_000.doc" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">conferences</a> to train scientists and journalists to frame the debate over GMOs and the toxicity of glyphosate. The most widely attended of these events happened in 2014 at the University of Florida and in 2015 at University of California-Davis. In emails, organizers referred to these conferences as biotech literacy bootcamps, and journalists are described as “partners.” Organizers <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862243-BIO-Funded-and-Political.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">included</a> the chairman of the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida, Kevin Folta, the Genetic Literacy Project’s Jon Entine, University of Illinois’s Bruce Chassy, and consultant Cami Ryan.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While claiming to be “independent” of industry influence, Folta was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/us/food-industry-enlisted-academics-in-gmo-lobbying-war-emails-show.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">exposed</a> in <em style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">The</em> <em style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">New York Times</em> for taking money from Monsanto to promote GMOs. Shortly before the <em style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">Times </em>article reported on his connection to Monsanto, Folta’s university <a href="http://www.gainesville.com/article/LK/20150828/SPORTS/604134071/GS/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">declared its intention</a> to donate these undisclosed payments to charity.</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="http://polluterwatch.com/jon-entine" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Entine</a> was affiliated with a now-defunct group called STATS, which <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/11/15/how-self-appointed-guardians-of-sound-science-tip-the-scales-toward-industry/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">promoted</a> positive messages about chemicals and <a href="http://archive.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/54195297.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">provided</a> communications support for tobacco companies. Last year, Entine wrote an article <a href="http://nypost.com/2016/03/01/how-the-columbia-journalism-school-smeared-exxon/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">attacking professors</a> at Columbia Journalism School for <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/when-a-journalist-crosses-from-science-to-ideology_us_5904e070e4b05279d4edbc8e" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">their investigations </a>of ExxonMobil’s involvement in climate change denial. Years ago, an <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/10/a-valuable-reputation" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">article in <em style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">The New Yorker</em></a> reported on Entine’s apparent involvement in the <b>industry’s coordinated condemnation of a professor at University of California-Berkeley, whose research is critical of pesticides.</b></font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);"><b>Besides receiving money to help Monsanto, Chassy runs <a href="http://academicsreview.org/about-academic-review/founders/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Academics Review</a>, </b>a site suggested to him by <a href="https://www.usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Sachs-AR.pdf" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">an executive at Monsanto</a> who emailed, “The key will be keeping Monsanto in the background so as not to harm the credibility of the information.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>After helping plan the first conference, <a href="https://camiryan.com/about/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Cami Ryan</a> later took a job with <a href="https://camiryan.com/about/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Monsanto</a>.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“These are distressing materials,” says Naomi Oreskes,</b> professor of the history of science at Harvard University, after reviewing documents and emails about the conferences. Oreskes says the involvement of the American Council on Science and Health is especially problematic, given its long history of undermining the science on chemical safety and pesticides. She added: “It is clearly intended to persuade people that GMO crops are beneficial, needed, and not sufficiently risky to justify labeling.”</font></p><hr style="background-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; order: 0; clear: both; height: 1px; border: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 1.2em auto; opacity: 0;" /><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>After early <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3872363-Entine-Folta-BLP-Hotspots.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">discussions in 2013</a>, Entine later <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862243-BIO-Funded-and-Political.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">emailed</a> Folta, Chassy, and Ryan noting that the conferences needed to include people “strategically located” in key states where political battles over GMO foods were occurring. Entine <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862243-BIO-Funded-and-Political.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">added</a> that once the program is figured out, “I’ll take on proposing the handful of journalists and media experts that we would hope to bring on board.”</b></font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">When a journalist asked who was behind the 2015 conference at UC-Davis, Entine wrote that the biotech literacy events had university sponsorship, as well as support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the State Department, and Academics Review, which gets some industry support. In an <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862246-Bruce-Chassy-on-Bootcamps.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">email</a> to several scientists, Chassy also claimed that universities and U.S. federal agencies were funding the literacy bootcamp conferences, and said the honoraria for presenters would be $2,500. Chassy added, “Journalists aren’t inexpensive.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But both the University of Florida and UC-Davis denied financially supporting these conferences</b>. A spokesperson from the State Department said the agency merely sent a speaker to the 2014 conference at the University of Florida. After weeks of repeated requests, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture was unable to find evidence of the federal agency’s financial support for the conferences.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So where did the cash come from? It’s a twisted money trail.</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">An <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862253-Entine-Ronald-Beachy-MOU.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">agreement</a> signed by Entine states that the literacy bootcamp at UC-Davis anticipated having many expenses paid by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). When contacted, BIO confirmed that it gave Academics Review $175,000 for the 2014 conference at the University of Florida and $165,000 for the 2015 conference at UC-Davis.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <b>But BIO added that the money was cycled through a nonprofit it operates called the Council on Biotechnology Information (CBI). </b>In fact, the tax forms for CBI state that it gave a total of $300,000 to Academics Review in both </span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862248-CBI-Academics-Review-2014.html" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">2014</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> and </span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862249-CBI-Academics-Review-2015.html" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">2015</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. And </span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862291-Academics-Review-990-2015.html" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">tax forms</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> for Academics Review, which Chassy runs with his wife, note that the group spent more than $160,000 on the UC-Davis conference in 2015.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In short, the only traceable money source is the biotech industry. So, what did industry money buy?</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">A flyer for the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3862244-BLP-Davis-Flyer.html" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">2015 event at UC-Davis</a> lists more than a dozen faculty, including <a href="http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=27" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Jay Byrne</a>, a former public relations officer at Monsanto who now runs a PR firm that promotes GMOs. Also listed as faculty is Nina Fedoroff, a professor <a href="http://bio.psu.edu/directory/nvf1" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">at Penn State</a>, who also serves as a <a href="http://www.ofwlaw.com/2016/11/01/hakims-effort-to-skewer-biotech-crops-in-sundays-ny-times/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">science adviser, and resident media critic</a>, for a law firm that represents the biotech industry.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among the attendees at the UC-Davis conference listed as <b>“journalists” were Hank Campbell of the website Science 2.0</b>, which regularly posts pro-GMO propaganda. Campbell is now president of the <b>American Council on Science and Health, which <a href="http://acsh.org/news/2017/03/24/new-york-university-journalism-academics-stop-libeling-scientists-and-doctors-11032" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">attacks</a> reporters for exposing scientists’ hidden ties to industry and the potential <a href="http://www.acsh.org/news/2017/03/01/bees-shouldn%E2%80%99t-become-next-%E2%80%98fake-news%E2%80%99-victim-10927" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">dangers of pesticides</a>.</b></font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">After reviewing conference documents, Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, said, “If journalists attend conferences that they are paid to attend, they need to be deeply suspicious from the get-go.” She added that the conference organizers were likely trying to convince journalists that anyone questioning the safety of GMOs “is anti-science and in the same category as climate change deniers.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.healthnewsreview.org/about-us/reviewers/gary-schwitzer/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Gary Schwitzer</a>, who is the publisher of HealthNewsReview and an adjunct associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, is also concerned.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Far too many journalists are sliding down the slippery slope of attending conferences that are sponsored by entities with financial interests,” he said. “This practice changes journalism [into] another form of pay-for-play.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When asked about the funding for the bootcamps and the financial support from industry to his organization, Entine responded, “Sorry, I’ve never heard of you. I don’t respond to activists with no history of credible reporting.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Folta said he understands the conferences were funded by BIO and he organized the events outside of work hours. “All of my funding, as always, is and has been fully disclosed in accordance with university policy,” he added.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a statement to <em style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">The Progressive</em>, Monsanto wrote that the company collaborates with multiple organizations and provides financial support in a transparent manner to many industry organizations including CBI, of which the American Council on Science and Health is a supporting partner. Monsanto added that it does not provide funding to the Genetic Literacy Project, but ignored repeated questions about their financial support for the American Council on Science and Health.</font></p><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);"><b>Chassy did not respond to queries about funding for Academics Review </b>and the biotech conferences. But he did join Entine and Folta in sending a letter to <em style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; order: 0;">The Progressive </em>accusing the author of unspecified “bias and harassment tactics” and “multiple false and<b> potentially libelous insinuations and claims.”</b></font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: relative; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.6em 2.6em 1em 0px; padding: 1.6em 2em 1.6em 0px; order: 0; border-top: 3px solid rgb(57, 130, 106); border-bottom: 3px solid rgb(57, 130, 106); width: 385.922px; float: left;"><p style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 38.22px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Many reporters are simply too intimidated and afraid to report on the health and environmental effects of the agrichemical industry and its products.”</font></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gary Ruskin is codirector of <a href="https://usrtk.org/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">U.S. Right to Know</a>, a nonprofit that works on transparency in the food industry and receives some <a href="http://usrtk.org/donors/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">funding</a> from the <a href="https://www.organicconsumers.org/" target="blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; order: 0; border-bottom: none;">Organic Consumers Association</a>. His group first got public records of industry-supported conferences.“Many reporters are simply too intimidated and afraid to report on the health and environmental effects of the agrichemical industry and its products,” he says.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 30.87px; order: 0;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Industry tars public health advocates and reporters as anti-science for raising issues the public needs to understand. That should worry us all. </font></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">cited on harvard grad st blog on golden rice</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20621653">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20621653</a></div><div>
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</div><div><div style="font-size: small;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Jon Entine and Genetic Literacy Project are Monsanto Trolls</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A CBI / Ketchum document unearthed in the Roundup litigation lists Jon</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> Entine, Bruce Chassy, Kevin Folta </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">and others as“target authors.”</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> 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.”</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>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</b>. 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.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2014 and 2015, Entine partnered with Chassy and Folta to organize industry-funded conferences at the University of Florida and <b>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.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Paul D. Thacker</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">@thackerpd</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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</span> …</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View image on Twitter</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">10</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3:38 AM <b>- Sep 10, 2019</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See Paul D. Thacker's other Tweets</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">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?”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">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.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>By Baum Hedlund|</b>September 10th, 2019|Blog, Monsanto Roundup News</font></div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ctr attack</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://dailycaller.com/2018/07/19/how-russia-and-ngos-collude-to-damage-american-exceptionalism/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://dailycaller.com/2018/07/19/how-russia-and-ngos-collude-to-damage-american-exceptionalism/</font></a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx many graf</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">OPINION</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>HENRY I. MILLER AND JON ENTINE</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">PROFESSOR</span>, DIRECTOR OF THE GENETIC LITERACY PROJECT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>July 19, 2018</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">6:19 PM ET</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Modern genetic engineering techniques applied to agriculture are making stunning advances. This year, after decades in (gratuitous) regulatory limbo, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Health Canada and Food Standards Australia New Zealand gave the green light to domestic import and consumption of Golden Rice, which has been genetically modified to produce provitamin-A.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Every year, about half a million children become blind as a result of Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) and 70 percent die within a year of losing their sight. In developing countries, 200 — 300 million children of preschool age are at risk of VAD, which increases their susceptibility to infections such as measles and diarrheal diseases.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet this revolutionary rice, now being grown in test plots in many countries, has still not been greenlighted for public consumption in the two countries where it would do the most good: Bangladesh and the Philippines.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How could that be? No serious concerns have ever been raised about its safety, and human feeding trials in China have shown that Golden Rice can prevent this scourge. The reason is the strident, relentless opposition from anti-biotechnology non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Greenpeace in particular, that regard any genetic engineering success as a kind of Trojan Horse that could sway public opinion.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Golden Rice </b>is one of many humanitarian breakthroughs being developed by universities and developing countries that remain stalled, including disease-resistant bananas and cassava; climate-adaptive plants; and new corn varieties that are more efficient at photosynthesis, able to fix carbon from atmospheric CO2 and convert it into sugar. The last of these advances reportedly results in a mid-single-digit or higher percentage increase in yield, which would be an extraordinary advance, especially in less-developed countries where corn is a subsistence crop.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There’s an old saying that no good deed goes unpunished, and the anti-genetic engineering machine, largely funded by the organic and natural products industries, continues to hum along, attacking not only companies that produce breakthroughs but also academics and ordinary citizens who preach the kind of science-driven public policy that will promote more advances.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That paid advocacy is particularly vile because it has taken such a personal turn—viciously assailing not only the technology but the scientists and science communicators who advocate for a level playing field that asks only that the technology be allowed to succeed or fail on its merits in the farm and food marketplace.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>These activists regularly trot out a litany of false accusations about their targets, with university professors as frequent victims. The most notorious of these “hit groups” is U.S. Right to Know, or USRTK,</b> which pretends to be part of a grassroots movement, but is actually mostly funded by the pernicious Organic Consumers Association. OCA is not a mainstream organic trade group but a rump organization of science deniers known for their rejection of medical vaccines (They cause autism!), support for homeopathy and believing that Zika virus outbreaks are a conspiracy perpetrated by the world’s chemical companies.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">USRTK has filed harassing <b>Freedom of Information requests for emails and documents of at least a hundred public university faculty</b> and staff members, hoping to find snippets which, when cherry-picked from hundreds of thousands of emails and taken out-of-context, might imply conflicts of interest.</span> Their efforts to undermine scientists and public policy scholars whose work threatens organic agriculture—as genetic engineering continually widens the already-large productivity gap between conventional and organic practices–follow a familiar pattern.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the words of University of Florida plant biologist Kevin <b>Folta,</b> who has been excoriated repeatedly by USRTK for supposedly being a Monsanto sock puppet, the activists “develop a narrative that suggests industry collusion or undue influence, especially with any attempt to connect the faculty member to Monsanto, a company that is the bogeyman favorite of activists.” Professor Folta’s supposedly “egregious” pay-for-play violation: His university accepted $25,000, since returned, to help cover costs on an outreach project on genetic engineering.</font></div></div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/environment/glyphosate-monsantos-toxic-legacy">https://www.alternet.org/environment/glyphosate-monsantos-toxic-legacy</a></font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><h2 id="post-51375" style="padding: 0px; margin: 5px 0px 7px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://retractionwatch.com/2017/08/10/unearthed-docs-monsanto-connected-campaign-retract-gmo-paper/" rel="bookmark" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Unearthed emails: Monsanto connected to campaign to retract GMO paper</font></a></h2><p class="comments" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(187, 187, 187); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://retractionwatch.com/2017/08/10/unearthed-docs-monsanto-connected-campaign-retract-gmo-paper/#comments" style="padding: 0px 7px 5px 0px; margin: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">with 14 comments</font></a></p><div class="main" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A trove of internal documents from Monsanto, recently unsealed in a lawsuit against the agricultural biotech giant, has revealed the firm’s role in the knotty tale of a paper from the lab of a scientist known for his stance against genetically modified organisms (GMOs).</b></font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">That paper is “</span><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691512005637" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">,” published in September 2012 in the journal</span><i style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> Food and Chemical Toxicology </i><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">(FCT) and </span><a href="http://retractionwatch.com/2013/11/28/controversial-seralini-gmo-rats-paper-to-be-retracted/" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">retracted in January 2014</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">. </span><a href="http://retractionwatch.com/?s=gilles+seralini" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Gilles Seralini</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">, a scientist known for an adversarial stance towards GMOs, was first author. The documents have also spurred the retraction of several pro-GMO articles on Forbes.com written by Henry Miller, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford University. Emails showed that one of the articles, which didn’t discuss Seralini’s paper, was ghostwritten by Monsanto.</span></font></p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">The </span><a href="https://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/toxic-tort-law/monsanto-roundup-lawsuit/monsanto-secret-documents/" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">documents</span></a>, posted last week by the law firm of Baum, Hedlund, Aristei and Goldman,<span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> show Monsanto engaged with a network of scientists and other commentators to spread the message that the Seralini paper was bad science and should be retracted. Seralini told Retraction Watch that this proves what he has been saying all along, that Monsanto led a concentrated effort to discredit his science and protect its bottom line. He said:</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="more-51375" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" /></font></p><blockquote style="background-image: url(" images="images" quote.gif="quote.gif" background-position="background-position" left="left" top="top" background-size="background-size" initial="initial" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" padding="padding" px="px" margin="margin" min-height="min-height"><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I deduced from the beginning that it was organized….</font></span></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But the effort to counteract Seralini’s work was not one-sided.</b> [what?! huh logic?] Bruce Chassy, at the time a professor at the University of Illinois, now retired, told us he approached Monsanto to ask if they would act as allies “in the fight against the abuse of science,” in the form of anti-GMO research that he believed to be shoddy. He said that he has been critical of Monsanto’s business practices, but thinks they hire good scientists and are thus a good source of information on GMOs:</font></span></p><blockquote style="background-image: url(" images="images" quote.gif="quote.gif" background-position="background-position" left="left" top="top" background-size="background-size" initial="initial" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" padding="padding" px="px" margin="margin" min-height="min-height"><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If I can use Monsanto to get science a fair hearing, I’ll do it. Since they know more about this than anybody else, they’re the people to go to.</font></span></p></blockquote><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Monsanto tried to ensure that the campaign to retract the 2012 paper wouldn’t be linked back to the company. On Sept. 26, 2012 — a week after the paper came out, </span><a href="http://baumhedlundlaw.com/pdf/monsanto-documents/7-Monsanto-Personnel-Discusses-Plan-Seeking-Retraction-of-Serlani-Glyphosate-Study.pdf" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Eric Sachs, a Monsanto executive, wrote several colleagues</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> to emphasize:</span></font></p><blockquote style="background-image: url(" images="images" quote.gif="quote.gif" background-position="background-position" left="left" top="top" background-size="background-size" initial="initial" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" padding="padding" px="px" margin="margin" min-height="min-height"><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We have done our part. It is time now for the public sector and especially our network of experts to do theirs…</font></span></p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Monsanto must not be put in the position of providing the critical analysis that leads the editors to retract the paper… There is a difference between defending science and participating in a formal process to retract a publication that challenges the safety of our products.</font></span></p></blockquote><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">To achieve this, Monsanto coordinated with the scientists mentioned in the documents on what to say in response to and how to maximize the impact of the response. Based on the documents obtained, that took the form of published articles, including letters to the editor of </span><i style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><b>FCT</b></i><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><b>,</b> at least one of which called for retraction.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A contentious paper</font></b></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Seralini should be no stranger to our regular readers — controversy has followed the 2012 paper at almost every turn, from the <a href="https://embargowatch.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/stenographers-anyone-gmo-rat-study-co-sponsor-engineered-embargo-to-prevent-scrutiny/" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">irregular methods Seralini used to promote it</a> to the media (such as asking some journalists to sign a non-disclosure agreement to see it in advance of publication) to initial publication in </span><i style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">FCT</i><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">. Even after it was retracted, it was republished in 2014 — by a journal that </span><a href="http://retractionwatch.com/2014/06/26/republished-seralini-gmo-rat-study-was-not-peer-reviewed-says-editor/" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">didn’t subject it to peer review</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">. The <em style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">FCT</em> version has been cited 54 times since it was retracted, and 95 in total, <a href="http://retractionwatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/WOS-boilerplate3.pdf" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">according to Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science</a>, earning it Clarivate’s “highly cited paper” designation.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">In a </span><a href="http://retractionwatch.com/2013/11/28/controversial-seralini-gmo-rats-paper-to-be-retracted/" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">statement issued</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> after the retraction, Seralini accused Monsanto of promoting criticisms of the paper and installing a former employee on the </span><i style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">FCT</i><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> editorial board.</span></font></p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">While the documents highlight close ties between Monsanto and at least four people who criticized the study, plenty of scientists criticized the paper’s scientific merits in both the </span><a href="https://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/six-french-science-academies-dismiss-study-finding-gm-corn-harmed-rats/" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">mainstream</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> and </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/news/rat-study-sparks-gm-furore-1.11471" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">academic</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> press. Still, the <a href="http://retractionwatch.com/2014/01/16/journal-editor-defends-retraction-of-gmo-rats-study-while-authors-reveal-some-of-papers-history/" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">decision to retract</a> was as contentious as the decision to publish. An </span><i style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">FCT</i><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> investigation found no evidence of fraud, misconduct, or gross error, which are required by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines for retraction; however, </span><i style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">FCT</i><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> cited COPE guidelines in their </span><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691512005637" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">retraction notice</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> anyway.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">As our co-founder Ivan Oransky </span><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/study-on-genetically-modified-corn-herbicide-and-tumors-reignites-controversy/" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">told </span><i style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">CBS News</span></i></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> in 2014, after the paper was </span><a href="http://retractionwatch.com/2014/06/24/retracted-seralini-gmo-rat-study-republished/" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">republished</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> in a different journal:</span></font></p><blockquote style="background-image: url(" images="images" quote.gif="quote.gif" background-position="background-position" left="left" top="top" background-size="background-size" initial="initial" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" padding="padding" px="px" margin="margin" min-height="min-height"><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This whole episode has taken us farther away from knowing the truth …</font></span></p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is a good example of what happens when people with hardened beliefs manipulate a system for the result they want …</font></span></p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We are ‘connected’ but did not write the letter”</font></b></p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">The </span><a href="http://baumhedlundlaw.com/pdf/monsanto-documents/7-Monsanto-Personnel-Discusses-Plan-Seeking-Retraction-of-Serlani-Glyphosate-Study.pdf" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">documents show that Monsanto was in contact with Chassy</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">, who wrote several pieces attacking Seralini’s paper. On Sept. 25, 2012, Chassy </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170423075529/https://www.forbes.com/sites/henrymiller/2012/09/25/scientists-smell-a-rat-in-fraudulent-genetic-engineering-study/#61a4757a689a" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">co-authored an article with Henry Miller</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">, the fellow at the conservative think tank, which Miller published in his capacity as a Forbes.com contributor. The article suggested that Seralini had gone beyond “bad science” and into fraud. That article and two other posts from Miller related to GMOs have since been removed from Forbes.com, but are available through the internet archive (one, </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120923144417/https://www.forbes.com/sites/henrymiller/2012/02/22/the-science-of-things-that-arent-so/" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">co-written with Chassy</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">, criticized an earlier 2012 Seralini paper; the other was </span><a href="http://baumhedlundlaw.com/pdf/monsanto-documents/22-Internal-Email-Demonstrating-Monsanto-Ghostwriting-Article-Criticizing-IARC-for-Press.pdf" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">ghost-written by Monsanto</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> itself in 2015).</span></font></p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mia Carbonell, senior VP of global communications at Forbes, told Retraction Watch that it has pulled down all of Miller’s articles on its site, because he violated the terms of his contract:</font></span></p><blockquote style="background-image: url(" images="images" quote.gif="quote.gif" background-position="background-position" left="left" top="top" background-size="background-size" initial="initial" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" padding="padding" px="px" margin="margin" min-height="min-height"><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">All contributors to </span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Forbes.com</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> sign a contract requiring them to disclose any potential conflicts of interest and only publish content that is their own original writing.  When it came to our attention that Mr. Miller violated these terms, we removed all of his posts from </span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Forbes.com</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> and ended our relationship with him.</span></font></p></blockquote><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Both Miller and Chassy said they weren’t involved in the decision to take down the Forbes articles and that they disagreed with the decision</b>. <span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Miller told us that, like Chassy, he has “sought information from [Monsanto] …on scientific issues when I thought they had information of value.” He said he does not have a financial connection to Monsanto. Chassy said that he has never personally accepted money from Monsanto, although his university did [see update].</span></font></p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">One day after the Forbes.com article ran, Chassy sent </span><i style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">FCT</i><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> Editor-in-chief A. Wallace “Wally” Hayes a </span><a href="http://baumhedlundlaw.com/pdf/monsanto-documents/9-Email-from-Monsanto-Collaborator-to-Food-and-Chemical-Toxicology-Journal.pdf" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">strongly-worded email</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> in which he said the journal had an “ethical obligation” to retract the paper.</span></font></p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Chassy was also </span><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691512007922" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">one of 25 co-authors of a formal letter to the editor</span></a> of the FCT <span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">t</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">h</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">a</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">t</span> <span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">c</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">a</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">l</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">l</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">e</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">d</span> <span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">f</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">o</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">r</span> the paper’s <span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">r</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">e</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">t</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">r</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">a</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">c</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">t</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">i</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">o</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">n</span><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">. (The letter has not been cited.) In September 2012, as the letter was being drafted, a Monsanto staff member asked about the company’s involvement with it and expressed hesitation about whether the company should even disclose its knowledge of the letter to investors. </span><a href="http://baumhedlundlaw.com/pdf/monsanto-documents/14-Monsanto-Emails-Confirming-Undisclosed-Involvement-in-Successful-Retraction-of-Serlani-Study.pdf" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Sachs wrote</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">:</span></font></p><blockquote style="background-image: url(" images="images" quote.gif="quote.gif" background-position="background-position" left="left" top="top" background-size="background-size" initial="initial" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" padding="padding" px="px" margin="margin" min-height="min-height"><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We are “connected” but did not write the letter or encourage anyone to sign it.</font></span></p></blockquote><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">As </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/business/monsantos-sway-over-research-is-seen-in-disclosed-emails.html" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">reported by the </span><i style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">New York Times</span></i></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">, Hayes himself had a </span><a href="http://baumhedlundlaw.com/pdf/monsanto-documents/10-Monsanto-Consulting-Agreement-with-Food-and-Chemical-Toxicology-Editor.pdf" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">“contractual relationship” with Monsanto</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> while he was editor of </span><i style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">FCT</i><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">. Hayes, now an adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts, told the </span><i style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Times</i><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> he was not under contract with Monsanto when the paper was retracted and that his relationship played “no role whatsoever” in that decision. However, Hayes was i</span><a href="http://baumhedlundlaw.com/pdf/monsanto-documents/7-Monsanto-Personnel-Discusses-Plan-Seeking-Retraction-of-Serlani-Glyphosate-Study.pdf" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">n contact with Monsanto executives soon after the paper came out</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">, offering advice on what they might round up to submit to him as rebuttal.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">The docs also </span><a href="http://baumhedlundlaw.com/pdf/monsanto-documents/70-Email-Details-Monsantos-Financial-Support-of-Glyphosate-Research-Without-Disclosing-Companys-Interest.pdf" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">reveal ties between Monsanto and Colin Berry,</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> a British toxicologist, who published his own letter in </span><i style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">FCT</i><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> criticizing the paper. On Sept. 20, 2012, the day after </span><i style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">FCT</i><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> published the Seralini paper, </span><a href="http://baumhedlundlaw.com/pdf/monsanto-documents/12-Monsanto-Email-Confirming-Companys-Intimate-Relationship-with-Wallace-Hayes.pdf" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Berry emailed David Saltmiras</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">, his contact at Monsanto, to ask:</span></font></p><blockquote style="background-image: url(" images="images" quote.gif="quote.gif" background-position="background-position" left="left" top="top" background-size="background-size" initial="initial" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" padding="padding" px="px" margin="margin" min-height="min-height"><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Have you seen this? I have been asked to comment asap – anything you want to say[?]</font></span></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Saltmiras replied:</font></span></p><blockquote style="background-image: url(" images="images" quote.gif="quote.gif" background-position="background-position" left="left" top="top" background-size="background-size" initial="initial" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" padding="padding" px="px" margin="margin" min-height="min-height"><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I hope scientist of your caliber and standing may consider penning a joint letter to the Editor focusing on scientific deficiencies and the flawed scientific review process.</font></span></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">A third scientist, </span><a href="http://abtrnetwork.com/andrewcockburn.html" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Andrew Cockburn</span></a><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">, a toxicology consultant who at the time was a visiting professor at UK’s University of Newcastle, was also on the email chain and chimed in:</span></font></p><blockquote style="background-image: url(" images="images" quote.gif="quote.gif" background-position="background-position" left="left" top="top" background-size="background-size" initial="initial" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" padding="padding" px="px" margin="margin" min-height="min-height"><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">…if you can provide the ammunition I’d be happy to respond …</font></span></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Monsanto did not respond to Retraction Watch’s request for comment.</b></font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sachs, the Monsanto executive, realized the risks of attacking the decision to publish the paper and call for retraction. On Sept. 26, as he insisted it should not be Monsanto to swing the axe, he wrote:</font></span></p><blockquote style="background-image: url(" images="images" quote.gif="quote.gif" background-position="background-position" left="left" top="top" background-size="background-size" initial="initial" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" padding="padding" px="px" margin="margin" min-height="min-height"><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><span style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We should not provide ammunition for Seralini, [genetic modification] critics and the media to charge that Monsanto used its might to get this paper retracted.</font></span></p></blockquote><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Update 8/11/2017 </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">UTC 14:30:</span></font></p><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Bruce Chassy</b> told us that he had never personally received money from Monsanto; however, several readers have pointed out that he has in fact accepted thousands of dollars from Monsanto</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, routed through the University of Illinois Foundation and nominally slated for “outreach” to avoid scrutiny. A </span><a href="https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/why-didnt-an-illinois-professor-have-to-disclose-gmo-funding/eb99bdd2-683d-4108-9528-de1375c3e9fb" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Chicago Public Radio investigation</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> from March 2016 showed:</span></font></p><blockquote style="background-image: url(" images="images" quote.gif="quote.gif" background-position="background-position" left="left" top="top" background-size="background-size" initial="initial" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" padding="padding" px="px" margin="margin" min-height="min-height"><p style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Monsanto sent more than $140,000 in “biotech research and outreach” payments through the University of Illinois Foundation between 2006 and June 2012, the month Chassy retired. Further documents confirm that at least $57,000 was routed to Chassy over a period of 23 months.</font></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/us/food-industry-enlisted-academics-in-gmo-lobbying-war-emails-show.html?_r=0" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><i style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">New York Times</i> article</a> from September 2015 said that in 2011 Monsanto gave Chassy a grant for an undisclosed amount “to support ‘biotechnology outreach and education activities.’”</font></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/food/true-inside-story-how-college-professor-sells-out-monsanto">http://www.alternet.org/food/true-inside-story-how-college-professor-sells-out-monsanto</a></font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former University of Illinois food science professor Bruce

Chassy is known for his academic gravitas. Now retired nearly four

years, Chassy still writes and speaks often about food safety issues,

identifying himself with the full weight of the decades of experience

earned at the public university and as a researcher at the National

Institutes of Health. Chassy tells audiences that before he retired in

2012, he worked “full time” doing research and teaching.</font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What

Chassy doesn’t talk much about is the other work he did while at the

University of Illinois — promoting the interests of Monsanto Co., which

has been trying to overcome mounting public concerns about the

genetically engineered crops and chemicals the company sells. He also

doesn’t talk much about the hundreds of thousands of dollars Monsanto

donated to the university as Chassy was helping promote GMOs, or

Monsanto’s secretive role in helping Chassy set up a nonprofit group and

website to criticize individuals and organizations who raise questions

about GMOs.  </font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But emails released through Freedom of

Information Act requests show that Chassy was an active member of a

group of U.S. academics who have been quietly collaborating with

Monsanto on strategies aimed at not just promoting biotech crop

products, but also rolling back regulation of these products and fending

off industry critics. The emails show money flowing into the university

from Monsanto as Chassy collaborated on multiple projects with Monsanto

to counter public concerns about genetically modified crops (GMOs) –

all while representing himself as an independent academic for a public

institution.</font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/us/food-industry-enlisted-academics-in-gmo-lobbying-war-emails-show.html?_r=0">A New York Times article by Eric Lipton</a>

published last September laid bare the campaign crafted by Monsanto and

other industry players to use the credibility of prominent academics to

push the industry’s political agenda. That Times article focused

primarily on University of Florida academic <b>Kevin Folta,</b> chairman of the

university’s Horticultural Sciences Department, and Folta’s work on

behalf of Monsanto. But an examination of recently released email

exchanges between Monsanto and Chassy show new depths to the industry

efforts.</font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The collaborations come at a critical juncture

in the United States regarding GMO public policy. Mandatory GMO labeling

is set to take effect in Vermont on July 1; Congress is wrestling over a

federal labeling law for GMOs; and several other states are seeking

their own answers to rising consumer demand for transparency about this

topic.</font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many consumer and environmental groups want to

see more restrictions and regulation on GMO crops and the glyphosate

herbicide many know as Roundup, which is used on GMOs. But the companies

that market the crops and chemicals argue their products are safe and

there should be less regulation, not more. Monsanto’s roughly $15

billion in annual revenue comes almost exclusively from GMO crop

technology and related chemicals.</font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Amid the furor, the

revelations about corporate collaboration with public university

scientists to promote GMOs have sparked a new debate about a lack of

transparency in the relationships between academics and industry.</font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chassy

has said he did nothing unethical or improper in his work supporting

Monsanto and the biotech crop industry. “As a public-sector research

scientist, it was expected... that I collaborate with and solicit the

engagement of those working in my field of expertise,” <a href="http://academicsreview.org/2015/09/the-usrtk-foia-campaign-against-academics-40-plus-years-of-public-science-research-and-teaching-under-assault/">Chassy has stated</a>.</font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Still,

what you find when reading through the email chains is an arrangement

that allowed industry players to cloak pro-GMO messaging within a veil

of independent expertise, and little, if any, public disclosure of the

behind-the-scenes connections.</font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>CRITICAL COLLABORATIONS</strong></font></p><ul><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Sachs-AR.pdf">In a November 2010 email</a>,

Monsanto chief of global scientific affairs Eric Sachs tells Chassy

that Monsanto has just sent a “gift of $10,000” to the university “so

the funds should be there.”  He then tells Chassy he is working on a

plan for Monsanto and others in the agribusiness industry to support an

“academics review” website that Chassy can use to counter concerns and

allegations raised by critics of GMOs.  “From my perspective the problem

is one of expert engagement and that could be solved by paying experts

to provide responses,” Sachs wrote. “The key will be keeping Monsanto in

the background so as not to harm the credibility of the information.”</font></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In

a separate 2010 exchange, Jay Byrne, president of the v-Fluence public

relations firm and former head of corporate communications for Monsanto,

tells Chassy he is trying to move the Academics Review project forward.

</span>He suggests “we work on the money (for all of us).” Byrne says that he

has a list of GMO critics for Academics Review to target. He tells

Chassy that the topic areas <a href="http://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/uploadBruceChassy3.pdf">“mean money for a range of well-heeled corporations.”</a></font></p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2011, several emails show <b>Chassy and Monsanto chief of global scientific affairs Eric Sachs,</b> along with others<a href="http://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Chassyepaemail.pdf">, discussing ways to lobby the Environmental Protection Agency</a> against expanded regulation of biotech crops.</font></p></li></ul><ul><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/BruceChassy4.pdf">In one email exchange from September 2011</a>,

Chassy suggests how the biotech crop industry might “spin” a government

study that found significant levels of the chemical glyphosate, the key

ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, in air and water samples.</font></p></li></ul><ul><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/BruceChassy5.pdf">In emails from 2012</a>,

Chassy and Monsanto’s Sachs and<b> Monsanto’s John Swarthout, who leads

the company’s “scientific outreach and issues management,”</b> discuss an

upcoming presentation Chassy is preparing to make in China. They discuss

Monsanto’s review of, and changes to, the presentation.  Monsanto’s

Sachs instructs Swarthout to send slide decks to Chassy as material for

his presentation.</font></p></li></ul><ul><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In April

2012, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Monsanto toxicologist Bruce Hammond asks in an email if short

videos can be created about the “safety of GM crops.” Chassy says that

he is applying for funding from the State Department and “also seeking

other sources of support” and can use university equipment to make the

videos. Chassy asks Monsanto’s Hammond for a list of videos that “<a href="http://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/BruceChassy6.pdf">you think would be helpful</a>.” Chassy tells Hammond that Byrne’s group V-fluence has helped create and edit the video scenarios.</span></font></p></li></ul><ul><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Brucevideo.pdf">In

separate emails, Monsanto’s Sachs tells Chassy that Monsanto is

shooting its own videos” but says “Obviously, independent content from

the U of I and supported by US Govt agencies is the preferred approach</a>.” Sachs tells Chassy that Monsanto is happy to help “provide guidance or approaches for additional videos.”</font></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>EMAILS ABOUT MONEY</strong></font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The emails also discuss money.</font></p><ul><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an October 2010 email, Chassy tells colleagues at the university that Monsanto has told him it is going to make a <a href="http://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/BruceChassy10-1.pdf">“substantial contribution”</a> to his biotech account at the university.</font></p></li></ul><ul><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In

an October 2011 exchange, Chassy asked Sachs about a contribution for

the university foundation biotech fund. The Monsanto executive responded

that he <a href="http://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/BruceChassy11.pdf">would "make a gift to the foundation right away"</a>

if it had not already been made. Chassy instructs Monsanto to mail the

check to the head of the university’s department of food science and to

enclose a letter saying the check is “an unrestricted grant… in support

of the biotechnology outreach and education activities of Professor

Bruce M. Chassy.”</font></p></li></ul><ul><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And in

April and May of 2012 Chassy asks Monsanto directly about an expected

“deposit.” In one, on May 31, 2012, as he was preparing to begin his

retirement on June 30, Chassy wrote Monsanto’s Sachs again asking “<a href="http://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/BruceChassy13.pdf">is there any way to find out if a check was issued to U of I for me? I don’t see it in my account yet…”</a></font></p></li></ul><ul><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Also in May 2012, Monsanto made <a href="http://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/BruceChassy8.pdf">a $250,000 grant to the university</a>

to help set up an agricultural communications endowed chair. That

donation was just a drop in the bucket of the donations from Monsanto –

at least $1.9 million in the last five years, according to the

university, - for agriculture-related projects.</font></span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>CONTINUED CLOSE TIES</strong></font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The

close ties between Monsanto and Chassy continued past Chassy’s<b>

retirement </b>in June 2012 from the university. Through 2013 and 2014

Chassy frequently appeared as an “independent expert” on the <a href="https://gmoanswers.com/search?query=Bruce+Chassy">GMO Answers website</a>, a pro-GMO site funded by Monsanto and other agribusiness giants. In that role, he answered questions and concerns about GMOs.</font></p><p dir="ltr"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Chassy also has continued to operate <a href="http://academicsreview.org/">Academics Review</a></b>, publishing critical articles about individuals and organizations, including the <a href="http://academicsreview.org/2015/03/iarc-glyphosate-cancer-review-fails-on-multiple-fronts/">World Health Organization’s cancer experts,</a>

that report information unfavorable for the GMO crop industry.  (I was

the subject of at least two such attacks in 2014. Chassy objected to my

presentation of both sides of the GMO safety debate in <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/u-bill-seeks-block-mandatory-gmo-food-labeling-164547641--finance.html">one Reuters article</a> and objected to a <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/usda-gmo-report-idUSL1N0LT16M20140224">second Reuters article</a> that detailed the findings of a USDA report that found both benefits but also concerns associated with GMOs.)</font></span></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When

asked about its interactions with Chassy, Monsanto has said that there

is nothing improper with its “engagements” with “public sector experts,”

and that such collaborations help educate the public on important

topics.  The university also has said it sees nothing wrong with the

relations. A university spokeswoman said Chassy has "strong scientific

credibility."  She also said that Monsanto has given the university at

least $1.9 million in the last five years.</font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But others familiar with the issues say the lack of transparency is a problem.</font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“These

revelations regarding the connections are very important,” said George

Kimbrell, senior attorney with the Center for Food Safety, a nonprofit

consumer advocacy group. “The basic disclosure that some academics and

other ‘neutral’ commentators in the public sphere are actually paid

operatives/working directly with the chemical industry rightly alarms

the public, as they are being misled.”</font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Revelations

similar to these involving University of Florida Professor Kevin Folta’s

connections to Monsanto did spark a public backlash after emails showed

Folta received an unrestricted $25,000 grant and told Monsanto he would

“<a href="http://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/glad-to-sign-on.pdf">write whatever you like</a>.”  Folta said <a href="http://kfolta.blogspot.com/2016/01/forward.html">in a Jan. 18 blog</a> that he no longer works with Monsanto because of the heated backlash.</font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Both Chassy and Folta <a href="http://usrtk.org/gmo/journalists-failed-to-disclose-sources-funding-from-monsanto-a-short-report/">have repeatedly written or been quoted in news articles that failed to disclose</a> their connections to Monsanto and the GMO industry. In a recent example, Chassy has co-authored a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-entine/gmo-labeling-science-and-_b_8871680.html">series</a> of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-entine/the-real-cost-of-mandator_b_8865742.html">articles</a> that argue GMO labeling is a “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-entine/although-some-gmo-sympath_b_8864038.html">disaster in waiting</a>,” again with no disclosure of his collaboration with GMO developer Monsanto. His co-author is Jon Entine, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110710201702/http:/www.esgmediametrics.com/founder.htm">founder of the PR firm ESG MediaMetrics</a>, whose <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110204141843/http:/www.esgmediametrics.com/clients.htm">clients have included Monsanto</a>, a connection Entine does not include in the article.</font></p><p dir="ltr"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The

revelations in the emails about Chassy, Folta and other assorted

academics, leave many questions about who to trust, and how to trust,

information critical to understanding our evolving food system. With

food labeling issues at the forefront of debate, it’s time for more

transparency.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

          </font><div class="bio-new body_environment">
                  <div class="author-bio"> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carey Gillam is research director at&nbsp;<a href="http://usrtk.org/">U.S. Right to Know</a>,

a nonprofit organization that investigates the risks associated with

the corporate food system. She has worked as a journalist, researcher

and writer specializing in food and agriculture for more than 20 years.</font></p> </div> </div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">huffpo science</font></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: 17.6px;">Exec Director, Genetic Literacy Project; Senior Fellow, <b>World Food Center Institute for Food and Agricultural Literacy, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">University of California-Davis</span></b></span></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 17.6px;">
</span></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-entine/the-real-cost-of-mandator_b_8865742.html</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Real Cost Of Mandatory GMO Labeling</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>Posted: 12/23/2015 9:55 am EST Updated: 12/23/2015 9:59 am EST</div><div>
</div><div>Co-authored by Bruce <b>Chassy</b> and Jon Entine</div><div>
</div><div>This is Part II of a III part series. Part I: "Although Some GMO Sympathizers Embrace Mandatory Labeling, It's A Disaster In Waiting", is readable here.</div><div>
</div><div>Proponents of mandatory labeling often claim that it's a no brainer....</div></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">prev hit: </font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Profs. Bruce Chassy</b><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(University of Illinois) and Alan McHughen (</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">University of California, Riverside</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">) who worked together to destroy the credibility of Russian scientist and GMO critic Irina Ermakova. They persuaded the journal Nature Biotechnology to interview Ermakova about her research and describe it. This interview was followed by a detailed critique of her research (about which none of the authors were expert). Ermakova was neither told of the critique nor given a chance to answer it. This whole elaborate </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: large; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">subterfuge required her to be sent a dummy proof of the article she thought she was publishing in the journal.</span></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

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<div style=" font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2015/11/28/sources-funded-monsanto" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">http://ecowatch.com/2015/11/28/sources-funded-monsanto</a></font></div>

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<p style="margin: 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Following a Columbia Journalism Review </span><a href="http://www.cjr.org/criticism/science_journalism_conflicts_of_interest.php" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear initial; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">article </a><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">on whether science journalists should accept money from corporate interests and whether there is adequate disclosure of sources’ corporate ties and conflicts of interest, </span><a href="http://usrtk.org/" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear initial; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">U.S. Right to Know</a><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> reviewed recent articles to assess</span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> how often journalists and columnists quote academic sources without stating that they are funded by the agrichemical giant <a href="http://ecowatch.com/?s=monsanto" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Monsanto</a>.</span></font></p>

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<p style="margin: 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Our review found 27 articles quoting (or authored by) university professors after they received Monsanto funding, but without disclosing that funding.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is a collapse of journalistic standards. When reporters quote sources about food issues such as <a href="http://ecowatch.com/news/food-agriculture/gmo-genetically-modified-organism/" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">GMOs</a> or <a href="http://ecowatch.com/?s=organic" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">organic food</a>, readers deserve to know if the sources have been funded by Monsanto or have other conflicts of interest.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The principal effect of failing to reveal these conflicts of interest is to unfairly enhance the credibility of Monsanto-funded academics and their support of GMOs and criticism of organic food, while detracting from the credibility of consumer advocates.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Our review found that many top media outlets quoted either University of Florida Professor Kevin Folta or University of Illinois Professor <b>Emeritus Bruce Chassy</b> without disclosing that the professors received funding from Monsanto. According to documents <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/us/food-industry-enlisted-academics-in-gmo-lobbying-war-emails-show.html" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">published by the New York Times</a>, Professor Folta <a href="http://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Monsanto-grant-letter-to-Folta.pdf" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">received Monsanto funding</a> in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/09/06/us/document-folta.html" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">August 2014</a> and Professor Chassy<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/09/05/us/document-chassy.html" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">in October 2011</a>, if not before.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many of these journalistic failures occurred at influential news outlets: newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post and Chicago Tribune; science publications such as Nature, Science Insider and Discover; magazines such as the New Yorker, Wired and The Atlantic; as well as broadcast outlets like ABC and NPR.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Following is a list of news articles quoting (or authored by) Professors Folta and Chassy—after they received their Monsanto funding—but failing to disclose that they had received the Monsanto funding.</font></p>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">New York Times:</strong><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/15/style/taking-on-the-food-industry-one-blog-post-at-a-time.html?r=0" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Taking on the Food Industry, One Blog Post at a Time</a>.”</em><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> By Courtney Rubin, March 13. (Also ran in the </span><em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sarasota Herald-Tribune</em><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">).</span></font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">New York Times:</strong> <em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/business/energy-environment/disputed-study-links-modified-corn-to-greater-health-risks.html" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Foes of Modified Corn Find Support in a Study</a>.”</em> By Andrew Pollack, Sept. 19, 2012.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Washington Post:</strong><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/21/kraft-mac-cheese-just-got-duller-you-can-thank-or-blame-the-food-babe/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Kraft Mac & Cheese Just Got Duller. You Can Thank (Or Blame) ‘The Food Babe’</a></em><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.” By Michael E. Miller, April 21. (Also ran in the </span><em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Chicago Tribune</em><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">).</span></font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Washington Post:</strong> “<em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/03/03/proof-hes-the-science-guy-bill-nye-is-changing-his-mind-about-gmos/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Proof He’s the Science Guy: Bill Nye Is Changing His Mind About GMOs</a>.</em>” By Puneet Kollipara, March 3.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Nature:</strong> “<em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.nature.com/news/gm-crop-opponents-expand-probe-into-ties-between-scientists-and-industry-1.18146" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">GM-Crop Opponents Expand Probe Into Ties Between Scientists and Industry</a>.</em>” By Keith Kloor, Aug. 6.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">NPR:</strong> “<em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/12/04/364745790/food-babe-or-fear-babe-as-activist-s-profile-grows-so-do-her-critics" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Is The Food Babe A Fearmonger? Scientists Are Speaking Out</a>.</em>” By Maria Godoy, Feb. 10.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">New Yorker: </strong><em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/02/04/the-operator" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">The Operator</a>.”</em> By Michael Specter, Feb. 4, 2013.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Atlantic:</strong> “<em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/02/the-food-babe-enemy-of-chemicals/385301/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">The Food Babe: Enemy of Chemicals</a>.</em>” By James Hamblin, Feb. 11.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Wired:</strong> <em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://www.wired.com/2015/02/anti-gmo-activist-seeks-expose-emails-food-scientists/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Anti-GMO Activist Seeks to Expose Scientists Emails with Big Ag</a>.”</em> By Alan Levinovitz, Feb. 23.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ABC News:</strong> “<em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Health/scientists-developing-hypo-allergenic-apples/story?id=18782570" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Scientists Developing Hypo-Allergenic Apples</a>.</em>” By Gillian Mohney, March 22, 2013.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Science Insider: </strong><em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/scientific-community/2015/02/agricultural-researchers-rattled-demands-documents-group-opposed-gm" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Agricultural Researchers Rattled by Demands for Documents from Group Opposed to GM Foods</a>.”</em> By Keith Kloor, Feb. 11.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Columbia Journalism Review:</strong> <em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/why_scientists_often_hate_reco.php" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Why Scientists Often Hate Records Requests</a>.”</em> By Anna Clark, Feb. 25.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Discover: </strong><em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/collideascape/2014/11/10/open-letter-bill-nye-plant-scientist/#.Vk4HuN-rSdg" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Open Letter to Bill Nye from a Plant Scientist</a>.”</em> By Keith Kloor, Nov. 10, 2014.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Discover:</strong> <em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/collideascape/2015/02/27/balance-transparency-academic-freedom/#.Vk5L8t-rTaQ" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">How to Balance Transparency with Academic Freedom?</a>“</em> By Keith Kloor, Feb. 27.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Discover: </strong><em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/collideascape/2015/02/11/anti-gmo-group-seeks-emails-university-scientists/#.Vk5Odt-rTaQ" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Anti-GMO Group Seeks Emails from University Scientists</a>.”</em> By Keith Kloor, Feb. 11.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Forbes:</strong> <em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonentine/2014/06/24/zombie-retracted-seralini-gmo-maize-rat-study-republished-to-hostile-scientist-reactions/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Zombie Retracted Séralini GMO Maize Rat Study Republished To Hostile Scientist Reactions</a>.</em>” By Jon Entine, June 24, 2014</span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Forbes:</strong> <em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonentine/2014/03/10/did-the-new-yorker-botch-puff-piece-on-frog-scientist-tyrone-hayes-turning-rogue-into-beleaguered-hero/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Did The New Yorker Botch Puff Piece On Frog Scientist Tyrone Hayes, Turning Rogue into Beleaguered Hero?</a>“</em> By Jon Entine, March 10, 2014.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Forbes:</strong> “<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/henrymiller/2013/07/17/you-can-put-lipstick-on-a-pig-study-but-it-still-stinks/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">You Can Put Lipstick On A Pig (Study), But It Still Stinks</a>.” By Bruce M. Chassy and </span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Henry I. Miller,</span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> July 17, 2013.</span></font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Forbes: </strong><em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://anti-gmo%20scientist%20gilles-eric%20seralini%2C%20activist%20jeffrey%20smith%20withdraw%20from%20food%20biotech%20debate/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Anti-GMO Scientist Gilles-Eric Seralini, Activist Jeffrey Smith Withdraw from Food Biotech Debate</a>.”</em> By Jon Entine, May 29, 2013.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Forbes:</strong> <em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonentine/2012/10/19/malpractice-on-dr-oz-pop-health-expert-hosts-anti-gm-food-rant-scientists-push-back/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Malpractice On Dr. Oz: Pop Health Expert Hosts Anti-GM Food Rant; Scientists Push Back</a>.”</em> By Jon Entine, Oct. 19, 2012.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Forbes:</strong> <em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/henrymiller/2012/09/25/scientists-smell-a-rat-in-fraudulent-genetic-engineering-study/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Scientists Smell a Rat In Fraudulent Genetic Engineering Study</a>.”</em> By Henry I. Miller and Bruce Chassy, Sept. 25, 2012.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Forbes:</strong> <em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/henrymiller/2012/02/22/the-science-of-things-that-arent-so/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">The Science of Things That Aren’t So</a>.”</em> By Bruce Chassy and Henry I. Miller,</span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Feb. 22, 2012.</span></font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Des Moines Register:</strong> <em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/2014/10/07/john-block-consumers-misled-organic-food-safety/16840717/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Consumers Are Misled About Organic Safety</a>.”</em> By John Block, Oct. 10, 2014.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Gainesville Sun: </strong><em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://www.gainesville.com/article/20140629/articles/140629633?p=1&tc=pg" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Genetically Modified Foods Face Hurdles</a>.”</em> By Jeff Schweers, June 29, 2014.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Peoria Journal Star:</strong><em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> “<a href="http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140621/Business/140629937/?Start=1" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Hybrid Crops That Used to Offer Resistance to Rootworm No Match for Mother Nature</a>.”</em> By Steve Tarter, June 21, 2014.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Gawker: </strong><em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://gawker.com/the-food-babe-blogger-is-full-of-shit-1694902226" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">The ‘Food Babe’ Blogger Is Full of Shit</a>.”</em> By Yvette d’Entremont, April 6.</font></li>

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Louis Post-Dispatch:</strong> <em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<a href="http://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/david-nicklaus/california-labeling-fight-may-raise-food-prices-for-all-of/article_2202cd26-e89e-11e1-8a7f-0019bb30f31a.html" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">California Labeling Fight May Raise Food Prices for All of Us</a>.”</em>By David Nicklaus, Aug. 19, 2012.</font></li>

</ol>

<p style="margin: 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is merely one example of two professors who were not identified as received funding from Monsanto and yet these two professors received major traction in the media as “independent” experts on GMOs and organics. The only reason the professors admitted to receiving Monsanto funding was due to emails uncovered by Freedom of Information Act <a href="http://usrtk.org/gmo/our-investigation-of-big-food-and-its-front-groups/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">requests filed</a> by U.S. Right to Know, a consumer group.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How often does it happen that journalists present other academics funded by food or agrichemical companies as “independent” sources and without disclosing their corporate funding?</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One remedy for this problem is that when journalists write about food, that they carefully ask their sources whether they have any conflicts of interest, where they get their funding from and whether they receive any funding from food or agrichemical companies like Monsanto or their PR front groups.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That, however, may not be enough. Professor Kevin Folta <a href="http://usrtk.org/gmo/our-investigation-of-big-food-and-its-front-groups/" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">r</a><a href="http://usrtk.org/gmo/our-investigation-of-big-food-and-its-front-groups/" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">eceived Monsanto funding, yet repeatedly denied ties to or funding from Monsanto</a>. Reporters—and readers—should be aware that such <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150901212046/http:/blog.aspb.org/2015/04/28/foias-chilling-a-scientific-dialog-your-call-to-communicate/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">deceit</a> by Monsanto-funded academics has recently occurred and be on their guard against it.</font></p>

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<div>

<div style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://ecowatch.com/2015/09/12/scientists-conspire-monsanto-gmos</font></div>

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<p style=" margin: 1em 0px; box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 25.2px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Shining a Light on Monsanto and the Corruption of Public University Scientists</b></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Lipton’s story details how a <span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">University of Illinois professor and </span></span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/09/05/us/document-chassy.html" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">longtime GMO promoter Bruce Chassy</a><span style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> used his Monsanto connections to </span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303693-bruce-chassyuofillinoisdocs.html#document/p14/a237566" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">lobby the Environmental Protection Agency</a></span><span style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> to abandon its efforts to tighten regulations on insecticidal GMO seeds. </span>If you take a dive into the emails, you can see how Chassy enlisted the help of former advisor to George W. Bush and </span><a href="http://grist.org/article/2009-06-18-clinton-gmo/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: transparent; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Hillary Clinton, Nina Federoff</a><span style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> in his efforts to influence the EPA’s policies.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In the emails, Chassy’s efforts to lobby the EPA for looser regulations were encouraged by a Monsanto lobbyist even as Chassy was negotiating the release of his grant from the company.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" line-height: 25.2px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">For background on how this current story originally broke, you have to go back to Aug. 6, when the international </span><a href="http://www.nature.com/news/gm-crop-opponents-expand-probe-into-ties-between-scientists-and-industry-1.18146" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; line-height: 25.2px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;"><span style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">science journal </span><i style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Nature</span></i><span style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> reported</span></a><span style=" line-height: 25.2px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> that more than 4,600 pages of emails from University of Florida plant scientist Kevin Folta “reveal his close ties to the agriculture giant Monsanto … and other biotechnology-industry interests.”</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The <em style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Nature</em> article set off a minor firestorm on social media, when<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> University of Florida professor and Monsanto promoter Kevin Folta’</span>s emails were leaked to </span><i style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Nature’s</i><span style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Keith Kloor for damage control.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">While Folta has not yet been charged with scientific misconduct or wrongdoing, these emails reveal a close relationship and financial ties to Monsanto for the first time publicly. The new reports of financial ties and Folta’s regular communication with Monsanto executives and lobbyists contradict Folta’s previous </span><a href="http://gmwatch.org/news/latest-news/16340-kevin-folta-received-25-000-from-monsanto" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">repeated denials of any relationship</a><span style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> or conflict of interest with the St. Louis, Missouri based biotech seed and chemical giant responsible for mass producing such toxic cancer-causing chemicals as PCBs, Agent Orange, dioxin and now 80 percent of the genetically engineered crops that appear in our food supply.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“The documents show that Monsanto paid for Folta’s travel to speak to U.S. students, farmers, politicians and the media,” according to </span><i style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Nature’s</i><span style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> Keith Kloor. As reported, Folta received a </span><a href="http://gmwatch.org/news/latest-news/16340-kevin-folta-received-25-000-from-monsanto" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">$25,000 “unrestricted” grant from Monsanto</a><span style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> in 2014, which a Monsanto representative stated could be used by Folta at his “discretion in support of your research and outreach projects.”</span></font></p>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2012. prop 37

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<div style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Zoco Productions, LLC/ <span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Harpo Studios  OPRAH</span></font></div>

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<div style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">110 N. Carpenter Street</font></div>

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<div style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chicago, IL 60607</font></div>

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<div style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dear Greg and Brook:</font></div>

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<div style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I am following up on my conversations and previous correspondence with you regarding the plans by the Dr. Oz Show to air health and safety claims by Jeffrey Smith about agricultural biotechnology (GMOs) and food issues. As discussed, I was unable to participate in your program due to a family conflict. After consulting with other colleagues who were similarly approached by you and those who did participate, however, <span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">I am compelled to again voice my concerns regarding the potential violation by Dr. Oz of medical ethics and high risk of misrepresentation of human health information by Dr. Oz, Zoco Productions and Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios on this issue.</span></font></div>

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<div style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As a public sector scientist</b>, researcher and academic administrator with more than 40 years experience, I am appalled that any medical professional would give a platform to the likes of Mr. Jeffrey Smith to impart health information to the public. Mr. Smith has no accredited or formal education in any health, nutrition, or other related science fields. Research into Mr. Smith’s credentials reveals that his only professional experience prior to taking up his crusade against biotechnology is as a<b> ballroom dance teacher, yogic flying instructor and political candidate for the Maharishi cult’s natural law party</b>. The fact that Mr. Smith was even allowed to appear on stage on a nationally broadcast television health-oriented program is hard to believe; hearing from my colleagues who did participate that Dr. Oz referred to Smith as a “scientist” during the program taping is an egregious misrepresentation.</font></div>

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<div style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Simply put, Mr. Smith’s health, environmental and safety claims about biotechnology have no basis whatsoever in medicine or science. Thousands of published and peer reviewed studies conducted over the past thirty-plus years contradict his claims and bizarre hypotheses associating health dangers linked to foods derived using biotechnology production methods. This is corroborated by such respected scientific and medical authorities as the American Medical Association, World Health Organization with the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Institute for Food Technologists and the American Dietetic Association. Regulatory bodies including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and Food Safety Commission of Japan (FSCJ) all confirm this safety.</font></div>

</font></div>

<div style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Institute for Food Technologists  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Food_Technologists</font></div>

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<div style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Further, our correspondence and conversations, as well as those you had with other academic colleagues who were invited to participate, suggests you engaged in questionable and misleading tactics to secure our participation on your show.</span> When we raised concerns about past treatment of academic participants discussing biotechnology on the Dr. Oz show, you stated “I understand the suspicion and the reservations any scientist would have after the last go-round. My best assurance can only come from the fact that producing a show in that vein isn’t something I agree with at all. That producer is no longer with us. I’m not into producing surprises or blindsiding anybody…” Yet, neither you nor Ms. Jacobsen disclosed that Lisa Oz, the show’s co-producer and wife of Dr. Oz, was the narrator for Mr. Smith’s video attacking biotechnology and an active campaigner for the<b> Proposition 37 efforts in California.</b></font></div>

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<div style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As to you assurances that there would be no surprises or “bait-and-switch” tactics involved, I was informed that “deals were cut” between Dr. Oz and other participants like Organic Valley CEO Gary Hirshberg to prevent the scientists from fully participating in the program. These back-room deals caused changes to the described format for the interviews as laid out by you in advance of the program. Yet, apparently Mr. Hirshberg objected to appearing side-by-side with actual scientists as he made his claims but was allowed to remain on stage while they made their rebuttals. Further, Dr. Oz allowed Mr. Smith to re-tape his segment after the scientists spoke in response to his segment’s initial taping and after they had left the program.</font></div>

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<div style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You assured me and the other invited participants that the show was interested in a fair hearing of views from all sides with no pre-judged conclusions. Yet, I also learned that Dr. Oz practiced a pre-scripted conclusion to the program warning viewers to avoid the risks of GMOs by purchasing only organic foods prior to interviewing the scientists and hearing both sides. Similarly, during the taping of the Dr. Oz Show you incorporated graphics provided by Jeffrey Smith implying correlated health risks with the use of biotechnology crops that are simply not based in any medical science or study. These graphics are crude and inaccurate representation which will mislead people to believe biotechnology crops are associated with these diseases – the very same representation could be done showing, for example, that as viewership for the Dr. Oz show rose so did incidents of these diseases, suggesting watching your show is a health risk. Neither is of course true. <span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Biotechnology crops are as safe, if not safer, than their conventional and organic counterparts.</span></font></div>

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<div style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>All of this would lead any reasonable person to believe your representations were disingenuous and that this show was orchestrated theater on behalf of Mr. Smith and the Proposition 37 campaign. </b>Since Mr. Smith and his collaborator, Dr. Oz show co-producer Lisa Oz, are active proponents behind the Proposition 37 California Ballot Initiative, the program you intend to air on the<font color="#ff0000">Fox network</font> prior to the November 6, 2012 election appears by all manners to be an orchestrated and essentially in-kind donation of a free campaign commercial for this initiative. Worse, Dr. Oz will be amplifying thoroughly debunked and potentially dangerous nutrition and health-related advice to his viewing audience.</font></div>

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<div style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Your assurances and the tactics of the Dr. Oz show fall short of even the lowest standards of media and medical ethics.</font></div>

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<div style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sincerely,</font></div>

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<div style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bruce Chassy, PhD</font></div>

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<div style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Professor<b> Emeritus,</b> Department of Food Science & Nutrition</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bruce Chassy, PhD</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Professor<b> Emeritus,</b> Department of Food Science & Nutrition</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">University of Illinois</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://cei.org/sites/default/files/ASCH%20Conko%20Food%20and%20You%203-24-14.pdf</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by William P. Kucewicz </font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Based on a book authored by Martina Newell-McGloughlin, D.Sc. Director, UC Systemwide Biotechnology Research and Education Program University of California, Davis </font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bruce Chassy, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, Department Food Science and Human Nutrition University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign </font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gregory Conko, J.D. Executive Director and Senior Fellow Competitive Enterprise Instite</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This publication is based on the book Food and You: A Guide to Modern Agricultural Biotechnology (ISBN 978-0-9727094- 8-4) by Dr. Martina Newell-McGloughlin, <b>Dr. Bruce M. Chassy and Gregory Conko, J.D., published by the American Council on Science and Health.</b> The following people reviewed the original book on which this summary is based: </font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kent Bradford, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Plant Sciences Director, Seed Biotechnology Center University of California, Davis James I. Burke, Ph.D. Professor and Chair of Crop Science University College Dublin Christopher J. Leaver, Ph.D. Fellow of St John’s College University of Oxford Alan G. McHughen, D.Phil. CE Plant Biotechnologist University of California, Riverside</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...A Distinction Without a Difference All new varieties of crops are the result of genetic modification regardless of the technology used for their development. To date, new crop varieties have been almost without exception safe to plant and safe to consume. The small number of documented cases in which a new variety was found to be unsafe for consumers were all the products of classical breeding methods (NRC 2004). Nevertheless, new varieties have proven so comparatively safe that non-biotech ones are released to farmers with essentially no oversight by regulators and, with very few exceptions, no requirements for safety testing. Crops produced using modern biotechnology are, however, all subject to special regulation with associated significant cost implications</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">No Evidence of Harm The consensus of scientific opinion and evidence is that the application of GE technology introduces no unique food or feed safety concerns or environmental impacts and that there is no evidence of harm from those products that have been through a regulatory approval process. This conclusion has been reached by numerous national and international bodies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Commission, the French Academy of Sciences, the U.S. National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of London, and the Society of Toxicology. Take the U.S. National Research Council, for instance. In its report “Genetically Modified Pest-Protected Plants: Science and Regulation” (NRC, 2000), it determined that no difference exists between crops modified through modern molecular techniques and those modified by conventional breeding practices. The NRC emphasized that the authors were not aware of any evidence suggesting foods on the market today are unsafe to eat because of genetic modification. In fact, the scientific panel concluded that growing such crops could have environmental advantages over other crops. In a 2003 position paper, the Society of Toxicology (SOT, 2003) corroborated this finding and noted that there is no reason to suppose that the process of food production through biotechnology leads to risks of a different nature than those already familiar to toxicologists or to risks generated by conventional breeding practices for plant, animal or microbial improvement. It is therefore important to recognize that it is the food product itself, rather than the process through which it is made, that should be the focus of attention in assessing safety. Similarly, a European Commission report (EU, 2001, 2008) that summarized biosafety research of 400 scientific teams from all parts of Europe conducted over 15 years stated that research on GE plants and derived products so far developed and marketed, following usual risk assessment procedures, has not shown any new risks to human health or the environment beyond the usual uncertainties of conventional plant breeding. Indeed, the use of more precise technology and the close regulatory scrutiny probably make GE plants even safer than conventional plants and foods. More recently, EU-funded research from 130 projects involving 500 independent research groups over 25 years concluded, “There is, as of today, no scientific evidence associating GMOs with higher risks for the environment or for food and feed safety than conventional plants and organisms” (Europa Press Release, 2010)....</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Regulations pose even greater difficulties. In the U.S., regulatory compliance adds at least $1 million to the cost of developing a GE variety for each transformation event (Redenbaugh and McHughen, 2004). For crops intended for international commerce, the regulatory costs in key producing and importing countries have been estimated to range from $6 million to $15 million (Kalaitzandonakes et al., 2007) and as high as $35 million (McDougall, 2011). Unjustifiably burdensome rules add little to environmental and human health protection and, arguably, do more harm than good, especially in less developed countries. Complicating matters further is the highly charged political environment in which biosafety regulatory decisions are made</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chassy, B. et al. (2004) Nutritional and safety assessments of foods and feeds nutritionally improved through biotechnology – Prepared by a task force of the ILSI International Food Biotechnology Committee. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety 3, 35-104 Chassy, B. et al. (2008) Recent developments in the safety and nutritional assessment of nutritionally improved foods and feeds. Comp. Rev. Food Sci. Food Safety 7, 50-113</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Prakash, C.S. & Jaynes, J. (2000) Increasing the protein content in sweet potato using a synthetic storage protein gene. Abstr. Papers Am. Chem. Soc. 219, U36</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Society of Toxicology (2003) The Safety of Genetically Modified Foods Produced through Biotechnology. Toxicological Sciences 71, 2-8</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">whelan</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nigel Bark, M.D.</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Albert Einstein College of</b></font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Medicine</b></font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Robert L. Brent, M.D., Ph.D.,</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thomas Jefferson University / A. I.</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DuPont Hospital for Children</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">James E. Enstrom, Ph.D.,</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">University of California, Los</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Angeles</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thom Golab</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Media Research Center</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Herbert I. London, Ph.D.</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">New York University / Hudson</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Institute / Manhattan Institute</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Paul A. Offit, M.D.</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fred L. Smith, Jr.</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Competitive Enterprise Institute</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Daniel T. Stein, M.D.</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Albert Einstein College</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Margareta Becker, CPA Accountant Jonathan Bloom, Ph.D. Director of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences Ruth Kava, Ph.D., R.D. Senior Fellow in Nutrition Erik Lief Director, Media and Publications Cheryl Martin Associate Director and Director of Development William McCain Development Associate Gilbert Ross, M.D. Executive and Medical Director Ariel Savransky Associate Director of Public Health Ana Simovska Director of Video Productions</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.bestfoodfacts.org/experts/meet-our-experts/all</font></div>

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<li style=" 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: 1.2em; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0.5em 1em; text-indent: -1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.bestfoodfacts.org/food-for-thought/btgmohfcs" title="Expert response: Bt, GMO and HFCS" style=" 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: bold; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(0, 85, 165);"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Expert response: Bt, GMO and </span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">HFCS</span></a></font></li>

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<li style=" 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: 1.2em; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0.5em 1em; text-indent: -1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.bestfoodfacts.org/food-for-thought/faqsgmos" title="Frequently Asked Questions - GMOs" style=" border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(0, 85, 165);">Frequently Asked Questions - GMOs</a></font></li>

<li style=" 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: 1.2em; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0.5em 1em; text-indent: -1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.bestfoodfacts.org/food-for-thought/gmo-human-health" title="What Effect do GMOs have on Human Health?" style=" border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(0, 85, 165);">What Effect do GMOs have on Human Health?</a></font></li>

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