LOBBYWATCH
Just before Christmas last year we heard the sad news that the eminent scientist Dr Arpad Pusztai had passed away. Dr Pusztai and his experimental work had, more than any other factor, woken up the world to the dangers of GM foods. To mark Dr Pusztai’s passing, GMWatch published some extracts from the definitive account of what happened to him after he revealed his results on British television. But now we have been given exclusive permission to publish the full account. The extraordinary drama that unfolded is described by the author and investigative journalist Andy Rowell in two carefully referenced chapters of his book, Don't Worry, It's Safe to Eat. The case for GMOs in the UK is being made by the Adam Smith Institute and the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) – a group that solicits money from tobacco and other dodgy corporations for product defence campaigns, and that even Monsanto were reluctant to finance because ACSH "have PLENTY of warts". New trustees are joining the board of the Gates Foundation. But are they really "strong, independent voices" that will “shape its governance”, or will their financial ties to the foundation limit their influence, and in turn the shaping of the global health and agriculture narratives? Comedian Russell Brand gives an educational – and hilarious – rundown of the ludicrous nature of the Foundation's governance.
Australia's revolving door allows government ex-regulators, officials and MPs to serve the industries they once vetted as public servants. Dr Joe Smith has been appointed chair of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council of Australia (ABCA), which CropLife, the National Farmers Federation (NFF) and AusBiotech founded a decade ago to promote the agricultural biotech and chemical industries. ABCA describes its new chair, Joe Smith, as "former national Gene Technology Regulator, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority and Director of the Therapeutic Goods Administration Laboratories". New estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) are downplaying the role of small-scale farmers in feeding the majority of the world’s population. But GRAIN explains that at least 70% of the world is fed by small-scale producers. In order to arrive at its perverse conclusions, FAO had to change its own definition of a family farmer. And it discounted or ignored recent FAO and other reports proving that peasant farms produce more food and more nutritious food per hectare than large farms. Agribusiness dislikes the 70% figure so there may be pressure on FAO to act more in line with their new alliance with agribusiness group Croplife. In a wide-ranging article, Paul D. Thacker challenges "science writers" who in their articles and on social media "promote a 'pro science' message that can drift outside the universe of factual reality while repeating corporate PR", often Monsanto's! He also criticises Facebook's censorship of factual reporting on pandemic issues. COVID-19 A string of unearthed emails is making it seem increasingly likely that there was a conspiracy to suppress the notion that the SARS-CoV-2 virus had emerged from research funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), headed by Anthony Fauci, writes Nicholas Wade. The latest emails don’t prove such a conspiracy, but they make it more plausible, for two reasons: because the expert virologists therein present such a strong case for thinking that the virus had lab-made features and because of the wholly political reaction to this bombshell on the part of Francis Collins, then-director of the National Institutes of Health. Investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson interviews investigative reporter Paul Thacker about Anthony Fauci's and Peter Daszak's conflicted roles in suppressing discussion of the lab leak theory of COVID origins at the same time as funding dangerous gain-of-function research with coronaviruses in China. Thacker also offers insights on why and how science writers have silenced public debate on this topic. Research shows that the escape of viruses from laboratories and supposedly contained experiments is a common occurrence. In addition, many pandemics have arisen from lab escapes and almost all have not been directly zoonotic (arising from a natural spillover from animals to humans). Even when viruses do ultimately originate in animals and make the jump into humans, they mostly fester in a separated community of human beings for many years – centuries or millennia – before spreading during abnormal movements of people due to wars and famines, writes Professor Paul R. Goddard. Prof Goddard's overview of the history of lab leaks and gain-of-function studies shows that claims by Anthony Fauci and Peter Daszak about the origins of COVID-19 are false. | 