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Threatened by Powerful Voice, Industry 'Attack Dog' Hired to Discredit Teenage Anti-GMO Activist
"The agrochemical industry is plainly quite threatened by this teenage schoolgirl, so that's why they're after her."
Dec 22, 2015
The U.S. agrochemical lobby targeted a Canadian teenager as part of its "increasingly nasty and divisive public relations war over GMOs," according to new reporting from Global News.
Rachel Parent was 14 years old when her activism around labeling genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food caught the eye of pro-GMO corporations and lobby groups.
According to emails and thousands of other pages of documents released in a freedom of information request by U.S. Right to Know (USRTK), a non-profit advocacy group funded by the Organic Consumers Association, these industry forces conspired to think of ways to discredit Parent and counter her message.
"It's mostly scientists that they attack, but Rachel is a standout," Gary Ruskin, the co-director of USRTK, told Global News. "The agrochemical industry is quite threatened by this teenage schoolgirl, so that's why they're after her."
The news outlet reports, among other things, that University of Florida professor Kevin Folta—whom Ruskin describes as "one of the principal attack dogs of the agrochemical industry"—was hired by public relations firm Ketchum to make a video about Parent.
According to Global News:
The video discussed Parent's activism, her belief that all GMO food products should be labeled, and addressed her apparent lack of scientific knowledge.
"So when I think about answering Rachel Parent, who's the activist child - well, young woman - who's running the website 'Kids Right to Know...The things I just adore about Rachel is that she's clearly very articulate, clearly intelligent," Folta said in the video.
"The problem that I have is when Rachel starts to let non-scientific thinking really kind of cloud her final decision-making process."
Parent said she finds the tone of the video "almost degrading."
A poll earlier this month commissioned by a coalition of consumer and environmental groups found that nearly 90 percent of Americans want GMO foods to be labeled.
For more, see the Global News video below:
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Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
gmosorganic consumers associationfoodagriculturegmocorporate powergmo labelingmonsantochildrenactivism
The U.S. agrochemical lobby targeted a Canadian teenager as part of its "increasingly nasty and divisive public relations war over GMOs," according to new reporting from Global News.
Rachel Parent was 14 years old when her activism around labeling genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food caught the eye of pro-GMO corporations and lobby groups.
According to emails and thousands of other pages of documents released in a freedom of information request by U.S. Right to Know (USRTK), a non-profit advocacy group funded by the Organic Consumers Association, these industry forces conspired to think of ways to discredit Parent and counter her message.
"It's mostly scientists that they attack, but Rachel is a standout," Gary Ruskin, the co-director of USRTK, told Global News. "The agrochemical industry is quite threatened by this teenage schoolgirl, so that's why they're after her."
The news outlet reports, among other things, that University of Florida professor Kevin Folta—whom Ruskin describes as "one of the principal attack dogs of the agrochemical industry"—was hired by public relations firm Ketchum to make a video about Parent.
According to Global News:
The video discussed Parent's activism, her belief that all GMO food products should be labeled, and addressed her apparent lack of scientific knowledge.
"So when I think about answering Rachel Parent, who's the activist child - well, young woman - who's running the website 'Kids Right to Know...The things I just adore about Rachel is that she's clearly very articulate, clearly intelligent," Folta said in the video.
"The problem that I have is when Rachel starts to let non-scientific thinking really kind of cloud her final decision-making process."
Parent said she finds the tone of the video "almost degrading."
A poll earlier this month commissioned by a coalition of consumer and environmental groups found that nearly 90 percent of Americans want GMO foods to be labeled.
For more, see the Global News video below:
Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
The U.S. agrochemical lobby targeted a Canadian teenager as part of its "increasingly nasty and divisive public relations war over GMOs," according to new reporting from Global News.
Rachel Parent was 14 years old when her activism around labeling genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food caught the eye of pro-GMO corporations and lobby groups.
According to emails and thousands of other pages of documents released in a freedom of information request by U.S. Right to Know (USRTK), a non-profit advocacy group funded by the Organic Consumers Association, these industry forces conspired to think of ways to discredit Parent and counter her message.
"It's mostly scientists that they attack, but Rachel is a standout," Gary Ruskin, the co-director of USRTK, told Global News. "The agrochemical industry is quite threatened by this teenage schoolgirl, so that's why they're after her."
The news outlet reports, among other things, that University of Florida professor Kevin Folta—whom Ruskin describes as "one of the principal attack dogs of the agrochemical industry"—was hired by public relations firm Ketchum to make a video about Parent.
According to Global News:
The video discussed Parent's activism, her belief that all GMO food products should be labeled, and addressed her apparent lack of scientific knowledge.
"So when I think about answering Rachel Parent, who's the activist child - well, young woman - who's running the website 'Kids Right to Know...The things I just adore about Rachel is that she's clearly very articulate, clearly intelligent," Folta said in the video.
"The problem that I have is when Rachel starts to let non-scientific thinking really kind of cloud her final decision-making process."
Parent said she finds the tone of the video "almost degrading."
A poll earlier this month commissioned by a coalition of consumer and environmental groups found that nearly 90 percent of Americans want GMO foods to be labeled.
For more, see the Global News video below:
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