This Just In: Whistleblower Speaks Out Against USDA, Corruption & Systemic Pesticides
—This post is courtesy of Honey Colony. (Original publish date December 17, 2015), Shared with permission—
Whistleblower: USDA Suppressed Findings
Dr. Jonathan Lundgren, a respected expert on the risk assessment of pesticides and genetically modified crops, worked for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research (ARS) for more than a decade. But when his findings on the ill effects of systemic pesticides and RNAi on pollinators began to gain traction and visibility, the harassment and punishments did as well.
The 40-year-old agro-ecologist and entomologist hoped that if he kept his head down, the increasing aggression would dissipate. But it didn’t. His scientific work continued to be disrupted along with his ability to communicate with other colleagues and the press.
Ultimately the coercion and intimidation derailed Lundgren’s career trajectory and he stepped down as lead scientist and lab supervisor.
Are political officials suppressing and altering scientific findings and conclusions that don’t jive with industry interests?
“USDA is blocking science,” affirms Lundgren, “and I refused to be silenced.”
On behalf of Lundgren, The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed an official Whistleblower complaint.
“Censorship of public agency science does not affect only scientists –it concerns the public at large as well as every entity relying upon the integrity of USDA science,” stated PEER executive director, Jeff Ruch. “USDA cannot piously pledge its devotion to scientific integrity while at the same rebuffing any attempts to safeguard it.”
Separately PEER has also filed a lawsuit against the USDA to strengthen its Scientific Integrity Policy. The suit targets official restraints on USDA scientists who publish or speak about their findings in peer-reviewed journals, before professional societies, and other unofficial settings.
In a letter dated June 11, 2015, USDA chief scientist Catherine Wotecki wrote that the agency refused to consider the substance of the petition because scientific integrity only affected its “internal personnel rules and practices” and was therefore exempt from the public notice and comment process normally required of agency rules.
Sublethal Low Level Harassment
Neonicotinoid seed treatments, manufactured by Bayer and Syngenta, have been harming honeybees since they were introduced on the marketplace in the mid ‘90s. They are the most widely used insecticides with sales of about $2.6 billion. Today they’ve infected our soil, waterways, and have even been fond in or blood stream. They’re harming our pollinators as well as developing human brains.
Lundgren’s troubles began around March of 2015 when he submitted an article to the scientific journal Naturwissenschaften (The Science of Nature) ; his data illustrated that the seed treatment and systemic pesticide Clothianidin kills monarch butterfly larvae in the laboratory, and that these pesticides were found in milkweed plants (the only food source for developing larvae) under field conditions.
Several months after Lundrgen’s article was published, his direct supervisor Sharon Papiernik confronted him and informed him that the paper shouldn’t have been submitted without “official” approval. She was also visibly upset that he’d conducted a radio interview on the topic.
“The USDA gave me the okay [to publish the study] and then after the paper drew international attention from the media, said they never did,” recalls Lundgren.
Not long after that incident, The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance scheduled Lundgren to give presentations on his research on the effects of genetically modified crops on farmland ecology. It is customary for these organizations to cover his travel expenses to Pennsylvania and Washington D.C.
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