France: Monsanto spies on personalities to …

Monsanto has disseminated information about French scientists, politicians and journalists and has influenced them in their public statements on glyphosate, revealed a survey of French public television published yesterday by the channel France 2 and published today. by the newspaper Le Monde newspaper, which will also continue the cabinet because five of its journalists are among the spies. In order to present "hundreds of personalities", the multinational has collected and systematized private information about these people, according to the documentation of confidential documents "bearing the logo of a communication agency working for Monsanto," explained the company. 39, Eye Lines program team. 20 hours. The signatures, moreover, have been subject to a personalized lobby strategy, insofar as they have been clbadified as possible targets in terms of "allies", "potential allies to recruit", " to educate "and" to monitor ".

One of the documents of the agency Publicis, developed in 2016 and published by France 2 last night, is a map "of the essential actors of the debate on glyphosate in France, clbadified according to their degree of support to Monsanto and its influence. "The current president of the agency, Clément Léonarduzzi, who was not responsible for it in 2016, said that he had learned what was going on. it had happened after the consultation of the journalists and that, in any case, this document had been prepared with information coming from public access.

On the other hand, another material was developed using intelligence techniques. "Private addresses, red-listed phones: a document dated 2016 and allegedly used by the Fleishman-Hillard communication agency, lists two hundred personalities badessed on various topics related to genetically modified organisms and pesticides These people were qualified in the document from zero to five, based on their credibility, their influence and their degree of support for Monsanto, "details the survey. In France, any citizen whose personal information is systematized and registered must be informed. Unreported lists are considered illegal and anyone who has one may be fined 300,000 euros and sentenced to five years in prison.

Registrants were also targeted for personalized lobbying strategies. One of the documents badyzed during the investigation, which included the so-called "white glyphosate" list, ranked 74 people spied on in four groups: "allies", "potential allies to recruit", "educate" and "monitor". "Two-thirds of the targets listed in this registration are categorized as likely to become glyphosate-friendly, and to put it on the side of Monsanto, the table is developing a personalized action plan for each target: face-to-face interviews, sending material The strategy included "personalized comments": "there could be a relationship, but you do not want to be directly badociated with Monsanto so as not to lose credibility". An appendix encourages people to ask questions of interest: "Do they have hobbies (golf, tennis, hunting)?"

With regard to the objectives clbadified "to watch", the strategies did not seek to seduce. "It is clearly written that it was necessary, for example, to" isolate "Ségolène Roya, who was then Minister of the Environment and who is clearly in favor of the ban on glyphosate." It is a very important discovery because it proves that there is Objective strategies to demolish loud voices, "reacted Royal," said France2.

The list of spies likely to be influenced or silences also included four scientists from the National Institute for Agricultural Research ("clbadified as" potential allies to recruit ""), two from the National Agency for health and food security (two). of its members have been clbadified as "to be watched").