Words Used Out of Context
Over the last two decades I have endured daily hassle from folks dedicated to besmirching the reputations of scientists. What a proud existence that must be. One great example resurfaced last night. I first wrote about it on September 7, 2015. The image shows me and a quotation, pulled from nearly 50,000 pages of email voluntarily turned over to activist groups. There was no evidence of malfeasance, nothing unethical or illegal. All they could do to make me look bad was pull a quotation from context. Almost four years later that same graphic is being used by activists to impugn my integrity. The best part is, this is all they have, and it is a distortion of what was actually said. The email was not between me and Monsanto. It was between me and a friend that works there. As we go through our careers as plant scientists it is not unusual to connect with people in industry. We meet their spouses, see pictures of their kids, trade dog stories-- they are peo