In het
hieronder opgenomen artikel geschreven door Zach Boren en Arthur
Neslen op Unearthed, een ‘onafhankelijk’ journalistiek forum dat
‘wordt gefinancierd door Greenpeace donateurs’ (behoorlijk vaag,
kortom een project van Greenpeace, maar goed…), aandacht voor de
totstandkoming in het EU parlement van de verlenging van de vergunning voor het levensgevaarlijke gif glyfosaat, onderdeel van Roundup t.b.v. de landbouw (dus ook voor tuinders) en
dat met een periode van 5 jaar……..

Ongelofelijk
weer dat men in de EU zo speelt met mensenlevens en smerige
gifmengers als Bayer, sinds kort de eigenaar van Monsanto, door laat
gaan met het vergiftigen van de EU consumenten en het verder laten uitsterven van insecten (de laatste 30 jaar met 75%!! Insecten waaronder de grote bestuivers als bijen, zonder wie de mens het kan vergeten…..)…… 

Benieuwd
hoeveel geld er is uitgeloofd door Bayer/Monsanto voor deze beslissing, geld waar men nog
even af moet blijven, totdat men een paar jaar uit de
politiek is…….. (hoewel een dik betaalde baan ook tot de mogelijkheden behoort)

Het
geteisem dat hier voor heeft gestemd in de EU (o.a. ‘GroenLinks’
hufter Bas Eickhout), zou samen met de fabrikant
strafrechtelijk moeten worden vervolgd……….

How
lobbyists for Monsanto led a ‘grassroots farmers’ movement
against an EU glyphosate ban

Irish
PR firm Red Flag effectively mobilised farmers in its ‘freedom to
farm’ campaign

Monsanto
was bought by German agrochemical company Bayer earlier this year.
Photo: Adam Berry/Getty Images

Irish
PR firm Red Flag effectively mobilised farmers in its ‘freedom to
farm’ campaign

17.10.2018
Zach
Boren and Arthur Neslen

American
agrochemical giant Monsanto paid a public-affairs consultancy up
to €200,000
to set up a ‘grassroots farmers’ operation across Europe to
oppose a prospective EU ban on glyphosate, Unearthed has
learned.

Glyphosate
is a key ingredient in Monsanto’s signature Roundup weedkiller.

Dublin-based
political firm Red
Flag Consulting led
the pro-glyphosate campaign, quietly launching a wide-reaching PR
drive and enlisting the support of thousands of farmers from stands
at agricultural fairs in “the eight most important EU countries.”

In
contemporaneous reviews seen
by Unearthed,
sales representatives working at the booths said that their job
involved distributing “truth-clarification
materials” about
glyphosate, and gathering contact information and signatures.

In
recent promotional literature Red Flag describes how it “won the
single-biggest regulatory and public affairs campaign in the European
Union,” using “non-traditional allies” in an attempt to change
the positions of eight countries in the EU.

“Red
Flag leveraged these efforts on identified targets through media and
direct engagement to ultimately change votes in a key committee in
Brussels to bring about a win for our client,” one brochure says.
The firm did not confirm whether these claims referred to its work on
glyphosate.

The
firm’s campaign was run in tandem with a US consultancy, Lincoln
Strategy, that worked on Donald Trump’s
2016 presidential campaign.

While
Monsanto mostly uses Fleishman Hillard for its PR work in
Brussels, Unearthed has established that they
accepted an approach from Red Flag to orchestrate the influence
drive, which was run at arm’s length from the firm.

Red
Flag’s other big
spending clients include
US biotech company Anitox, which has been described as “extremely
active”
in its support of glyphosate in the EU, and British American
Tobacco (BAT), according
to the EU transparency register.

“Monsanto
must have been desperate to use these methods,” Green Belgium MEP
Bart Staes told Unearthed.

“It
really is a scandal. Sadly, this is fully in line with Monsanto’s
behaviour throughout the whole glyphosate [relicensing] campaign.”

A
spokesperson for Monsanto confirmed to Unearthed that
it –  along with a ”coalition of users and manufacturers of
glyphosate and other plant protection products” – supported the
Red Flag project.

“Thousands
of farmers across Europe have supported this initiative and made
their voices heard in support of maintaining access to this vital for
modern and sustainable agriculture,” the spokesperson added.

Credit:
Agriculture et Liberte

Agriculture
et Liberte

Red
Flag’s contribution to the campaign involved setting up entities
such as Agriculture
et Liberte in
France, described by industry insiders as “a grassroots farming
coalition.”

The
firm’s CEO, Karl Brophy, said this was not a lobbying exercise.

Instead
he told Unearthed Red
Flag provided “factual information about the science on glyphosate”
to farmers and other individuals who “elected to be educated” and
who then “made their concerns known in their own voices and by
their own volition.”

Reference
to Agriculture et Liberte’s industry support can be found in a
bulletin point at the bottom of their
website.

But
there is no mention of Red Flag – or its industry funding – on
the group’s twitter
account,
which describes itself as “a group of French farmers who have come
together to protect our way of life and livelihoods,” nor in
its press
coverage.

Unearthed has
identified similar entities in six other EU countries that appear to
be the localised branding in Red Flag’s ‘freedom to farm’
campaign. 

It
includes the names Free to Farm in the UK, Liberta di coltivare in
Italy, Raum für Landwirtschaft in Germany, Libertad para consultar
in Spain, Rolnictwo Dobrej Praktyki in Poland* and Vrijheid om te
Boeren in the Netherlands**.

These
outfits – which are often registered to Red Flag’s Dublin address
and an email account belonging to a Lincoln Strategy staffer – have
appeared or are due to appear at 33
events since the start of 2017.

Brophy
told Unearthed he
does “not recognise a number of the groups you appear to be
referring to,” but declined to elaborate. There had been no attempt
to conceal the involvement of Red Flag or Lincoln Strategy, he said.

“Monsanto
wants it to appear as though farmers are independently speaking out
to support continued use of this chemical, when in reality these
‘farmer’ groups are actually little more than pawns in a public
relations campaign drawn up by its hired spin agents,” said Carey
Gillam, investigative journalist and author of Whitewash,
which details Monsanto’s history and the rise of glyphosate
herbicides.

“It
has used these tactics in countries around the world to try to sway
public opinion in support of its products, to downplay risks to human
health and the environment, and to pressure and harass scientists and
lawmakers who Monsanto perceives as a threat. It is well past time
that these secrets are exposed.”

Red
Flag ran the campaigns with assistance from Lincoln Strategy, whose
northern Europe director Daisy Odabasi was quoted as
representing Agriculture et Liberte in one newspaper article.

Unlike
Red Flag, Lincoln does not have an EU transparency listing.
Lincoln’s staff
email accounts were
used in Red Flag’s campaign as part of its role “providing
logistical and operational support to the project.”

A
Lincoln spokesperson said all of the firm’s campaigns – including
its work in support of clean coal –  “rely solely on sharing
information with genuine citizens and encouraging them to make their
voices heard on topics that are important to them.”

Credit: Agriculture et Liberte

Health
concerns

The
effects of glyphosate on farmers and gardeners who come into contact
with it have been contentious ever since the World Health
Organisation’s agency on cancer labelled
the substance “probably carcinogenic” in
2015.

In
August, a US court ordered
Monsanto to pay $289 million in
damages to a groundskeeper who claimed he contracted Non-Hodgkin’s
Lymphoma from using Roundup, a landmark decision that could trigger
an avalanche of similar verdicts in further cases.

Health
concerns were at the heart of the EU’s apparent reticence to
reauthorise glyphosate, although reports from regulatory agencies
claimed that the chemical was safe.

Ultimately
while the pesticides industry did not succeed in renewing
glyphosate’s 15-year license in Europe – it was cut down to five
years – a complete ban was averted.

In
a lengthy statement supplied to UK
news outlet The
Independent, Brophy
said:

“Red
Flag is an agency with a number of clients in the food and
agriculture sectors and a wide network of contacts in the
agricultural community. We worked to bring a number of our clients
and contacts together in order to help those people who would be most
affected by a potential glyphosate ban – the  farmers who
produce Europe’s food.”

“We
are grateful to several clients for supporting the project.  But
it was the farmers who stood to lose most if an activist-led campaign
to ban glyphosate – flying in the face of science, the position of
all relevant EU regulatory agencies and the position of the European
Commission – was successful.  And it was the farmers who
responded to the threat.

“Last
November, a very large majority of European Union countries voted to
re-authorise glyphosate. We’re proud to have played a small part in
providing the information that was used by many committed individuals
to stand up for their livelihoods, their communities and for the
future of Europe’s food supply.”

* A
previous version said the Polish campaign’s name was ‘Wolsnosc
Dla Farm’

** De schrijvers vergissen zich volgens mij, het gaat hier niet om de naam van  organisaties, maar om de naam die de petitie kreeg voor het behoud van het kankerverwekkende glyfosaat…. In Nederland wordt deze petitie door Boerderij.nl gevoerd onder de naam ‘Vrijheid om te Boeren‘ (‘vrijheid’ om de consument, de insecten en de aarde in haar geheel te vergiftigen met kankerverwekkende troep)…… Zie wat dit betreft ook de noot van de Unearthed schrijvers hier direct boven.