08-09-2019, 03:16 PM
Ah, Monsanto! This is all C & P. I'm just seeing lots of Monsanto in the news.
https://boingboing.net/2019/08/08/needle...-done.html
Monsanto ran a "fusion center" (a term borrowed from law-enforcement counter-terrorism operations) that spied on activists and journalists who were investigating the safety of its products, notably the link between its "Round Up" pesticides and cancers.
Plus:
Monsanto parent Bayer said to propose $8 billion settlement over Roundup claims
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/monsanto-pa...te-claims/
Since Bayer bought Roundup's maker Monsanto last year, the German chemical giant has lost three high-profile court cases over the chemical's possible link to cancer.
Investors have fled Bayer over concerns about its potential liabilities, halving the company's stock price since its June 6, 2018, purchase of Monsanto. In its most recent annual report, Bayer said it expects more lawsuits to emerge.
https://boingboing.net/2019/08/08/needle...-done.html
Monsanto ran a "fusion center" (a term borrowed from law-enforcement counter-terrorism operations) that spied on activists and journalists who were investigating the safety of its products, notably the link between its "Round Up" pesticides and cancers.
The Guardian reports on internal records that it obtained from the center's operations from 2015-2017, which document the company's "multi-pronged" plan to discredit Reuters journalist Carey Gillam ahead of the publication of Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science, her book on the subject, in which the company drafted "third party talking points" to be fed to people who were not publicly associated with the company, who could then repeat the points in the press as though they had come from disinterested parties.
The company also bought Google ads targeted against Gillam's name that redirected searchers to smear pages.
The memos reveal that the company spied on Canadian folk legend Neil Young and contemplated how they could neutralize his environmental activism, including an aborted plan to sue him. They also targeted the US nonprofit US Right to Know, with weekly reports for execs on the organization's activities.
The documents reveal that company's top execs fretted that any disclosure of the firm's financial relationship with supposedly neutral scientists could be a source of scandal.
Monsanto was acquired by German chemical giant Bayer in 2018, after which the new owners retired the "Monsanto" name, believing it to be in worse public odor than "Bayer," a company notorious for having manufactured the poison gas used to murder millions of Jews and others in Nazi death camps.
Quote:The fusion center also produced detailed graphs on the Twitter activity of Neil Young, who released an album in 2015 called the Monsanto Years. The center “evaluated the lyrics on his album to develop a list of 20+ potential topics he may target” and created a plan to “proactively produce content and response preparedness”, a Monsanto official wrote in 2015, adding it was “closely monitoring discussions” about a concert featuring Young, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews.
“We have reached out to the legal team and are keeping them informed of Neil’s activities in case any legal action is appropriate,” the email said.
Plus:
Monsanto parent Bayer said to propose $8 billion settlement over Roundup claims
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/monsanto-pa...te-claims/
Since Bayer bought Roundup's maker Monsanto last year, the German chemical giant has lost three high-profile court cases over the chemical's possible link to cancer.
Investors have fled Bayer over concerns about its potential liabilities, halving the company's stock price since its June 6, 2018, purchase of Monsanto. In its most recent annual report, Bayer said it expects more lawsuits to emerge.