Vandana Shiva is coming to my hometown to lie.
Not cool.
For those unaware, Shiva is one of the world’s most famous anti-GMO activists, hailing from India. She’s giving a speech on Monday, April 16, at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where I did a year of my undergrad. I found out that the university got a “good deal” since they had flexible scheduling for her, and Shiva is being paid just under $20,000 to speak.
How would you feel if someone was paid tens of thousands of dollars to lie about your occupation? As farmers, she has not been speaking the truth about what we do and claims that GMOs are poison, we are drenching our fields in chemicals, Monsanto has control over us in ag, and GMOs are killing the bees and causing farmers to commit suicide.
None of these are true and can be easily debunked, but these are popular myths that have been spread and funded by industry activists for years.
…
Fear sells, and it’s very disappointing to see farmers and scientists defamed and harassed, all with the help of folks like Shiva, and their anti-GMO industry-sponsored agenda funded with taxpayers dollars.
Read full, original post: Farm Babe: Vandana Shiva is coming to my hometown to lie
4 thoughts on “Viewpoint: Why are universities paying ‘anti-GMO liar’ Vandana Shiva tens of thousands of dollars to speak?”
Hey U of W. in fairness, please pay Kevin Folta $20,000 to present the opposite view to Shiva presentation.
Doesn’t Ms. Shiva have some association with the Maharishi TM cult? It seems that group has some sort of quasi religious basis for opposing genetic engineering that underlies their anti-GMO activism. Jeffery Smith, John Fagan and Steven Druker are notable associates of the group. There’s even some connection to Dr. Oz apparently.
Yes and Donald Trump is being paid by the Soviets.
You may have missed the news snow, the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991 so hasn’t been around for over a quarter century (although there is reason to suspect that after his multiple bankruptcies and shunning by banks that trump could have some debt to Russians).
As far as the Maharishi TM cult goes, it’s involvement in anti-GMO activism has been detailed by others.
https://medium.com/the-method/anti-biotech-gm-watchs-connections-to-maharishi-tm-cult-industry-money-2a87f21080b2
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/John_Fagan
https://www.biofortified.org/2010/12/vedic-businesses-use-clever-advertising/
As is often the case that anti-GMO folks are anti-vaccination, the school the cult supports in Fairfield Iowa is reported to have the lowest vaccination rate in that state https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/iowa-poll/2015/02/28/maharishi-school-fairfield-vaccinations/24193179/
I couldn’t find a direct connection between Shiva and the Maharishis beyond her giving a guest lecture (via skype) to their university – the Maharishi University of Management https://www.mum.edu/blog/2015/05/29/dr-vandana-shiva-sees-mum-sl-students-as-the-future/