American taxpayers have been unknowingly financing a clandestine campaign to smear chemical pesticide activists.
This is according to a year-long investigation by Lighthouse Reports, an investigative journalism outlet that was able to infiltrate an influential public relations (PR) company that operates to suppress opposition to the $78 billion global pesticide manufacturing industry.
The United States-based PR firm in question, v-Fluence, reportedly created hundreds of profiles on scientists, pesticide campaigners and authors to smear them as part of an anti-science "protest industry" with support from U.S. taxpayer funding.
These profiles are disseminated on a private social media network known as "Bonus Eventus," which provides privileged entry to people associated with the agrochemical industry and allows government agencies and some of the world's largest pesticide corporations to recognize the people to avoid.
There are reportedly profiles on people from over 3,000 organizations, including around 500 people who are vocally opposed to pesticides and genetically modified organisms. The profiles come from all over the world and include scientists, human rights experts from the United Nations, environmentalists and journalists.
Most of the profiles reveal personal information about the subjects, like their home addresses and telephone numbers, and spotlight subjects that can be used to discredit their work.
Members of the private social network include more than 30 current government officials, most of them belonging to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Bonus Eventus is the creation of v-Fluence and its head Jay Byrne, a former communications executive with agrochemical giant Monsanto.
Government has been funding v-Fluence for over a decade to promote GMOs
The Lighthouse Reports investigation also highlighted that the U.S. government financed v-Fluence as part of its program to promote GMOs in Africa and Asia.
Around 2013 and 2019, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funneled over $400,000 to v-Fluence for services along with "enhanced monitoring" of critics of "modern agriculture approaches" and to set up Bonus Eventus. (Related: Common pesticides CANNOT be washed off your fruit – these chemicals penetrate through the skin and into the pulp.)
"We received a tip that the U.S. government had been involved in an attempt to sabotage a scientific conference in Nairobi, Kenya, that showcased sustainable solutions to pesticides. FOIA requests revealed extensive correspondence between U.S. civil servants, a Kenyan NGO, a pesticide executive and a company, v-Fluence, about how to subvert the event. How was everyone on this email chain connected? We dug into the rather obscure v-Fluence to learn more," the Lighthouse Reports stated.
Emerging from a money-trails analysis and public spending record searches were USAID contracts presented to v-Fluence to build a private social network.
Open-source research, documents obtained from Freedom of Information Act requests and interviews with many people acquainted with v-Fluence's work also showed the amount of profiling done by the company's private social network and a membership list, which comprised U.S. government employees, agrichemical executives and regulators from various parts of the world.
Additional emails, received through FOIA requests, disclosed how the company worked with American government officials to weaken anti-pesticide movements.
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