b'THE RISK CORNER BY: DAVID ZARUKBONUS EVENTUS: REQUIEM FOR A COMMUNICATIONS WARRIORJ ust before Christmas Day, 2024, threelem as the researchers were flying every- firms had moved to the lawsuit harassment months after a mendacious, coordinatedwhere to interview the different actors inphase which the consultancy was fighting. activist onslaught, the communicationstheir story and induce activists. The OakBut the third level of attack, to threaten consultancy, v- Fluence, began the processFoundation receives donor-advised fundsv-Fluence clients (trade associations and of closing down its monitoring services on(money donated by an interest group to beseveral companies), cut off the consultan-biotechnology, crop protection, agriculturalearmarked, anonymously, toward a targetedcys oxygen.trade, and food system topics. campaign) so the ultimate source of theirWithin weeks, the companies and For the past 20 years, a large numberfunding is unknown. trade associations wrote to v-Fluence to of agrarians, plant biologists and researchers3.Several U.S. tort law firms wereend their contracts and support, leaving an across the academe and industry relied oninvolved in the Lighthouse Report research.office of around 40 researchers and policy the daily news monitoring service to keepConfidential information from documentsexperts unemployed just before Christmas. informed on activist campaigns, globalreleased in discovery from a paraquat law- The industry should have rallied to defend regulatory developments and researchsuit that involved one of the consultan- the organisation that has provided valua-advances. The daily emails from Jay Byrne,cys clients was leaked to Environmentalble resources and support (often without known as Bonus Eventus (favourable out- Working Group activist, Carey Gillam,remuneration). They, instead, cowered to comes), arrived every morning without fail.who was the de facto lead of the Lighthousethe litigator and activist threats, leaving I found their briefings extremely informa- Reports campaign. Ms Gillam has a his- them more vulnerable and exposed than tive and am not alone in missing this irre- tory of collusion with U.S. tort lawyers. Viaever before. placeable service. Gillam, the class action litigators fabricatedThis is not the first time that industry the corporate conspiracy narrative thathas put its head between its knees rather THE SYMPTOMS became the activists mantra, reported asthan stand up to the activists, and, sadly, An NGO called Lighthouse Reports pub- fact by their collaborating media partners. it wont be the last. The sophistication of lished a document entitled Poison PR on4.While the activists were runningthe activist-NGO-media-scientist-foun-27 September 2024 that tried to exposea month-long media campaign againstdation-tort campaign coordination means v-Fluence as a key operator in globalv-Fluence and its supporters, law firms inthey will continue to drive policy and nar-pro-pesticides lobbying campaigns, alleg- the U.S. and Europe were filing furtherrative perception. The objective of the tort edly receiving US taxpayer funds to forceactions against the small consultancy, leav- law firms was to portray the groups sup-African farmers to plant GM crops whileing them with no option but to lay off staffporting GMOs and pesticides as ethically working to undermine NGO activists. Theyand begin the process of shutting downdiminished. They will use that to generate spent tens of thousands of dollars and over aoperations.jury outrage (to compensate for their lack of year researching the organisation, sendingThis is a snapshot of activism in thescientific evidence). out multiple FOIAs but, in the end, had to2020s. Foundations provide NGOs withWhat was industry thinking the ulti-resort to lies and wordplay to support theirunlimited funding to work with mediamate objective was?claims. groups (also funded by the same founda- Industry cowardice led to the loss But the NGO was not interestedtions), academics and tort law firms to coor- of an important communications actor. in facts nor merely publishing a report.dinate a massive onslaught of negative press,Researchers need to tell their management Coordinating with funders and speciallawsuits and public outrage at a global scale.that it is time to stand up to the zealots, to interest groups, they executed a seriesBut like the predatorial lions they are,stand up to defend their industry and their of actions to bankrupt a company. Theirwe should not condemn them for eating theinnovative technologies.exploits have rewritten the book on howmost vulnerable zebra. It is in their nature,Courage is badly needed, but, until activist campaigns are now to be run. as zealots, to ruthlessly attack to win a cam- now, it has been non-existent. Seed com-1.The NGO had networks of free- paign (even if it involves multiple ethicalpanies need to wake up. lance activists, claiming to be journalists,transgressions). The cause of v-Fluences in the U.S., France, the Netherlands,demise has more to do with how cowardlyThe views expressed in this article are solely Australia, Kenya, Indiathat amplifiedthe herd had behaved. those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the report for weeks afterwards, providingthe views of Seed World.their own spin with syndicated articles andTHE CAUSElocal NGOs developing their own cam- The v-Fluence founder, Jay Byrne, had tried,David Zaruk is a professor based in Brussels paigns to vilify v-Fluence at a global level. heroically, to survive the activist-led assault.writing on environmental-health risk policy 2.Lighthouse Reports had $800,000Activists have honed a sophisticated cam- within the EU Bubble. He writes a blog under in grants from the Oak Foundation and thepaign strategy, and the first attack phasethe name: The Risk-Monger.Agroecology Fund. Money was no prob- had run its course. The activists and tort law 34ISEED WORLD EUROPEISEEDWORLD.COM/EUROPE | FEBRUARY 2025'