Monsanto Paid $25,000 To ‘Independent’ GMO Proponent

In January, US Right to Know, an Oakland-based nonprofit organization working to expose what the food industry doesn’t want us to know, filed a request under Washington’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to see communications and email records between 14 scientists at 4 public universities and about 36 organizations and companies.

Gary Ruskin, the executive director of US Right To Know, said the move was essential for uncovering the food industry’s efforts to manipulate scientists into advancing pro-genetically-modified propaganda. “The agri-chemical industry has spent $100 million dollars in a massive public relations campaign. The public has the right to know the dynamics,” he told WIRED.

The correspondence records between academics, scientists, and representatives of Big Agriculture, which the university gave to US Right to Know back in July, reveal Kevin Folta’s close ties to the agriculture giant Monsanto and other biotechnology-industry interests. Folta, a plant scientist at the University of Florida in Gainesville and a staunch proponent of GM crops, received a $25,000 grant last year from Monsanto to support his research and outreach projects.

According to Nature Magazine, “The documents show that Monsanto paid for Folta’s travel to speak to US students, farmers, politicians and the media. Other industry contacts occasionally sent him suggested responses to common questions about GM organisms.”

“They provided funds for 12 of my outreach talks and sponsored a larger multi-speaker workshop. Monsanto had no control of content, no suggestions on what we’d teach, but funded facilities charges, lunch, and speakers’ travel. That stuff is expensive. But Monsanto does not, and never has, funded my research in any way,” Folta claimed.

Folta, before this revelation, insisted that he was an independent scientist working in a public institution. He also claimed, that he was funded from public sources. In June 2014, he publicly distanced himself from Monsanto:

In the comments section of an article, titled ‘How the Great Food War Will Be Won’, this is what he pronounced in January:

The biotech industry-funded site, GMOanswers.com — which seeks to dispel myths about the dangers of GM foods and pesticides — has still not disclosed Folta’s financial ties to Monsanto.

“I think it’s important for professors who take money from industry to disclose it. And if they’re not disclosing it, that’s a problem. And if they say they aren’t taking money, and they are, then that’s a problem,” Ruskin added.

Is this just the tip of the iceberg? Are scientists working too closely with businesses who support genetically modified foods? Is there such a thing as objective science when a researcher receives thousands of dollars from a GM producer and then pronounces that the financier’s products as safe? Are ‘experts’ on GMOs being paid to term GM foods as safe?

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