Join NYU Libraries for an insightful discussion with some of our most esteemed panelists about how the conversation, study, and action around food has evolved over the last two decades. Together, we’ll reflect on 20 years of the Critical Topics in Food event series and examine the role that thoughtful community gatherings like these have played in shaping our collective dialogue about food. The Critical Topics in Food event series is a partnership between NYU Special Collections, NYU Steinhardt Department of Nutrition & Food Studies, and Clark Wolf.
by Marion Nestle
Sep
6
2015
Another exposé of industry-funded scientists: this time, GMOs and organics
Today’s New York Times has another front-page (and on the inside, full-page) story on the food industry’s financial relationships with academic scientists.
The article describes how Monsanto funded scientists to lobby for GMOs in Washington (I will say more about this in a subsequent post).
But, as is clear from this report, the organic industry is doing much the same.
The Times based the story on e-mails it collected through open records law requests (the equivalent of Freedom of Information Act requests for federal documents).
And surprise! I turn up in Charles Benbrook’s. I learned this from checking Twitter yesterday.
I’m only on the B-list for influencing public opinion? Alas.
It seems that Charles Benbrook, a strong proponent of organics (as am I), was working with (for?) the Organic Valley Cooperative on a public relations campaign to promote his organics-funded study demonstrating that organic milk has a healthier fatty acid profile than conventional milk.
I vaguely remember him contacting me about the study, but I didn’t write anything about it. It appeared to be an industry-funded study with results favoring the sponsor’s interests—much as, in this case, I sympathize with those interests.
A few months later, I did write write about another conflicted organic study:
The study is not independently funded….This study is another example of how the outcome of sponsored research invariably favors the sponsor’s interests. The paper says “the [Sheepdrove] Trust had no influence on the design and management of the research project and the preparation of publications from the project,” but that’s exactly what studies funded by Coca-Cola say. It’s an amazing coincidence how the results of sponsored studies almost invariably favor the sponsor’s interests. And that’s true of results I like just as it is of results that I don’t like.
Benbrook has been criticized recently for not fully disclosing his ties to the organic industry. Even if he had, disclosure is not enough.
The bottom line: Conflicted studies are conflicted, no matter who pays for them.
Documents: Charles Benbrook