See Carey Gillam’s recent reporting in the Guardian
News Release
U.S. Right to Know is pleased to announce that Carey Gillam’s new book Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science (Island Press) has received the prestigious Rachel Carson Book Award for unveiling decades of corporate secrets and deceptive tactics by powerful pesticide companies, and how the corporate pursuit of profits has taken priority over protection of the public.
The Society of Environmental Journalists announced the award today along with all the first place winners of the SEJ 17th annual awards for reporting on the environment.
Gillam’s book offers pivotal insights into Capitol Hill’s current efforts to strip U.S. funding from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, as well as the first-ever trial over claims that Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide can cause cancer. Whitewash is so explosive that Monsanto has filed a motion with the court to keep it from being introduced as evidence.
Carey is an award-winning investigative journalist who spent 17 years at Reuters before becoming Research Director for the non-profit U.S. Right to Know consumer group in 2016.
Gillam, who lives in the farm state of Kansas, spent most of her career with the Reuters international news agency (1998-late 2015) before becoming Research Director for the non-profit U.S Right to Know consumer group in 2016.
Gillam is also a devoted mom of three and a court-appointed special advocate (CASA ) for foster children. She says her love and concern for children is a powerful driving force for her writing and research into the health and environmental impacts of food production in America. She spends a good deal of time pursuing Freedom of Information requests with U.S. regulators and has successfully sued the EPA to access thousands of documents that inform her work.
Gillam says: “The data, the internal corporate documents and regulatory documents I’ve obtained over the last 20 years of researching these matters, my talks with farmers, scientists, regulators, etc., all make it clear that we have created a profound problem for ourselves – a pesticide-dependent food system that is putting our future generations in danger. We have lost a much-needed sense of caution, and we’re allowing this corporate pursuit of profits to take priority over protection of the public.”
U.S. Right to Know is a nonprofit organization that works to advance transparency and accountability in the nation’s food system. For more information about U.S. Right to Know, please see usrighttoknow.wpenginepowered.com.
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