Activists Targeting Biotech

Groups Use Open-Record Requests Against Academics

Chris Clayton
By  Chris Clayton , DTN Ag Policy Editor
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Social media and websites have exploded in recent weeks attacking Kevin Folta, who is a molecular biologist and chairman of the Horticultural Sciences Department at the University of Florida. (DTN photo by Chris Clayton)

OLYMPIC VALLEY, Calif. (DTN) -- Over the summer, Kevin Folta has gone from being a relatively unknown college professor to being a favored target of activists who oppose biotech crops.

Social media and websites exploded in recent weeks, attacking Folta, who is a molecular biologist and chairman of the Horticultural Sciences Department at the University of Florida.

Anti-biotech groups have characterized the professor as a "shill" for Monsanto Co. after the company gave $25,000 to the University of Florida to cover travel expenses for Folta's "Talking Biotech" seminar series. Vocal critics of transgenic foods claim that Folta never disclosed the Monsanto travel funding until they exposed the funds through an open-records request of Folta's university emails.

Folta maintains he released the information voluntarily, the funding has always been part of his record and is only being used now as a political target.

"It's a tiny amount relative to my research. My research program has never been funded by Monsanto," Folta told DTN on Thursday. "We don't do anything they care about, but my communications program allows me to travel -- no salary -- it allows me to travel, talk to public audiences, rent a venue, provide donuts or lunch for students who attend, and I get to talk about science."

Still, Folta has been overwhelmed by the level of controversy the grant has caused. He notes the outrage from anti-biotech activists has turned into a direct attack on the ability to develop public-private partnerships in food science. "When they found out there was some support from industry, people went crazy," Folta said. "Now, it's not 'Kevin got money to support his outreach.' It's 'Folta's a paid liar.' So they are trying to go after my credibility."

Folta and Joy Rumble, an agricultural communications professor also at the University of Florida, spoke Thursday to leaders at an American Soybean Association event in California. They specifically talked about the increasingly hostile conversation around biotechnology and the growing influence of people who criticize foods with ingredients from biotech crops without providing any scientific basis. These include people such as "the Food Babe," Dr. Oz, and Hollywood actors, as well as India's Vandana Shiva.

Despite not one recorded death or illness associated with transgenic foods, anti-biotech advocates are effectively using fear to turn the public against the industry, Folta said. "When the Food Babe says, 'If you feed this to your kids, they will get sick,' it resonates," he noted.

The fervor over biotechnology has led to long-term resistance against crops such as Golden Rice, which could reduce the risks of blindness in children around the world, but activists have effectively blocked the production of the rice for nearly 15 years. A virus-resistant cassava could help millions of farmers and people in Africa. In Florida, biotech strategies could help stem citrus-greening, which has wiped out roughly 100,000 acres of oranges since 2005. Resistance to a biotech solution will likely slow down regulatory approval of a solution to the citrus-greening problem.

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"The earliest we will get this is 2020, and will there be an industry left?" Folta said.

Folta was the first of at least 40 scientists hit with open-records requests because they are effective communicators about the safety of transgenic foods and crops. Most of these researchers had taken part in the website GMO Answers, an industry website set up specifically to have experts answer questions from consumers about biotech issues. One of the "gotcha" moments in nearly 5,000 of Folta's emails was one from a staffer for the public-relations firm Ketchum who sent Folta a question from the GMO Answers website and then attempted to draft an answer in the email. The email did state that Folta could answer how he chooses, but nonetheless, activists seized on that email as another smoking gun, suggesting Folta's strings were being pulled by the industry's own outreach efforts.

The activists also have demanded to see Rumble's emails because she was among those who had answered questions on the GMO Answers website.

The anti-biotech groups believe they exposed Folta by highlighting that he received a $25,000 grant from Monsanto for his agricultural communications program.

Some of the more aggressive groups have been U.S. Right to Know, which was started last year in California and has spearheaded the effort to file open-record requests against scientists. Other anti-biotech groups have used Folta's image in online graphics to smear him. "There are several different examples of organizations just piling on and spreading increasing amounts of misinformation through the media to play up their narrative," Folta said.

Folta said he supports the need for transparency, but now groups are parsing out elements of more than 5,000 emails to highlight any connection to agribusinesses. He said that has translated into at least one "total hit piece" over at least one email regarding an invitation to speak in Colorado. Another reporter working on an article about Folta for a major newspaper suggested the $25,000 grant represented "collusion" with the biotech industry.

Folta responded that people who understand the science and the farmers who grow biotech crops need to be the ones reaching out more to the food-consuming public. "Nothing against the industry or the companies, but people don't want to necessarily hear about some of these topics from the people trying to sell them seed. They want to hear it from the experts, but I don't have an independent bank account to go talk. If the companies want to pay for me to go and talk to them, I'll do it. The companies don't tell me what to say, and if I go in there and say anything the companies don't like, that's too bad. I talk about the science, and it just so happens that the science supports what the companies are doing and what the companies are selling," Folta said.

Jack Payne, senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources at the University of Florida, wrote a column on an academic website Thursday defending Folta and calling out activists who are using open-record requests to harass scientists. Payne noted the situation is similar to when hackers got emails on climate research from British scientists and then cherry-picked emails to declare that scientists were falsifying data -- the now infamous "climategate" scandal. Moreover, Payne noted the harassment Folta faces is likely causing other scientists to be silent about controversial topics.

"It's particularly distressing in an agricultural research context since 3.1 million children under the age of five die each year from malnutrition, while there are no documented cases of a child -- or anyone -- dying from eating GMO foods in the two decades they have been available to the public," Payne wrote. "So when Folta gets death threats or has to deal with online posts about his deceased mother, or we have to search emails for nonexistent evidence of a conspiracy theory, that's more than a nuisance. Harassment of researchers contributes to the locking up in labs of potential solutions to worldwide problems." http://dld.bz/…

Curtis Hannah, another university colleague of Folta's, wrote a piece for the Genetic Literacy Project website last week defending Folta by noting that the message in Folta's presentations "is totally in line with what the vast majority of credible scientific organizations say and what, in fact, the overwhelming credible peer-reviewed science has concluded: Eating GMO foods is no more risky than eating conventional foods."

Hannah, a molecular biologist, also noted Folta has the challenge of serving as a department chairman and maintaining a top research program for the university. Folta's outreach work is added workload with little benefit. "Kevin does it because he thinks it is the right thing to do. The vast majority of credible plant scientists and organizations also think it is the right thing to do. To suggest that Dr. Folta would manipulate the content of his talks for any financial gain or travel money is simply disingenuous," Hannah wrote. http://dld.bz/…

Still, the $25,000 grant became such a controversial situation that the University of Florida has said the university would allocate the entire portion of the grant to help fund a food pantry the university has for its food-insecure students. The communications program now operates at a deficit.

Folta said Thursday he is considering legal action against some people he believes have libeled him over the controversy. Folta also made it clear he plans to continue pressing his case. Yet, he also said he believe some anti-biotech groups need to come clean on their own funding sources.

"In the spirit of transparency, we need to open the books of the anti-GMO folks," he said.


Folta wrote an op-ed that appeared Sunday in the Gainsville, Fla., Sun. You can read it here:

http://www.gainesville.com/…


Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

Follow him on Twitter @ChrisClaytonDTN

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Chris Clayton