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biotechnologySo Much for Feeding the WorldTopics: agriculture | biotechnology | corporations | food safety | international | science
Monsanto-Funded Front Group Fights Milk LabelingTopics: agriculture | animal rights | astroturf | biotechnology | corporations | food safety | front groups | issue management | lobbying | third party technique
A new "grassroots" farmers' group with close ties to Monsanto has been formed to outlaw labels that would notify consumers they are buying milk from cows not treated with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). Monsanto genetically engineers rBGH, called Posilac, which is injected into cows, forcing them to produce more milk. The front group American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology (AFACT), which receives funding from Monsanto, was organized by Osborne & Barr, an agri-marketing firm started by two former Monsanto employees in 1988. The founding client of Osborne & Barr was Monsanto. Consultant Monty G. Miller of Estes Park, Colorado, also helped organize AFACT, which was formally launched in California in February 2008. The only contact information AFACT lists on its website is a fax number listed as belonging to "Outer Office." Outer Office provides secretarial and operational support (such as scheduling, newsletters and message-taking) to small consulting businesses. A call to Outer Office seeking the address and telephone contact information for AFACT was not returned. Mon Dieu! GMOs Make Inroads in FranceTopics: agriculture | biotechnology | food safety | health | international | politics | science
It's a Tobacco Thing, You Wouldn't Understand: Virginia Commonwealth University and the Tobacco IndustrySubmitted by Anne Landman on Wed, 09/12/2007 - 00:25.
Topics: biotechnology | health | public relations | third party technique | tobacco
It's no secret that Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) shares a cozy relationship with the tobacco industry. In fact, VCU and the industry have long supported each other in a number of ways. In 1991, while other medical schools including Harvard and Johns Hopkins were divesting their tobacco stocks, VCU's longtime President, Dr. Eugene Trani, was working to make VCU more tobacco-friendly, negotiating a new smoking policy that explicitly permitted smoking in 41 out of 42 of the University's facilities. The one area where smoking was not permitted was VCU's hospital, since this would have made it ineligible for accreditation, and hence government Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. Philip Morris CEO Michael Szymanczyk was the keynote speaker at VCU's graduation ceremony in 2003. In 2005, USA Today reported that PM had endowed a Chair of International Business in the University's School of Business, and that PM was at that time funding 12 studies at VCU accounting for $4.4 million. Also in 2005, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that PM was investing $300 million in a new Virginia Biotechnology Research Park and that VCU had been closely involved in the negotiations to create the facility. The Dispatch wrote that, thanks to the Biotech Park, "VCU is poised to become a partner in key areas of compatible research with Philip Morris." More on "Strange Culture"Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on Fri, 06/29/2007 - 14:19.
Topics: activism | arts/culture | biotechnology | human rights
Strange CultureSubmitted by Sheldon Rampton on Mon, 06/25/2007 - 20:11.
Topics: arts/culture | biotechnology | human rights | terrorism
I was a little disappointed, though, that Slate failed to mention the work of Steve Kurtz, a bio artist whose work goes further than most in provoking debate about the ethical issues involved with genetic engineering — so far, in fact, that he is currently awaiting trial on charges that could land him in prison for 20 years. Out with the Old Front Groups & In with the NewTopics: agriculture | biotechnology | corporations | food safety | front groups | health | issue management
Two former food industry websites -- Best Food Nation and the Grow America Project -- are being merged and re-birthed as a new front group, the Center for Food Integrity (CFI). CFI's web domain was registered earlier this month by Charlie Arnot, who runs a small Missouri-based PR firm, CMA Consulting. CFI, which lists Monsanto as one of its supporters, states that it aims "to build consumer trust and confidence in the contemporary U.S. food system." Joseph Mendelson, the legal director of the Center for Food Safety, a consumer group, told Food NavigatorUSA.com that CFI is simply "a PR entity to try and battle regulations designed to create a safer food supply ... This is a way for it to promote its agenda under a green wash label." Mendelson also believes that the CFI's name was "chosen to try to distract attention from groups like ours and to confuse consumers." (Note: Mendelson is on the Center for Media and Democracy's Board of Directors.) Coming to the Table in 2007: Cloned Beef?Topics: agriculture | biotechnology | food safety | U.S. government
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has tentatively determined that milk and meat from cloned cows are safe to eat and indistinguishable from non-cloned cows. The agency may complete approval procedures for consumption of the animals and milk before the end of 2007. The International Dairy Foods Association has conducted polls showing that unlabeled cloned products might turn customers away from all meat and dairy products. But the report prompted kudos from biotech firms and some farmers, who have created several hundred cloned cows. Dolly the sheep, born in Scotland in 1996, was the first such animal. PR Watch reported in 1999 that cloning for purposes of food consumption often has been promoted by industry at the expense of adequate scientific study. Seven U.S. Senators have written a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt seeking a "careful, deliberative and open process" before the government allows such animals into the U.S. food supply. The "no distinguishable difference" finding by the FDA currently prevents the agency from requiring labels, and biotech firms such as Monsanto have sued businesses that seek to differentiate natural products from synthetic ones. Fumento's Genetically Engineered ColumnsTopics: biotechnology | corporations | ethics | pundits
"Scripps Howard News Service announced Jan. 13 that it's severing its business relationship with columnist Michael Fumento, who's also a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute. The move comes after inquiries from BusinessWeek Online about payments Fumento received from agribusiness giant Monsanto -- a frequent subject of praise in Fumento's opinion columns and a book." Scripps Howard general manager Peter Copeland said Fumento "did not tell SHNS editors, and therefore we did not tell our readers, that in 1999 Hudson received a $60,000 grant from Monsanto." The grant was for Fumento's book BioEvolution. Fumento called himself "extremely pro-biotech" and said he told Monsanto about the book, "The biotech industry is going to look really good, and you should contribute." Fumento said his recent columns, including a January 5 piece praising new Monsanto products, were not "quid pro quo." He added, "I think there's a statute of limitations on that." The Unseen Hand of the Marketplace of IdeasTopics: biotechnology | ethics | lobbying | pharmaceuticals | think tanks
"Susan Finston of the Institute for Policy Innovation, a conservative research group based in Texas, is just the sort of opinion maker coveted by the drug industry," writes Philip Shenon. "In an opinion article in The Financial Times on Oct. 25, she called for patent protection in poor countries for drugs and biotechnology products. In an article last month in the European edition of The Wall Street Journal, she called for efforts to block developing nations from violating patents on AIDS medicines and other drugs. Both articles identified her as a 'research associate' at the institute. Neither mentioned that, as recently as August, Ms. Finston was registered as a lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drug industry's trade group. Nor was there mention of her work this fall in creating the American Bioindustry Alliance, a group underwritten largely by drug companies." |
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