05/07/2017 / By Vicki Batts
Things just keep getting worse for Monsanto: Not only has the biotech firm been found guilty of crimes against humanity by the International Monsanto Tribunal, the corporation has also recently been involved in a number of scandals. First, it came to light that the world’s most hated company had been colluding with the EPA, and now they’re being accused of yet another misdeed.
Recently obtained court documents have revealed that Monsanto has been secretly feeding money to “think tanks,” such as the infamous Genetic Literacy Project. From the document obtained by US Right To Know:
Monsanto quietly funnels money to “think tanks” such as the “Genetic Literacy Project” and the “American Council on Science and Health,” organizations intended to shame scientists and highlight information helpful to Monsanto and other chemical producers.
For example, the American Council on Science and Health has recently published articles accusing the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of ignoring the “science” on glyphosate. The Genetic Literacy Project, led by exposed wife beater and former Forbes.com writer Jon Entine, has also published articles calling for the IARC to possibly be abolished and has even gone so far to accuse the US of “unwittingly funding” conspiracies against Monsanto.
Sources say that these allegations are backed up by a string of emails which were used in court as evidence. Some of these exchanges even involved Monsanto executives instructing their staff to “ghost write” material on their products and then have some phony “independent scientists” sign their names to cut back on costs. One such exchange occurred between Monsanto’s William Heydens and his colleagues:
A less expensive/more palatable approach might be to involve experts only for the areas of contention, epidemiology and possibly MOA (depending on what comes out of the IARC meeting), and we ghost-write the Exposure Tox & Genetox sections. An option would be to add Greim and Kier or Kirkland to have their names on the publication, but we would be keeping the cost down by us doing the writing and they would just edit & sign their names so to speak. Recall that is how we handled Williams Kroes & Munro, 2000.
In addition to the emails and evidence of Monsanto’s collusion with government agencies and “think tank” organizations, there is also reason to believe that Monsanto has been hiring “trolls” to defend the company on the web — and to attack anyone who dares speak out against them.
Evidence presented in the pretrials of Monsanto court cases at the US District Court in San Francisco has revealed that under their ever-so-aptly titled “Let Nothing Go” program, Monsanto reportedly hired individuals who appeared to have no relation to the company for the sole purpose of trolling the internet with positive comments, defend Monsanto, and praise their toxic chemicals and GMO crops.
The goal of the “Let Nothing Go” program is “to leave nothing, not even Facebook comments, unanswered…” and the plaintiffs say that Monsanto has been targeting all forms of social media and other online materials under this initiative. Even comments on social networks that merely mention the potential hazards of things like glyphosate or genetically modified crops have been targeted by Monsanto’s trolls.
Anti-GMO activists like Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, have been particularly susceptible to these attacks. Unsurprisingly, Adams has been a prime target for GMO trolls: The Genetic Literacy Project and other shills have published hit pieces on him and other activists — all with the goal of trying to discredit them and silence journalists who expose Monsanto’s nefarious operations.
The evidence revealed in these court documents certainly leaves Monsanto with a lot of explaining to do. But it seems that they are already losing in the court of public opinion. (RELATED: Learn more about Monsanto at MonsantoMafia.com)
Sources:
USRTK.org [PDF]
Tagged Under: corruption, Monsanto, trolls