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NPR and Monsanto
Posted on Sat, August 01, 2009 by Jerusha Klemperer
8 Comments | Categories: Biodiversity, Contaminated Food, Farms and Farming, Food Justice, News, Current Events, Take Action,
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I love my public radio station. I’ll admit I even drive to work some days just to listen to the morning news (note: I live in New York City, where driving to work takes more time, costs more, and is just plain silly). On the way home, I’m usually back in the car just in time to hear the tail end of Marketplace, the daily broadcast of the day’s economic and financial news. Marketplace is a great show – they explain complex content simply and with humor (I have a radio crush on the host, Kai Ryssdal) and they always play good music between the segments.
Lately, however, I’ve found myself cringing with disgust as I listen. It’s not the bleak financial news day after day or the fact that Kai and I mostly likely will never date that causes my reaction, but the fact that Marketplace is now sponsored by Monsanto – the biotech company responsible for Round-Up, Agent Orange, GMO corn and soy, and all hosts of other types of evil. And as if it couldn’t get any worse, the announcer, in a smug and confident voice, informs me that Monsanto is “committed to sustainable agriculture.”
Um, WHAT?
If someone asked me to name a corporation that epitomized the opposite of sustainable agriculture, the name Monsanto would be out of my mouth before they even finished the question. But I’m not going to rant about Monsanto here, you can read all about how they’re destroying the planet here. And if that’s not enough, go here.
What I want to rant about here is Greenwashing. Greenwashing is the process by which a corporation disseminates a false or misleading picture of environmental friendliness in order to conceal or obscure damaging activities. Now, I’m not green about greenwashing. I know it’s all over our food packaging in terms like “all natural” or “made from the best stuff on earth,” but Monsanto’s blatant usurping of the term “sustainable agriculture” makes my blood boil. Why? Well, for one, they’re insulting our intelligence. And for two, I’m scared. Really scared. Scared that people will believe them. Allowing Monsanto to piggyback on public radio, which is seen as a credible, reliable – albeit left-leaning (which, let’s face it, makes it worse) – suggests that their message is all these things.
I could go on and on – about how I can just picture Monsanto executives gloating in their executive suites over how they just pulled the rug out from under the sustainable food movement, or how it makes me so mad that public radio took the money – but I won’t. Instead, let’s do something about it.
Write a letter. Make a phone call. I did. It felt good.
Marketplace is produced by American Public Media. You can send a message right from their website (link to: http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/contact/). Or, for more bang for your buck, write a letter or make a phone call to Bill Kling, their President and CEO – or to Brad Robideau, National Public Relations Manager (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)) – at American Public Media, 480 Cedar Street, St. Paul, MN 55101. 800-562-8440. And as always, thanks for your support.
Member Comments
From Maggie on Sat, August 01, 2009
Cecily, you don’t say whether you are a contributing member of public radio. I also cringe when I hear that particular sponsor mentioned, but we have to remember that it costs a lot of money to produce those broadcasts. I will take your suggestion and make contact, but I can do that with a clear conscience as I do ante up during pledge drives, etc. Everyone needs to remember to support NPR.
I wonder if Slow Food USA makes a contribution. Seems to me we could eliminate that highly overdone international journal and spend that money a bit more wisely helping allies like public broadcasting.
From Cecily Upton on Mon, August 03, 2009
Hi Maggie,
Thanks for your comments. You bring up a really good point that NPR/American Public Media would not need to accept money from corporations like Monsanto if they were able to get the support they needed from the public. I’d also like to add that funding from the government for cultural agents such as NPR/Corporation for Public Broadcasting has decreased dramatically since its founding in the 1970’s. They’re in a tough situation and I don’t fault them for having to accept money from corporations in order to continue their work.
My main issue, though, is with the greenwashing so blatantly being conducted. What I would wish for primarily, is not for Monsanto not to support NPR/American Public Media, but for them to be clear about who they are and what they do. For example, “Monsanto: Makers of Round-Up,” would be a simple, true, unbiased slogan. “Monsanto: Committed to Sustainable Agriculture” is, through and through, a lie.
Cecily
From Kurt Michael Friese on Mon, August 03, 2009
Hi Cecily,
They are not alone in their hypocrisy. I blogged about them and many others in a post on Grist a few weeks ago:
http://www.grist.org/article/2009-05-29-oprah-kfc-hypocrisy
It’s Orwellian doublespeak at its finest
From Andrew Collins on Mon, August 03, 2009
——-
Why must Marketplace participate in doing greenwashing work for Monsanto?
It is reasonable that as a financial sponsor of Marketplace Monsanto deserves fair recognition, but is it proper for Marketplace to assert that “Monsanto is committed to sustainable agriculture” when reality and facts suggest quite the opposite?
Greenwashing is the process by which a corporation disseminates a false or misleading picture of environmental friendliness in order to conceal or obscure damaging activities.
Regarding Monsanto’s “committment” it is difficult to see how punishing, long-standing, continued and promised legal battles with farmers around the world contribute to sustainable agriculture.
——-
From Andrew Collins on Mon, August 03, 2009
Wow. I got the following response within mere hours of sending my comment! Thanks MPR!
——-
Dear xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
Thank you for your note regarding the sponsorship support by Monsanto of American Public Media?s program, Marketplace. The message read is:
“Marketplace is supported by Monsanto, committed to sustainable agriculture: creating hybrid and biotech seeds designed to increase crop yields and conserve natural resources. Producemoreconservemore.com .”
American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio has always stayed well within Federal Communications Commission guidelines for underwriting messages to ensure they do not contain material allowed to commercial messages such as jingles or calls to action. APM/MPR refrains from sponsorship messages from specific categories of products and organizations; for instance, underwriting is not accepted for firearms or tobacco or political parties. Aside from a few designated categories, APM/MPR looks to equality of access in seeking out and accepting underwriting support from the broadest possible population of contributors. Any business that can afford to support public radio is expected to recognize the value of doing so.
There is a firewall to ensure that contributions, underwriting, and other support do not affect or influence the editorial decisions of the news room.
MPR receives 19% of its support from listeners; listeners are the single most important source of funding because member dollars leverage the support we receive from foundations, government and businesses. Please find our annual report and other organizational information on the Web at http://minnesota.publicradio.org/about/ .
I hope these notes are helpful. Your message has been shared with management. Listener concerns are important to us. Please contact us with any additional comments or questions.
Sincerely,
Mark S. Jungmann
Member Benefits Team
651-290-1212 or 1-800-228-7123
If you’re not currently a member of MPR, why not join or renew today? View all contribution levels and pick out the perfect thank-you gift at:
<https://contribute.publicradio.org/contribution/public/contributor.do?refId=MLSMJ>
——-
From Martha Spizziri on Mon, August 03, 2009
I wrote in and very quickly received this response:
>>>>
Thank you for your note regarding the sponsorship support by Monsanto of American Public Media?s program, Marketplace. The message read is:
“Marketplace is supported by Monsanto, committed to sustainable agriculture: creating hybrid and biotech seeds designed to increase crop yields and conserve natural resources. Producemoreconservemore.com .”
American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio has always stayed well within Federal Communications Commission guidelines for underwriting messages to ensure they do not contain material allowed to commercial messages such as jingles or calls to action. APM/MPR refrains from sponsorship messages from specific categories of products and organizations; for instance, underwriting is not accepted for firearms or tobacco or political parties. Aside from a few designated categories, APM/MPR looks to equality of access in seeking out and accepting underwriting support from the broadest possible population of contributors. Any business that can afford to support public radio is expected to recognize the value of doing so.
There is a firewall to ensure that contributions, underwriting, and other support do not affect or influence the editorial decisions of the news room.
MPR receives 19% of its support from listeners; listeners are the single most important source of funding because member dollars leverage the support we receive from foundations, government and businesses. Please find our annual report and other organizational information on the Web at http://minnesota.publicradio.org/about/ .
I hope these notes are helpful. Your message has been shared with management. Listener concerns are important to us. Please contact us with any additional comments or questions.
Sincerely,
Mark S. Jungmann
Member Benefits Team
651-290-1212 or 1-800-228-7123
>>>
So maybe the FCC needs to tighten its guidelines about what those sponsorship messages can say. I seem to remember that a decade or two ago, the messages were more limited, if only because they had to be shorter.
From Cecily Upton on Tue, August 04, 2009
It’s interesting that they have a canned message in response to the Monsanto sponsorship. It leads me to believe that many have written in to voice their displeasure - a good thing. Their message, however, still does not address the problem of greenwashing. It seems that they are ducking behind the legality issue in addressing the content issue. Sure, the message is currently legal, but that doesn’t make it accurate. Perhaps Martha is right, this may be a complaint to address to the FCC - sponsorship messages should not be advertising, and they should also not contain false or misleading content.
Cecily
From Dave on Wed, August 05, 2009
Ummmm….Doesn’t the fact that this month Michael Taylor became the senior advisor to the commissioner of the FDA, make Monsanto a political player?
Michael Taylor is now America’s food safety czar. He had been Monsanto’s attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA. Soon after, he became Monsanto’s vice president and chief lobbyist.
