Genetic Literacy Project Posted 5 years ago under Uncategorized

A GMO lobbying outfit funded by Monsanto, the “Genetic Literacy Project” is run by its Executive Director, the infamous Jon Entine, the world’s leading biotech shill and character assassination operative. Sporting financial ties to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, (1) Entine is a media-savvy corporate propagandist (2) and pseudo-journalist who uses the Genetic Literacy Project (GLP) website to front the opinions and positions of chemical-agriculture corporations while pretending to be an independent journalist. Entine also plays a key role in another industry front group known as the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH)(4), which is another thinly-veiled corporate front group that Sourcewatch has labeled as an environmental hazard apologist group that accepts funding from Coca-Cola, Pepsico, Kellogg, General Mills, and the American Beverage Association. The Genetic Literacy Project knowingly and repeatedly publishes false information about GMOs in their never-ending attempt to brainwash consumers into thinking genetically modified food crops are not a major detriment to human health and the environment. The GLP website participates in revenge journalism and character assassination attempts for any person or group that criticizes GMOs and chemical agriculture practices. Jon Entine has no science background to speak of, but enlists the help of public scientists, academics and “sell out” journalists, like himself, who will say and write anything Monsanto suggests, as revealed in thousands of emails recently dredged up by the U.S. Right to Know group via their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests available right here. (3)

Per the GLP website, there is plenty of jargon, buzz words, lingo and intellectual-sounding slogans that help propagandize the practice of inserting the genes of toxic pesticides in America’s staple crop, such as corn, soy, canola, cottonseed and sugar beets.

Biotechnology or “agri-chemical-technology” is warping farming, mutating food and infecting medicine. No longer can the American consumer walk into a grocery or supermarket and blindly choose from fruits, vegetables and packaged goods and expect to get quality food that’s not infused with deadly pesticides, including herbicides, insecticides and fungicides. Food security is at an all-time high threat level, and websites like GLP fully intend to convolute the truth about this synthetic biology that’s dominating the food supply and feeding the (preventable) food-driven diseases, disorders and epidemics, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, fibromyalgia, autism spectrum disorder, osteoporosis and arthritis. Genetic engineering is leading to unintended consequences and major ethical challenges, and Jon Entine’s job is to cover all of this up with rhetoric and twisted industry jargon.

GMOs are NOT an advancement of science, but a health and environmental detriment

Though the advancement of science realms such as surgery, space exploration and microbiology are beneficial to humans, national security and the environment, respectively, biotechnology refers to using chemicals to fight off insects, weeds and fungus while polluting the food supply and killing plants, farm animals and human beings alike. This is not an advancement of science, and it is the ultimate goal of GLP to dissuade and coerce concerned consumers otherwise. Functioning as a part of the Science Literacy Project, the GLP is supposed to promote public awareness of science literacy, as they accept donations from several sources. Under the “biotechnology” dropdown menu on the GLP website, it states that genetics has been used to “improve agriculture, food production and medicine” for thousands of years, but transgenics means that plants or animals now carry foreign genes that have been deliberately inserted into their genome using recombinant DNA methodology, which does NOT happen in Mother nature. Herein lies the danger of inserting chemicals into food or deforming animals or humans, since this “technology” is only in its infancy. Entine and his cohorts’ (6) (7) (8) main goal is to confuse concerned consumers with industry lingo and quell their fears so they will support this dangerous, unchartered technology. Some recent article headlines on GLP include, “Eating local proving not sustainable” and “Future biotech needs to address public fears, doubts.”

Then, GLP includes and provides external resources and links that further support their propaganda, in order to look official, sourced and reliable. These other propaganda websites include “Biology Fortified” or (Biofortified), the GMO Pundit David Tribe, the exposed “public scientist” and Monsanto huckster from University of Florida–Kevin Folta, Discover’s biotech shill Keith Kloor, and blogs by Grist’s Nathanael Johnson.

GLP’s favorite motto is that GM foods are a “key tool in helping to address the challenge of feeding a growing and more prosperous population, and improving the global standard of living today and for future generations.” This is pure propaganda, as the only way GMOs address population concerns is by killing off millions of humans with diseases and disorders caused by consuming chemical pesticides. This is something Bill Gates endorses, including using vaccinations, per his own speech at a TED conference. (5)

In actuality, the use of GMOs costs farmers even more money than conventional methods of farming, compromises the global standard of living for future generations, cripples companies as they must rely 100% on biotech corporations for seeds and toxic herbicides, propels the growth of superweeds and the infestation of superbugs that are now immune to the very toxic pesticides that the crops are infused with by companies like Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, Dupont, BASF, Cargill and Syngenta. This is a total compromise of global food security and puts the health of millions of people at high risk. Top it off with the fact that GM seeds die every year and must be replaced with new ones. Plus, GMOs can raise greenhouse gas emissions as more and more corporations use the CAFO methods of raising animals, where they keep them indoors and feed them GM feed, synthetic growth hormones and treat them unethically. Nothing about GMO is sustainable or healthy, but websites like GLP are constructed and maintained to push the exact opposite perception.

Even just a few altered genes or traits can lead to irreversible, contagious pest and plant diseases. Scientists, biologists and farmers have discovered GM traits in fields that never grew GMO and where GMO is not even legal to grow. Humans should not even be consuming rapeseed (canola), yet 90% of US canola is GMO. Currently, there are over 400 million acres of GM crops worldwide. GM seeds are banned in Europe and Russia now, where the governments are trying to protect their people from disease and disorder, but in the United States, where healthcare is a total sham, GMO is pushed and pushed hard via propaganda websites like the Genetic Literacy Project.

Because GMOs decrease the productivity of land, they increase the amount of land needed to farm and use the chemicals, water, energy and greenhouse gas emissions needed to produce food.

Jon Entine–the World’s #1 GMO Propagandist and Monsanto “Poster Boy”

The main header slogan at GLP reads, “Science trumps Ideology,” because Jon Entine would have everyone believe that genetic engineering is a responsible science that’s backed by safety testing, when it most certainly is not. In fact, Entine, who is not a scientist and has NO SCIENCE CREDENTIALS of which to speak, wrote a pro-chemical book for Monsanto promoting the highly controversial and carcinogenic broadleaf herbicide called Atrazine. That book was funded by none other than the ACSH, American Council on Science and Health, yet the only credentials Entine holds are his BA in philosophy and prior experience as the NBC News producer, decades ago. Entine, a former writer at Forbes.com, is a hired gun by Monsanto (10) and Syngenta. He’s made a career out of flacking for GMOs and is the public face of Monsanto’s media campaign to present GMO food as some sort of holy grail. To parallel his lies and deceit in journalism, Entine remains embattled in a bitter seven-year divorce during which he engaged in highly questionable behavior, including choking his wife in front of his teenage daughter, per court documents. At one point during the divorce, Entine’s ex-wife pleaded with the court to demand a psychiatric evaluation of Jon Entine. (9)

Jon Entine, GLP and ACSH – receptacles for pharma and biotech payments

ACSH, much like GLP, describes itself as a consumer education organization that addresses public concerns with food safety, but both organizations solicit funding from corporations that push toxic food and toxic farming practices. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader described ACSH as a “consumer front organization for its business backers” that has “seized the language and style of the existing consumer organizations, but its real purpose, you say, is to glove the hand that feeds it.” These rogue organizations are chemical-pesticide apologists that defend the use of Roundup, DDT, 2-4D and Agent Orange. They refer to environmentalist groups as “food terrorists,” arguing that their concerns and criticisms about GMO health and environmental risks are in themselves threats to society, as if infusing chemicals into food crops can somehow save the world from famine and drought.

Both GLP and ACSH promote junk food and junk science and the main collaborators have been indicted for fraud, abuse and felonies. Case in point: Dr. Gilbert Ross, the medical director of ACSH, (11) served several years in FEDERAL PRISON and had his medical license revoked for Medicaid fraud, racketeering, mail fraud and conspiracy.

Science hacks back GLP and ACSH

From Dr. Henry Miller to Jon Entine and from Dr. Gilbert Ross to the FDA “Food Czar” Michael Taylor, the list of industry hacks and cons is long, but very important to the missions of GLP and ACHS, which is to instill a false sense of faith in processed food and genetically modified organisms in food. There is a laundry list of corporate “donors” that help ACSH and GLP publicize their auspicious agenda of promoting chemical agriculture to help feed the world. True science-based research does not rely on industry-funded studies because they are often biased, corrupted and influenced by money rather than honest results. Before YOU go believing what industry hacks post on “science-based” websites like Genetic Literacy Project, investigate the “characters” and their histories of corruption, deceit, violence, and quackery. You’ll be surprised at the sheer volume of documents that prove these people are complete hucksters, charlatans and shills for the biotech industry in general. (12)

Sources:

(1) http://therefusers.com/refusers-newsroom/meet-jon-entine-pro-monsanto-gmo-activist-and-pro-bill-gates-activist/#.VhJ07kmq9zM

(2) http://www.propagandists.org/propagandists/jon-entine/

(3) https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2303691-kevin-folta-uoffloridadocs.html#document/p10/a237532

(4) http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Council_on_Science_and_Health

(5) http://www.naturalnews.com/029911_vaccines_bill_gates.html

(6) http://www.truthwiki.org/dr-gilbert-ross/

(7) http://www.truthwiki.org/jon_entine/

(8) http://www.truthwiki.org/keith-kloor-gmo-advocate/

(9) http://www.naturalnews.com/047685_Jon_Entine_violence_against_women_hate_speech.html#ixzz3nhJGKuZ5

(10) http://www.truthwiki.org/monsanto/

(11) http://www.truthwiki.org/the_american_council_on_science_and_health/

(12) http://gmwatch.org/news/latest-news/16438-new-report-probes-pro-gmo-journalists