USAID

Jay Byrne: Meet the Man Behind the Monsanto PR Machine

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Monsanto’s former Director of Corporate Communications Jay Byrne, president of the public relations firm v-Fluence, is a key player in the covert propaganda and lobbying campaigns of the world’s largest agrichemical companies. Emails obtained by U.S. Right to Know, posted in the UCSF Chemical Industry Documents Archive, reveal a range of deceptive tactics Byrne and Jay Byrne: Meet the Man Behind the Monsanto PR Machine

African groups want Gates Foundation, USAID to shift agricultural funding as hunger crisis worsens 

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Billions of dollars in aid and subsidies for industrial agriculture are harming food security in one of the world’s hungriest regions, according to African groups who want donors to shift funding to African-led efforts and agroecology.

Pandemic research firm Metabiota struggled with safety and data problems

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Metabiota, one of five main partners implementing the $200 million USAID-funded PREDICT virus-hunting project that concluded in 2019, had safety and data quality lapses, according to documents obtained by U.S. Right to Know. The San Francisco-based firm describes itself as a government and private industry partner specializing in pandemic prediction and mitigation. However, documents from Pandemic research firm Metabiota struggled with safety and data problems

U.S. funded discovery of close COVID-19 relative at the center of origins controversy

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U.S. funded the discovery of RaTG13, the closest relative of Covid-19 known before the pandemic began.

Could our nation’s newest virus-hunting program cause the next pandemic?

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The entire chain of virus hunting work entails risks that can lead to accidental infection, from handling animals to experiments in the lab.

Intrepid ‘virus hunter’ Peter Daszak flies in style

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Senior virus hunters requested nearly $300,000 in government-funded business class flights