A global team of journalists recently revealed that agrochemical industry leaders are working to downplay the risks associated with pesticides and discredit and silence critics of these chemicals.
The investigation finds that the PR firm v-Fluence created profiles on 3,000 organizations and more than 500 scientists, journalists, environmentalists, and others deemed critical of the pesticide industry and genetically modified organisms (GMOs). These profiles—housed on a private social network called Bonus Eventus—not only include disparaging comments about the individuals and their work but also personal information about them and their families.
The goal of this work, says Carey Gillam, an author and journalist, who contributed to the investigation, is to “denigrate organic regenerative agriculture and…block any sort of restrictions on chemical agriculture in countries around the world.”
Offering one example, Gillam says the platform contained information about her daughter and activities she pursued as a child as well as information on her husband that dated back to 1999 before they even met. Another profile of a scientist, who she describes as a “thorn in the side of the agrochemical industry,” included information about his marriage and alleged extramarital affairs.
“It just is so wrong and seems so threatening,” Gillam tells Food Tank. “And this is how people get intimidated and feel vulnerable and think: Maybe I shouldn’t speak out.”
The investigation also shows that between 2013 and 2019 v-Fluence received more than US$400,000 from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for the “enhanced monitoring” of “critics of modern agriculture approaches.”
“Our U.S. government works as an advocate for many important, powerful, profitable industries, and the agrochemical industry is one of them,” Gillam says. “It’s [about] protecting the whole industry.”
Listen to the full conversation with Carey Gillam on Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg to hear more about the findings of the investigation, the health risks associated with pesticides and herbicides like paraquat and glyphosate, and what, if anything, will change for v-Fluence in the future.
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Photo courtesy of Zeynel Cebeci, Wikimedia Commons
