The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

186 the world according to monsantoing scientists and environmental groups.” 16 The Royal Society’s attitude wasso unusual that on May 22, 1999, The Lancet decided to speak out. It publishedan editorial declaring: “Governments should never have allowed theseproducts into the food chain without insisting on rigorous testing for effectson health.” Deliberately jumping into the controversy, it announced that itwould finally publish the study by Pusztai and Ewen. Following normal procedures,it sent a copy of the article to six independent reviewers, who werenot supposed to discuss the content before publication, announced for October1999. 17Unfortunately, violating the established codes of conduct, one of the reviewers,John Pickett, went so far as to vehemently criticize the article in thecolumns of The Independent five days before publication. 18 Worse, he sentthe proof of the article to the Royal Society, which went after Richard Horton,the editor of The Lancet. “There was intense pressure . . . to suppresspublication,” Horton told The Guardian, referring to a “very aggressivephone call” from Professor Peter Lachmann, former vice president and biologicalsecretary of the Royal Society and president of the Academy of Medicine,who led him to understand that publication “would have implicationsfor his personal position as editor” (an allegation Lachmann subsequentlydenied). 19“It’s not surprising,” said Ewen. “The Royal Society supported the developmentof GMOs from the beginning, and many of its members, like ProfessorLachmann, work as consultants for biotechnology companies.”*“Monsanto among them,” added Pusztai. “Besides, Monsanto was one ofthe private sponsors of the Rowett Institute as well as of the Scottish AgriculturalResearch Institute, a connection that was natural because one of itsprominent members, Hugh Grant, now CEO of Monsanto, is Scottish.”†“There is no doubt in my mind that the decision to stop our work wasmade at the highest level,” said Ewen. “I received confirmation in September1999. I was at a dinner dance, and a Rowett Institute director was sittingat the next table. At one point, I said to him: ‘Isn’t it terrible, whathappened to Arpad?’ He answered: ‘Yes, but don’t you know that DowningStreet called the director twice?’ Then I realized there was something inter-*According to The Guardian, Lachmann was a consultant for such companies as Geron Biomed,Adprotech, and SmithKline Beecham.†In a February 16, 1999, press release, the Rowett Institute confirmed that it had signed a contractwith Monsanto for a figure amounting to 1 percent of its annual budget.