The Environmental Working Group has submitted a letter to the US Department of Agriculture following an investigation which revealed earlier this year that scientists who submit work on neonicotinoids and the long-term effects of GMOs find their livelihoods in jeopardy, and their scientific credentials ruined.
Anonymous scientists are revealing that companies ‘such as Monsanto’ have made it very difficult for scientists to report the truth about their findings.
PEER executive director Jeff Ruch explains:
“Scientists who are submitting works on neonicotinoids or the long-term effects of GMO crops, trigger corporate complaints back through the chain of command, and finally find that their careers are in jeopardy.”
To most of us, it isn’t ‘news’ that the USDA, CDC, and FDA have been suppressing real science, but as Gary Ruskin, director of the pro- labeling group US Right to Know, in a March 30 letter to the US House and Senate agricultural committees demanding an investigation writes:
“If true, this is a major scandal at the USDA. . . It is not the proper role of the USDA to engage in a cover up for Monsanto and other agrichemical companies.”
Watchdog group PEER has filed a petition demanding that the USDA reform its so-called “scientific integrity policy,” but as long as known supporters of companies like Monsanto are running these agencies, isn’t that kind of like sending a letter to the CEO of Exxon telling on BP for their latest oil spill?
How Biotech and Government Work Together
List of former-Monsanto players now in government roles:
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“Tom Vilsack, the pro-biotech former governor of Iowa, now head of the USDA
- Michael Taylor, the former Monsanto Vice President, now the FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods
- Roger Beachy, the former director of the Monsanto-funded Danforth Plant Science Center, now the director of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
- Islam Siddiqui, the former Vice President of the Monsanto and Dupont-funded pesticide-promoting lobbying group, CropLife, now the Agriculture Negotiator for the US Trade Representative
- Rajiv Shah, the former Gates Foundation agricultural-development director served as Obama’s USDA Under Secretary for Research Education and Economics and Chief Scientist, now head of USAID
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Ramona Romero, the corporate counsel to Dupont, nominated by President Obama to serve as General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Agriculture”
Why would you write a letter to the people who receive a paycheck from Monsanto and expect it to change anything at all?
In my honest opinion it is too late for letters – at least when they addressed to agencies who have already made it very clear that they care very little about public opinion. Our vote at the grocery store, or actions on a grassroots level (such as growing our own food) and the arrest of the fraudulent and lying CEOs of these companies as well as politicians is the only thing that will correct the food supply.