The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

transgenic wheat 231been working on the butterfly since 1954, wrote in a 2001 article. 18 Thisvery well-informed article shows how a scientific debate can be completelyperverted by private interests with the complicity of government institutionsand elements of the scientific community: “In the ongoing debate over theCornell findings, the scientific process has been spun, massaged, and manipulatedby the agricultural industry . . . losing sight of a larger, more seriousissue: the real danger that genetically engineered crops will accelerate . . .the impoverishment of biological diversity.” Along the way, he notes that theintensive use of Roundup has caused the disappearance of wildflowers suchas milkweed, on which the monarch depends for survival.He then recounts the process of manipulation that he witnessed. In thedays following the publication of the Cornell study, the leaders of thebiotechnology industry decided to create a consortium, which they namedthe Agricultural Biotechnology Stewardship Working Group (ABSWG),whose mission was to sponsor university research similar to that conductedby John Losey. On November 2, 1999, when these studies were still in theirpreliminary stages, the ABSWG organized a conference in Chicago that wassupposed to present an open debate on the delicate question. Participantsincluded a number of researchers financed by the consortium, but also independentfigures such as Lincoln Brower and Carol Yoon, a science reporterfor the New York Times. Although the discussions had barely begun,Yoon was informed that a press release from the Biotechnology Industry Organizationhad been received by the Times that morning, with an unequivocaltitle: “Scientific Symposium to Show No Harm to Monarch Butterfly.” 19Flabbergasted, Yoon asked the participants if they had received word of thispress release, and they uniformly replied no. She reported the rather revealinganecdote, 20 but all other newspapers blindly reproduced the false claimsof the press release. 21However, the Cornell team’s results were confirmed by a University ofIowa study published on August 19, 2000, in the journal Oecologia. 22 JohnObrycki, who directed the research, conducted in the field with milkweedleaves gathered in proximity to transgenic crops, commented: “We foundthat after five days exposure to Bt pollen, 70 percent of monarch butterflylarvae died.” 23 The debate was relaunched at the time, but it was soon overwhelmedby the greatest health and environmental scandal that GMOs hadprovoked so far.