Doug Gurian-Sherman's ​part two of a two part series on the influence of money in agricultural research.

Money Talks, Muffling Dissenters →

In conjunction with the huge amounts of biotech industry money pouring into public universities has come the intimidation of scientists who criticize or question the development of biotechnology. A result has been the relative silence of academic scientists who have concerns about biotechnology or its development. The result of biotech industry money therefore seems to be not only an amplification of industry-friendly academic voices, with their ability to lend credibility to biotech, but also the likely reduction of academic scientist perspectives that could counter industry arguments.

Some of this has been well documented in articles such as those in the journalsNatureand Nature Biotechnology several years ago. One young scientist who was subject to such an attack by biotech industry supporters was quoted as saying, “The response we got—it went through the jugular.” In her case, this amounted to unfounded letters to the publisher of her research paper, and to the funder (the National Science Foundation) of her research, accusing her of verging on scientific misconduct.