Some scientists are being threatened because they’re investigating pollution from farms. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham explains:
You can read Beeman’s original report here:
Transcript
Some scientists are being threatened because they’re investigating pollution from farms. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Bosses have blocked scientists from making findings public about pollution and agriculture. In
some cases, anonymous phone calls have threatened the lives of researchers. Perry Beeman is a
reporter for the Des Moines Register. He’s documented several instances where the powerful
farm lobby seems to be pressuring scientists to only reveal positive aspects of farming activities.
“In some people’s view there is a growing trend toward pressure on scientists who are doing
objective research, but are running into situations where they either cannot publish their findings
or are told that they can’t do the research at all.”
Beeman says there’s quite a bit of criticism that the U.S. Department of Agriculture and some
Universities are too close to the farm lobby and the result is affecting objective research.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.