How Monsanto Silences Scientific Critics
by Christina Sarich
Picture courtesy of deesillustration.com
A new survey from Pew Research Center states that two-thirds of Americans don’t believe biotech scientists. Why is this exactly?
Recommended reading:“Altered
Genes, Twisted Truth: How the Venture to Genetically Engineer Our Food
Has Subverted Science, Corrupted Government, and Systematically Deceived
the Public.”
“Altered Genes, Twisted Truth will stand as a landmark. It should be required reading in every university biology course.” – Joseph Cummins, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Genetics, Western University, London, OntarioBiotech Infiltration of Academia
Many already suspect that Monsanto and
other biotech companies have bought out universities who conduct studies
on GM crops with healthy endowments and even donations, which go
towards building entire departments within the campuses of higher
learning. When Iowa State University faculty and students called GM
banana trials into question for being heavily invested in biotechnology, for example, the mainstream media simply brushed it aside.
Biotech Infiltration of Industry Journals
When a controversial study from a
research group led by Gilles-Eric Séralini, a molecular biologist at the
University of Caen, France, was published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology,
it was later retracted due to industry pressure, even though it showed
“no evidence of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of the data.”
Séralini’s study showed that rats developed “colossal” cancerous tumors
after eating GM corn. Only after fellow researchers went to bat for
Séralini was his paper republished. (source) (source)
An Entire Department Dedicated to Debunking Critics
More recently, when Dr. William Moar
was speaking at a public event for Monsanto, perhaps forgetting that he
was indeed speaking to the community at large (and not a bunch of
biotech industry tycoons), he revealed that Monsanto has “an entire
department” dedicated to debunking science which disagrees with that of
the company’s.
As Stephanie Hampton writes for the Daily Kos,
“…this is the first time that a Monsanto functionary has publicly
admitted that they have such an entity which brings their immense
political and financial weight to bear on scientists who dare to publish
against them. The Discredit Bureau will not be found on their official
website.” (source)
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