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Saturday, January 14, 2006
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FUMENTO MORI Another one bites the dust. Via James Woolcott, who got it via Editor and Publisher, the writer Michael Fumento has followed Doug Bandow into shill obscurity. His news service has dropped him: The Jan. 5 column by Michael Fumento about new biotechnology products from Monsanto should have included more information. We believe the column should have disclosed a $60,000 grant from Monsanto that Fumento received in 1999 for a book about biotechnology. Fumento's column will no longer be distributed by Scripps Howard News Service… The ickiest aspect of this case is the language of Fumento’s Monsanto column itself. By nature a combative and not bad writer, Fumento here virtually reveals all by himself -- by his prose -- his money bondage to Monsanto. Just listen: Currently, almost all biotech crops reduce the use of either insecticides or herbicides. Upcoming Monsanto products, however, more effectively kill pests and even combine the two traits. The Agriculture Department has just approved one that protects corn against both weeds and rootworms..…..[Monsanto’s] pipeline represents a fraction of what the biotech industry as a whole -- large companies and small, here and abroad -- will bring to your supper table. These are truly exciting times for producers, consumers, and those who care about the environment. This corpse-prose could have been picked up word for word from a Monsanto ad in The Economist. |