The College Fix

OPINION

Organizations that claim scientists are in bed with corporate America aren’t necessarily free of those entangling alliances either. They are just better at keeping it on the down low.

One of the best examples of this hypocrisy comes from US Right to Know, a relatively new activist group that opposes research on and use of genetically modified organisms.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, the group has targeted the emails of scientists who work on GMOs, according to one of those targets, the University of Florida’s Kevin Folta.

In an “Ask Me Anything” chat on Reddit earlier this month, the botanist and respected GMO researcher talked about US Right to Know’s campaign against him and 39 colleagues at public universities.

Folta said he was the first scientist to fully comply with the records request, “releasing hundreds of emails comprising >5000 pages,” he said on Reddit.

“Within these documents were private discussions with students, friends and individuals from corporations, including discussion of corporate support of my science communication outreach program,” Folta wrote as an introduction to the chat.

“These companies have never sponsored my research, and sponsors never directed or manipulated the content of these programs. They only shared my goal for expanding science literacy.”

After receiving Folta’s emails, a few of which were with GMO corporations like Monsanto, US Right to Know immediately accused him of being beholden to GMO corporations and continues trying to discredit his research.

Folta said groups that “wish to limit the public’s understanding of science” want to quash his research by claiming he is in “collusion” with GMO corporations and attacking his “scientific and personal integrity.”

Asked what would happen if Folta’s conclusions went against a company that funded him, he responded: “Conclusions are what they are, and companies fund academic research to get an answer. If they get zero results, they don’t usually come back!

“However, results that are solid usually establish good relationships no matter if they are ‘against’ the company or not,” Folta continued. “Reliable results are all that are requested. This is important.”

Folta also accused US Right to Know of intentionally misleading readers and journalists, highlighting emails that comprise less than 5 percent of his time in research.

“If [a corporation] told me that I had to produce some set of results, I’d record it, and share it. Nobody tells me what to research, what to write, who to talk to. My record shows that 95% of my outreach and communications work is to non-corporations,” Folta wrote.

So who is this organization, and why is it harassing respected scientists?

According to its website, the nonprofit US Right to Know does “research and communications on the failures of the corporate food system. We stand up for the right to know what is in our food, and how it affects our health.”

Yet a review of its own leadership indicates that the organization has zero scientists in its ranks. Instead, it is jam-packed with activists, journalists, sociologists and a former member of Greenpeace.

That’s an impressive lineup if you want effective activists for organic products whose expertise is trashing respected scientists who must fight for their reputation in the science-challenged media. 

What is even more interesting is who supports US Right to Know. Its only named financial supporter, Organic Consumers Association, donated $144,500.  According to the advocacy group’s 2014 IRS tax statement, it received more than $40,000 in contributions from undisclosed donors.

The Organic Consumers Association is similarly bereft of scientific qualifications. An “online and grassroots non-profit 501(c)3 public interest organization campaigning for health, justice, and sustainability,” the group says it is “focused exclusively on promoting the views and interests of the nation’s estimated 50 million organic and socially responsible consumers.”

Interestingly, this “grassroots” organization brought in more than $4 million in 2013, while the organics industry itself crossed $63 billion in revenue in 2013.  

The organic industry tries to conjure up visions of an independent farmer selling organic produce at a local market, when in reality it’s are a corporate engine like any other. Its advocates and profiteers want the unimpeded ability to harangue Americans into buying their overpriced products, while simultaneously attempting to silence critics who point out they are essentially selling snake oil.

If the public knew what actually happened at organic farms, consumers might reconsider their Disneyfied assumptions about the industry.

When I toured a farm in upstate New York last year, a veterinarian told me that she is horrified by the practices at organic farms.

Cows on such farms are frequently not treated for diseases because farmers are afraid they will lose their organic status, not to mention the premium their milk commands on the open market, the veterinarian told me. Meanwhile, non-organic milk cows are often given preventative medical treatments to ensure the safety of the cow and the milk.  

“Which do you think is more humane to the cows?” the veterinarian posed to me.

It seems more likely than US Right to Know, and not the scientists who are actually doing research, is the one who’s beholden to self-interested corporate masters.

If this “grassroots” group truly had the public interest in mind, wouldn’t it refuse money from corporations and bring in esteemed scientists for its leadership?

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IMAGES: Shutterstock, University of Florida, Vipal/Flickr