David Zaruk
Viewpoint: ‘Predatorts’ — How activist nonprofits create fear and seed science doubt, generate lawsuits, and distort public policy
Imagine you are a US tort lawyer wanting to extract as much honey from the pot as possible. What do ...
Viewpoint: Here’s why activist environmentalists’ promotion of a ‘binary organic vs conventional/good vs evil dichotomy’ is bad for sustainable agriculture
Due to successful fear-based marketing campaigns, the demand for organic food in many affluent countries is rising far faster than ...
Viewpoint: ‘The European Green Deal has been captured by chemophobic activists with no understanding of science’. Here’s how the EU can put sustainability ahead of ideology
After seeing rampant chemophobia and fear-mongering influence the REACH process in the mid-2000s, I set up a satirical blog called ...
Viewpoint: Organic farming offers some sustainability benefits, but ‘fear-driven marketing campaigns’ exaggerate advantages and demonize acceptable alternatives
When the “Risk-Monger’s Dirty Dozen” list of pesticides used in organic farming was published, I had broken a taboo. Before ...
Viewpoint: Despite its ‘social justice pretense’ agroecology promotes poverty in developing countries
The world is made up of sunshine and butterflies, roses and rainbows. If we can stop Father Profit from raping ...
Viewpoint: ‘Toxic-free EU’? Why Europe’s naive Green Deal is scientifically illiterate and could cripple innovation for years to come
July is usually a good month for environmental activism in Europe. Many people are on holiday and nobody feels like ...
The ‘Church of Nature’ and the sudden collapse of the cult of Extinction Rebellion
When a cult loses its grip on a person, a form of reawakening takes place. It involves having to return ...
Viewpoint: How precautionary public health policy turned coronavirus into a ‘global train wreck’
Worldwide coronavirus response was a failure in risk management ...
Podcast: How ‘activist science’ behind IARC’s glyphosate assessment fuels unjustified cancer lawsuits
In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published a monograph concluding that glyphosate, the active ingredient in ...
Viewpoint: ‘Roundup game plan’—How ‘environmental’ activists, IARC’s Chris Portier plotted attacks on Monsanto-Bayer to get glyphosate banned and cripple ag biotechnology
The failure to retract the monograph despite overwhelming rejections from the scientific community points to a Glyphosate Gameplan at IARC ...
Viewpoint: Hidden conflicts of interest cripple IARC’s biased glyphosate-cancer evaluation
IARC has no clear understanding of what a conflict of interest is (or doesn’t care) ...
Viewpoint: How trial lawyers rigged IARC’s cancer monograph program to fuel lawsuits targeting glyphosate, other chemicals
IARC is a troubling example of a UN agency used for personal profit ...
Viewpoint: Pouring greed on an ethical fire—Questionable ‘litigation finance’ scam funds glyphosate-cancer lawsuit mill
Greed is being poured on an ethical fire ...
Viewpoint: The ‘assault on science’ and human welfare by eco-activists who reject agricultural technology as ‘corporate subterfuge’
a dangerous anti-science mindset is cementing itself into our problem-based policy approaches ...
Viewpoint: Anti-glyphosate ‘true believers’ circumvent democracy with legal crusade against Bayer’s Roundup weed killer
Between the opportunists and the 'true believers'...which is worse? ...
Viewpoint: Farmers’ crops are failing, and Europe’s precautionary assault on neonicotinoid insecticides is to blame
Farmers will never forget the last five years of incompetence from the European Commission ...
Predatort Part II: How predatory lawyers, activist scientists hijacked IARC—International Agency for Research on Cancer—for personal profit and ideological vanity
How the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has forsaken academic integrity and knowingly contributes to the Predatort litigation ...
Viewpoint: Controversy flares over activist ‘predatort lawyers’ who ‘massaged facts’ in the Monsanto-glyphosate case
Lawyers often use a certain breed of self-interested scientist to terrify a jury of vulnerable non-specialists ...
Viewpoint: Developing nations should reject Europe’s fear-based crop biotech rules to grow their economies
In a recent speaking tour in South-East Asia, I was horrified to learn how many emerging market governments in the ...
Viewpoint: How to talk to your anti-GMO relatives during the holidays
We all have them. This brother-in-law or sister-in-law, who is very active on social networks. You accepted his friendly request for family ...
Viewpoint: Europe has traded crop biotechnology for ‘faith-based’ agroecology
We are living in a new Dark Age in Europe where innovation and technology are being rejected at an alarming ...
Viewpoint: EU’s new gene-editing rules show failure of scientific leadership
On 25 July 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that plants bred via recent mutagenesis techniques would fall ...
10 tips for better communication about pesticide science, risks
One of the biggest challenges for any risk communications professional today is to deliver positive messages on pesticides. Like any ...
Viewpoint: Why organic farming activists oppose New Breeding Techniques (NBTs)
There was a brief moment in 2015 where organic farming researchers were having an open discussion on adopting certain innovative ...
Viewpoint: 6 ways IARC Director Christopher Wild lied to Congress about cancer agency’s glyphosate debacle
While the outgoing head of the embattled agency refused to testify before the US House Science Committee, he did send ...
Viewpoint: 12 ways organic activists mislead consumers
Does the organic food industry use deceptive marketing practices to scare wealthy customers away from conventional agriculture and GMOs? The ...
Viewpoint: Anti-biotech groups’ master plan substitutes ‘citizen science’ for data in quest to get glyphosate banned
The European Union resisted the lobbying of organic and anti-biotech groups to renew authorization of glyphosate, although only for five ...
Viewpoint: After Christopher Wild departure, next IARC chief must fix ‘beleaguered’ agency
With the sudden departure of IARC head Christopher Wild, here's a wish list put together by David Zaruk, who offers ...
