While this is one of the more benign things USAID has funded over the past couple of decades which has included genocide against traditional societies (see Conservation is a pretext for genocide Part 3, and USAID Financed Land Theft and Genocide in Botswana) in Sub Saharan Africa, as well as land theft for multinational commercial interests (see Haiti is Open for Plunder and The Green Revolution Scam) and fraudulent carbon credit schemes (see The New Tulip Futures) more Americans should be aware of their involvement in Bonus Eventus: a private social network set up by a PR firm called V-fluence to gather intelligence and coordinate smear campaigns and other propaganda tactics against critics of the pesticide and biotech industry and disrupt their conferences at the behest of said industry. One of USAID’s NGO grantees, the International Food Policy Research Institute, which manages GM crop initiatives in African and Asian countries for USAID, paid V-fluence $400,000 to spread GM crop propaganda across Africa and Asia from 2013 to 2019 while simultaneously attacking credentialed scientists critical of the pesticide/GM crop industry’s products. The money in question was used to set up a private social network for pesticide industry operatives called Bonus Eventus to coordinate intelligence gathering and spread disparaging allegations against 500 notable toxicologists, environmentalists and politicians critical of the industry. Most of the information and allegations compiled in 500 profiles has nothing to do with their work at all and contained personal details about their families and spouses. USAID also entertained working directly with V-fluence to carry out this operation and the head of V-fluence, a former Monsanto executive and USAID employee to boot, was in contact with several USAID employees when he successfully had funding pulled from an agricultural conference in Kenya. 30 of the social network’s 1,000 or so members are US government officials most of whom work for the USDA but some were also USAID employees. The USDA tapped the V-fluence founder to help them limit pesticide regulations outside U.S. jurisdiction and used his organization to undermine pesticide use reduction policies in the European Union in particular.
Sources:Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!