Pew Commission - Livestock Industry Threatened Funding Cuts To Scientists Engaged In Survey - DMR

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Livestock interests tried to disrupt a wide-ranging study of their industry by threatening to yank financing for universities and scientists who assisted, a Pew Commission report released Tuesday alleges.

The 2-year study by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production concluded that the industry needs a vast overhaul that includes banning the use of antibiotics as a growth stimulant and giving local governments zoning power over often controversial developments.

"While some agriculture representatives were recommending potential authors for the technical reports to commission staff, other industrial agriculture representatives were discouraging those same authors from assisting us by threatening to withhold research funding for their college or university," commission Executive Director Robert Martin wrote in the foreword of the report. "We found significant influence by the industry at every turn: in academic research, agriculture policy development, governmental regulation and enforcement."

Farm groups said the 15-member Pew panel was tilted against them from the start. Although several farmers served on the commission, no major farm organizations were represented on the panel, they said. "There's not a lot of respect for the process," said Michael Wegner, spokesman for the Clive, Ia.-based National Pork Board. "You knew when you looked at the people who were appointed how it would come out. It wasn't one of those broad-based, 'Let's start with a blank slate' kind of things."

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http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080430/NEWS/804300391/1001