Academics and universities have played a key role in Monsanto’s PR and product-defence efforts, US Right to Know's Stacy Malkan and co-authors show in a new report, Merchants of Poison: How Monsanto Sold the World on a Toxic Pesticide. Indeed, the “voices of authority” — especially academic experts — receive the highest marks on public trust, according to global surveys. In this context, the growing private-sector influence over universities, and land grant institutions in particular, is concerning. From 1970 to 2014, public funding to land grant universities for agricultural research and development grew by just 20 percent, while private funding grew by 193 percent to $6.3 billion. Today, hundreds of millions of dollars flow from agribusiness, including pesticide companies, into land grant universities in the United States. US Right to Know

 

 

The pesticide industry is not just following in the footsteps of Big Tobacco and Big Oil, they co-wrote the disinformation playbook, Stacy Malkan and co-authors' report (see above) reveals. The analysis sheds light on key tactics Monsanto used to distort science and spin the narrative in defence of its glyphosate herbicide product Roundup. Those tactics include distorting science and disseminating misleading messaging through third party allies to convince regulators and the public that its products are safe and necessary, the report explains. One industry front group that worked to attack cancer scientists and the evidence linking glyphosate to cancer was the Genetic Literacy Project (GLP). Its founder Jon Entine has worked in defence of chemicals, plastics, fracking and oil companies. The GLP's funding sources track back to some of the largest, most consistent funders of climate science denial. These include foundations like Donors Trust, Scaife Foundation, and Charles Koch Foundation. It is also funded by Bayer. @GMWatch on Twitter, citing various sources

 

 

Shortcomings in the procedures adopted by India's regulators in approving the planting of GM mustard are at the core of petitions before the Supreme Court that aim to roll back the crop's release, writes Kavitha Kuruganti. The petitioners contend that India is self-reliant when it comes to mustard oil production and demand, that it already has non-GM hybrids on offer for farmers, that the best yields are in countries that have opted for non-GM hybrids in rapeseed/canola, and that there are numerous other technologies and policy incentives by which mustard production and productivity can be improved. The Leaflet

 

 

The Slovenian Beekeepers' Association has urged decision-makers to oppose another extension of the permission to sell and use a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide glyphosate in the EU. The five-year period of its extended use will expire in mid-December, but the European Commission has extended it by another year. STA

 

 

GMO mosquitoes will be coming to California unless you speak up today! British biotech corporation Oxitec has petitioned the California Department of Pesticide Regulation to allow an experimental release of up to 2.5 billion genetically engineered Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Tulare County, and potentially other counties, over the next two years. The GMO mosquitoes are being regulated as a pesticide because they’re considered a biopesticide, a living pesticide. Tell California regulators to reject Oxitec’s GMO mosquito experiments. GMO/Toxin Free USA

 

 

A new documentary about the CRISPR babies saga is out and can be viewed via multiple outlets. It features unusual access to recorded calls with Jiankui He, the Chinese scientist involved, who this year got out of prison, as well as an interview with his American PR rep. Science writer Antonio Regalado writes on Twitter, "One claim in the film is that JK [Jiankui He] believed he had a deal with the Chinese government. They were going to support and back him up, even if the experiments caused some trouble. But only some trouble. In the end, he made too much trouble. He broke the deal. They let him swing." Antonio Regalado @antonioregalado on Twitter

 

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