The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

mexico: seizing control of biodiversity 249history with these groups of [eco-radicals] demonstrates his willingness tocollude with them to attack biotechnology, free-trade, intellectual propertyrights, and other politically motivated agenda items.” 13At the time the “smear campaign” that derailed Chapela’s career was gettingunder way, Jonathan Matthews came upon these strange posts bychance. 14 Matthews was the head of GMWatch, an information service onGMOs based in Norwich in southern England. “At the time I was lookinginto AgBio World,” he told me when I met him in November 2006, sitting infront of his computer. “It was breathtaking: the two e-mails from Mary Murphyand Andura Smetacek were distributed to the 3,400 scientists on AgBioWorld’s distribution list. The campaign spread from there. Some scientists,such as Professor Anthony Trewavas of the University of Edinburgh, calledon Nature to retract the article or to have Ignacio Chapela fired.”“Who is behind AgBio World?”“Officially it’s a nonprofit foundation that claims ‘to provide science-basedinformation on agricultural biotechnology issues to various stakeholdersacross the world,’ as its Web site declares,” he answered, showing me thesite. 15 “It’s run by Professor Chanapatna S. Prakash, director of the Centerfor Plant Biotechnology Research at Tuskegee University in Alabama. Originallyfrom India, he is an adviser to USAID, and in that capacity, he has intervenedfrequently in India and Africa to promote biotechnology. Hebecame famous in 2000, when he launched a ‘Declaration of Support forAgricultural Biotechnology,’ for which he secured the signatures of 3,400scientists, including twenty-five Nobel Prize winners. 16 AgBio World had noqualms about accusing environmentalists on its Web site of ‘fascism, communism,and terrorism, including genocide.’ One day, when I was consultingthe AgBio World archives, I received an error message giving me thename of the server that hosts the site: apollo.bivings.com. The BivingsGroup, based in Washington, is a communications firm, one of whoseclients is Monsanto, and it specializes in Internet lobbying.” 17Matthews showed me a 2002 article by George Monbiot in The Guardianrevealing that the firm had presented its expertise in an article on its Website entitled “Viral Marketing: How to Infect the World.” “There are somecampaigns where it would be undesirable or even disastrous to let the audienceknow that your organization is directly involved . . . it simply is not anintelligent PR move. In cases such as this, it is important to first ‘listen’ to