Revealed, How Monsanto targeted Neil Young and other Activists [View all]

[G_j]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/07/monsanto-fusion-center-journalists-roundup-neil-young

Revealed: how Monsanto's 'intelligence center' targeted journalists and activists

Internal documents show how the company worked to discredit critics and investigated singer Neil Young

Sam Levin in San Francisco
@SamTLevin
Thu 8 Aug 2019 01.30 EDT

Monsanto operated a “fusion center” to monitor and discredit journalists and activists, and targeted a reporter who wrote a critical book on the company, documents reveal. The agrochemical corporation also investigated the singer Neil Young and wrote an internal memo on his social media activity and music.

The records reviewed by the Guardian show Monsanto adopted a multi-pronged strategy to target Carey Gillam, a Reuters journalist who investigated the company’s weedkiller and its links to cancer. Monsanto, now owned by the German pharmaceutical corporation Bayer, also monitored a not-for-profit food research organization through its “intelligence fusion center”, a term that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies use for operations focused on surveillance and terrorism.

The documents, mostly from 2015 to 2017, were disclosed as part of an ongoing court battle on the health hazards of the company’s Roundup weedkiller. They show:

Monsanto planned a series of “actions” to attack a book authored by Gillam prior to its release, including writing “talking points” for “third parties” to criticize the book and directing “industry and farmer customers” on how to post negative reviews.
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