* A USDA hotline is blowing up with complaints from government scientists about censorship of science, begging the question: Who does the USDA work for? Consumers and farmers — or Monsanto?
Last weekend’s Washington Post featured a front-page article about the mounting allegations of scientific censorship at the USDA, often to appease politically powerful agricultural companies like Monsanto.
You heard that right: when independent, government scientists produce research that threatens corporate agribusinesses, the USDA — according to at least 10 government scientists — censors the results, waters down the findings and punishes the researchers.
The poster boy of this complaint is USDA scientist Jonathan Lundgren whose scientific work showing the problems with the industrial model of agriculture, including the expanding use of pesticides with GMO production, is threatening the bottom lines of private companies selling these products, like Monsanto.