David Zaruk
Viewpoint: ‘Regulatory vigilantes’ — How former government scientists who are now high-paid ‘expert witnesses’ for predatory law firms use mass tort litigation to sidestep science
Regulatory risk management process allowed policymakers to govern over the last 60 years of technological and industrial development ...
Viewpoint: BPA and phthalate hysteria — Venturing out of its knowledge zone, ‘Consumer Reports’ launches anti-chemical tirade on plastic food packaging
If you want advice on which coffee maker or space heater to buy, Consumer Reports (CR) is where you go ...
Viewpoint: What is sustainability? What are pesticides? The way media and politicians define ideologically diffuse words shape policy – often for the worse
Reality is perceived by the definitions we give; the black and white lines we draw upon a grey canvas. So ...
Viewpoint: Righteous Risks — Here’s how (and why) environmental advocacy groups misrepresent the risks from innovations but cynically ignore genuine dangers
Synthetic pesticides are under constant regulatory pressure, but not organic pesticides. “Green” renewables and EVs have very little regulatory scrutiny ...
Viewpoint: Anti-biotechnology, pro-organic dark money web — Tort lawyer-funded, Charles Benbrook-created Heartland Health Research Alliance co-opts academic and government institutions to subvert independent science
The Heartland Health Research Alliance (HHRA) an ideologically-focused research groups funded by ‘dark money’ support from the organic industry and ...
Viewpoint: Crop biotechnology and chemical pseudo-science exposed — Here’s how the ‘dark money’, tort-lawyer funded Heartland Study dupes journalists and co-ops universities
Until the 1990s, research was often low-budget, done in government agencies or industry funded. But as universities acquired expensive analytical ...
Viewpoint: While environmentalists and journalists look the other way, anti-vax, pro-organic ‘dark money whore’ US Right to Know partners with organic food and tort lawyer hustlers to undermine science
In the introduction to this Firebreak series on how foundations fund activists, I noted there were a wide variety of foundations: ...
How ideological foundations and ‘dark money’ seed activist environmental movement and undermine science
Time was that non-profits were funded by their membership dues or individual donations, loose change drums at airports and clipboard ...
Viewpoint: Are ESG — environmental, social and governance — goals the next step in corporate citizenship or an activist imposition?
Corporate ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) performance measurements have recently polarised the business community. Many see it as the next ...
Viewpoint: Never heard of the Heartland Health Research Alliance? Here’s how the organic- and tort-lawyer funded sham research center generates disinformation about glyphosate and other farm chemicals
Where would science be if an influential institute today was established by tort lawyers to produce research solely for use ...
Viewpoint: Perversity activism — How European anti-biotechnology NGOs end up promoting commodity-crop farming, consolidating the seed market and undermining sustainability
One of the most attractive advantages of NGTs is the low cost of entry for innovators. Labs in developing countries ...
Viewpoint: Activists shift tactics on glyphosate, attacking independent European science-oversight agencies that have unanimously found the herbicide safe
Glyphosate ate the world! Every single day another serious disease, from all types of cancer to Parkinson’s, is attributed to ...
Glyphosate reauthorized for 10 years by divided EU
[November 16] the European Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (PAFF committee) was again unable to get a ...
Viewpoint: 15 explanations for why activists lie and try to scare people about ‘killer’ chemicals, genetically engineered crops and nuclear energy
We always hear NGOs saying that we cannot trust industry, that we have to exclude industry evidence or that industry ...
Viewpoint: How to restore public trust and regulatory fairness in the face of aggressive, coordinated disinformation efforts by anti-technology environmental activists
During my lifetime, Western societies have enjoyed innovations that have immensely improved public health and the quality of life as ...
Viewpoint: Sustainable, natural, chemical, toxic — Words used by activists to label agriculture can distort science and turn the public against sensible farming
Reality is perceived by the definitions we give; the black and white lines we draw upon a grey canvas. So, ...
Viewpoint: Simplistic anti-agrobiotech narrative — ‘Companies lie; activists are outraged; regulations are tightened further; companies lie again… Wash, rinse, repeat’
Today’s narrative has a simplistic view: Companies lie; activists are outraged; regulations are tightened further; companies lie again… Wash, rinse, ...
Viewpoint: IARC’s aspartame report echoes globally-rejected glyphosate cancer determination
Food additives like artificial sweeteners are relentlessly tested by health authorities, researchers, independent labs and activist scientists (while we rarely ...
Viewpoint: How technology-rejectionist fearmongering poisons public opinion against farmers
As other NGOs are stepping away from campaigning against gene editing, CEO is becoming the last loud voice of protest ...
Viewpoint: ‘Organic is good’? — Greenwashing propagated by environmental advocacy group lobbyists and marketing-savvy green industry
Recent draft legislation on its way to the European Parliament and Council commonly known as the Greenwashing Directive (officially the Green Claims Directive) plans ...
Mythinformation: ‘Fear campaigns from anti-biotech NGOs make it a challenge to even keep products on the market let alone introduce new technologies’
Technological innovations in plant breeding can address serious issues from climate resilience to biodiversity decline to sustainable intensification to feed ...
Viewpoint: ‘Imposing impoverishment’ — How European leadership has failed by promoting ideological solutions to sustainability challenges in farming
It is hard to find anyone with anything positive to say about 2022: economic, social, ethical, political, geopolitical success stories ...
Viewpoint: Subverting the science of crop biotechnology — Leaked document from German NGO illustrates ‘scandalous’ strategy by anti-biotech activists to manipulate the public
A leaked internal document from the German anti-biotech NGO community recently found its way to the Risk-Monger’s dusty basement. As ...
Viewpoint: Anti-chemical film polemic “Into the Weeds” is wrong on the facts but a tort lawyer’s dream. Did lawyers and the organic industry fund it?
The organic food industry lobby was in full swing in Brussels with their StopGlyphosateWeek. A collective of NGOs ran an ...
Viewpoint: How tort lawyers came to fund environmental activist fundamentalist attacks on science and agriculture
Since the period of stakeholder dialogue in the 1990s and early 2000s, environmental activists engaged in the policy process to ...
Viewpoint: How Environmental—Social—Governance (ESG) screens can be manipulated to promote misleading science and damage sustainability efforts
While the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investor point system has had a bit of a rough time over the ...
Viewpoint: Innovation vs. extreme precaution — What should drive science regulation and policy in Europe?
People like me often claim we need science-based policy. Regulations have to follow the best available evidence and European agencies ...
Viewpoint: What role should industry have in refashioning Europe’s food system?
I feel like Brussels is a puzzle where the pieces keep changing. The best way to start a puzzle is ...