We have published several articles on this case, including ” The v-Fluence Straw and Mr. Jay Byrne… and the Beam of Mr. Stéphane Foucart and Le Monde .”
Let us recall that v-Fluence is a small media and political monitoring company, and information company on, mainly, modern agricultural chemistry and genetics – pesticides and GMOs to put it simply. It has been implicated in the United States of America in civil liability litigation in which the main defendant is Syngenta . Disputes that can be described as attempts at extortion through legal channels.
Reminder: You file a case with lawyers who handle a class action if you have Parkinson’s disease and have handled paraquat. It’s free . If the case is successful, you hit the jackpot … and the lawyers hit the super jackpot.
The predatory lawyers’ maneuvers are similar to those implemented against Bayer-Monsanto regarding glyphosate and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma: to compensate for the weakness of the substantive cases, they use the argument of lack of information and, above all, they blacken the company’s reputation to influence juries. It has – according to the attack strategy – hidden things…
This is where v-Fluence comes in . It is said to have helped cover up or downplay the links between the herbicide Paraquat and Parkinson’s disease. This is false, because it is outside the scope of v-Fluence ‘s activities , but it has a collateral benefit – in fact, the main benefit for some of the pack of pursuers: silencing a news outlet on events of interest to those in the service of modern agriculture, including the turpitudes of the anti-GMO and anti-pesticide activist world.
There are two ways to dry up your finances.
On the one hand, American discovery procedures and FOIA ( Freedom of Information Act ) requests are time-consuming and ” dollar-intensive ” – lawyers do not work for free.
On the other hand, bad buzz encourages customers to turn away from a company that has become sulphurous – especially not to get splashed and also become a target… As Mr. David Zaruk reported to us in “Bonus Eventus : Requiem for a Communication Warrior“, the maneuver was effective.
For the bad buzz , it was of course necessary to have complacent media outlets – in fact, accomplices – and activists with jobs and journalist cards. In France, unsurprisingly, Le Monde and Mr. Stéphane Foucart.
But this is only the last link in a complex chain.
Let’s follow the adage: “Follow the money“…
At the top, therefore, presumably, a generous anonymous donor who insisted on remaining so…
…who makes a designated donation – that is, one with instructions on how it will be used ( example ) – of $800,000 to the Oak Foundation …
…which gives this sum to a company, Lighthouse Reports , a ” non-profit international investigative newsroom ” ( well… the surplus is very comfortable in 2023) incorporated in the form of a Stichting in the Netherlands, a haven in terms of corporate and tax law (well, what? That doesn’t stop it from carrying out ” public interest investigations “, particularly on ” corruption “…).
…which is therefore responsible – in theory – for carrying out an investigation into v-Fluence …
…but which, in fact, essentially relays elements taken from the legal proceedings launched against Syngenta and v-Fluence by the predatory lawyers – having been formally advised that these elements are false…
…who complacently – well, it’s obviously not disinterested… – provided these elements to Ms. Carey Gillam , formerly a journalist at Reuters , then an activist at US Right to Know (founded by the Organic Consumer Association ) and a key figure in the media manipulations in the Bayer-Monsanto and glyphosate affairs, now managing editor of The New Lede (a sort of media outlet of the Environmental Working Group ) and a key figure in the media manipulations in the Syngenta and paraquat affairs , and v-Fluence …
…which publishes these elements on the “Poison PR” page of The New Lede ‘s website , in articles on the said website as well as in the Guardian (some sections of which are financed by… the Oak Foundation …), where it has its napkin ring…
…elements that are found in the articles of media partners to which activist journalists (or activist journalists) will have added some elements of a national or regional nature, which allows them to claim that they have done or contributed to investigative journalism work.
So there was a first salvo of three articles in September 2024 (in other countries, such as Canada , the “honorable” correspondents were content with just one…):
- “Revelations about the large-scale profiling of people who are embarrassing to the agrochemical industry“;
- “Diving into the black box of global pesticide propaganda”;
- “How the Trump administration tried to torpedo the European Green Deal, between disinformation and influence“
On February 12, 2025, still under the signature of the trio Stéphane Foucart, Elena DeBre and Margot Gibbs (the latter two from Lighthouse Reports ), Le Monde published “Criticized for the profiling of opponents of GMOs and pesticides, the company v-Fluence ceases its “profiling“ activities.”
“Implication…“? This didn’t go far beyond the uproar caused by the motley coalition of activists and their useful idiots (let’s mention here Reporters Without Borders , financed by… the Oak Foundation …). But in France, it was written by Le Monde , a newspaper with an excellent reputation (irony), concerned, as we shall see again, with the reputation of third parties (irony again).
The intro is also particularly – let’s say… – daring:
“This American consulting firm had set up a platform to share personal information about scientists and activists critical of GMOs or plant protection products with its agribusiness clients. ”
No, this company had set up a database—which it had assembled itself—on the actors—individuals and legal entities—in the field of GMOs and plant protection products, regardless of the orientation (for or against) of these actors. This is, or was, “profiling,” as indicated in the title of the article. And it was profiling not limited to personal information (although it may have contained some that was inappropriate).
V-Fluence has therefore removed this service for fear of being attacked on this point too… What a great deal… worthy of an article in the renowned newspaper Le Monde …
Elsewhere in its article, Le Monde described this service as “filing“… with, of course, a dystopian description of the content of the files, as well as the company’s ” clients ” (reminder: I was invited to benefit from the services).
The files were therefore often erroneous, even harmful…
They involved “around 500 public figures – researchers, community activists, political leaders, and United Nations experts – considered critical of intensive agriculture.” Le Monde therefore provides proof through… two testimonies.
So here is Tyrone Hayes, a very controversial academic (professor at UC Berkeley) who was hired in 1998 by Novartis (the agrochemical part of the company is now Syngenta ) – as part of a subcontract between UC Berkeley and his wife’s company (but the setup could be more complicated) – to study the effects of atrazine on amphibians. He found a negative effect (an induction of hermaphroditism – and in the activist media, there is talk of frogs becoming gay).
The outcome was apparently not to Syngenta ‘s liking , and relations became extremely tumultuous (details, including a detailed timeline, can be found in this highly critical article on the actions of both companies and regulators, produced by one of the protagonists in this affair). Clearly, each side had contributed…
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Le Monde writes:
“I have never been paid as an expert witness or consultant by anyone, and I have never received any salary, income, or consulting fees from any NGO, ” Mr. Hayes corrects.
There’s nothing on the internet to contradict this statement. But it’s limited to a question of remuneration, obscuring the much more important issue of activities. A fine implicit fallacy…
There was, of course, a class action lawsuit against Syngenta , regarding atrazine levels in drinking water supplies. The case ended in a settlement in May 2012 ($105 million, with Syngenta denying liability). Tyrone Hayes’ work is said to have played a significant role. We won’t learn more: there were no strategies of the kind illustrated by the Monsanto Papers and the current maneuvers yet.
And when it comes to NGOs (some of them), Tyrone Hayes can be described as a “fellow traveler.”
We noted on this blog his participation in June 2019 in Nairobi, in the “All-Africa Congress on Synthetic Pesticides“ , a veritable enterprise of demolition of conventional agriculture in favor of organic farming. He did not go there unwittingly, of his own free will, in all naivety…
So it’s a bit short and quite problematic for the article in Le Monde .
Dave Goulson is an even more committed fellow traveler of the activist nebula; he was proudly a trustee of Pesticide Action Network UK and president of Pesticide Free Scotland , and for example co-produced a document for Greenpeace . With him, we change register and move on to conspiracy theories and the reductio ad Monsantum:
“Biologist Dave Goulson, a professor at the University of Sussex (UK), explains, for example, that the material collected in his file came from” blogs run by people funded directly or indirectly by Monsanto , now Bayer , or other agribusiness giants ” and regularly reappeared on social media “ amplified by others, in what appears to be a coordinated method .” ” These are simply smear campaigns aimed at destroying the reputation of their targets,” according to the British scientist. [ … ] “
Dave Goulson – who is said to be a bit of a local – is not mentioned in the epic novel by Carey Gillam, Margot Gibbs and Elena DeBre, published by the Guardian on September 26, 2024. It seems that the details of the file were not at all shocking…
We can be sure of that, indeed!
I obtained this profile, which the authors of the Le Monde article probably also obtained, in the case of Lighthouse Reports , by means that remain to be elucidated (I asked…).
There are, in the four pages, two alarmist quotes from the – customarily alarmist – remarks of Dave Goulson: one from October 2017 in the New York Times (“we are ‘ on the road to ecological Armageddon ’ because ‘ if we lose insects, everything will collapse ’ ”), the other from July 2021 in the Guardian , which headlined: “The insect apocalypse: ‘ Without them, our world will stop ’ ”.
For a textual obsessive, the passage in question from the article in Le Monde is certainly information (“[…] Dave Goulson […] explains […] “, but what was retained from his remarks is false! Let us insist: “the elements collected in his file” did not all come from blogs…
The page also includes a “reviews” section. Oh well! It’s like Wikipedia in French, for certain personalities and entities…
There are eight quotes, of course referenced: Hank Campbell on Science 2.0 (2021); Jon Entine in Genetic Literacy Project (2017), with an excerpt republished on Junk Science , and Quillette (2021) ; David Zaruk on his old blog on Euractiv (2015); a certain André Heitz on his blog (June 2020 ; September 2020 (but the quote is actually from Alerte Environnement ); 2021 ).
So here are the “people directly or indirectly funded by Monsanto […]”… The writings that “regularly reappeared on social networks“… we would like to instill rationality in the debates and public opinion…
And, for the “smear campaigns […]”, it was essentially a matter of exposing the scientific and media turpitudes of a declared activist, a public figure professing abrasive ideas and theories on pesticides, agrochemical companies, researchers who do not agree with him, regulatory authorities, etc.
He who sows the wind… reaps in the area considered here, alas, a little kiss from the promoters of rationality…
But the article in Le Monde succeeds in presenting Dave Goulson as an innocent victim.
After these two “testimonies“, the article in Le Monde refers to that of Mr. David Zaruk in Seed World , which we translated in ” Bonus Eventus : Requiem for a Communication Warrior “. The reference is obviously imprecise in Le Monde and there is no link:
“In an article published by a professional journal for seed producers, a blogger and influencer who is a member of the network operated by v-Fluence laments that following the publication of information on the operation of Bonus Eventus,” within a few weeks, companies and professional associations informed v-Fluence that they were terminating their contracts and discontinuing their support, leaving around forty researchers and experts without jobs just before Christmas .” Contacted by Le Monde , the person concerned did not wish to provide further details .
Semantic shifting is an art! The “interested party” is not a “member of the network… “, but a recipient of v-Fluence communications (like the owner of this blog). The authors of the Le Monde article could not have been unaware of this.
But a “network“… reeks of conspiracy… and, remember, these members of the so-called network are agrochemical and agrogenetics villains and their henchmen (irony)…
Anyway, this paragraph has a hint of jubilation…
In fact, unfortunately, v-Fluence has considerably reduced its scope.
Note that when it comes to “profiling“, others are having a field day. But this does not pose a particular problem when it comes to the “good side“, for example on Wikipedia when it comes to Le Point , or Agriculture et Environnement (note that this page has been deleted).
Or when it comes to mini-profiling of recipients, paid or invited, v-Fluence services – moreover of no particular interest from a journalistic point of view – in… Le Monde .
To be continued…
[Editor’s Note: This article has been translated from French and edited for clarity.]
André Heitz is an agronomist by training and a former United Nations system civil servant with the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
