Trust Us, We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science And Gambles With Your Future. - Review - book review

Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber

PENGUIN PUTNAM 2000/US$24.95

Do you think that a study conducted by a prestigious university is ipso facto unbiased? Or that non-profit organisations just give away their product endorsements? Do you believe all grassroots action groups to be what their fancy names imply, or that, if a scientist says so, it must be true? If you do, the team of Rampton and Stauber is prepared to rob you of your illusions.

In the latest book by the authors of Toxic Sludge is Good for You and Mad Cow USA, the two investigative reporters disclose some of the insidious methods commonly employed by industry to influence opinion and mislead the public, through the use of bogus experts and doctored data. In a series of shocking case histories, the authors reveal how corporations and their PR lackeys are constantly coming up with deceptive new ways of exploiting your trust and persuading you to buy whatever they have to sell. They accomplish this by letting a supposedly impartial third party, like a university professor, research scientist, or phoney watchdog group make their sales pitch for them.

The problem is that the work of these academics is often dependent on grants from the same corporations that they are supposed to be monitoring. Similarly, the alleged 'watchdog groups' are held on a short leash by their corporate sponsors, who hide their identity behind deliberately misleading labels. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of these nefarious organisations, of which the following five, all established for the purpose of asserting that 'Global Warming is Good for You', are fairly typical:

The Global Climate Information Project (GCIP), launched by some of the US's most powerful trade associations to sabotage the Kyoto Treaty, by claiming that it would raise petrol prices by 50 per cent, leading to higher prices.

The Coalition for Vehicle Choice (CVC), a front group for automobile manufacturers that also blasted the Kyoto climate talks as 'an assault on the US economy'.

The National Center for Public Policy Research, a think tank which lured people into sending treaty-bashing emails to the US President with the prospect of winning $1,000, and 'offered assistance to journalists seeking interviews with leading... policy experts on global warming'.

Information Council for the Environment (ICE), a PR front group for fuel companies attempting to 'reposition global warming as theory (not fact)'.

The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition, which viciously attacked such legitimate scientific institutions as the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society.

In the chapter 'Attack of the Killer Potatoes', the authors describe the attempted character assassination of Dr Arpad Pusztai, the Hungarian-born British research biologist, who was among the first to raise a warning flag against GM foods. As one who had been instrumental in laying the scientific foundation for the development of GM foods, Dr. Pusztai overnight became a pariah, whose only defenders were 'organic food freaks', 'ecological extremists', and stalwart opponents of biotech.

The battle between environmentalists and the biotech food industry promises to become one of the most contentious high-stakes struggles of the new millennium. While many of the world's largest chemical companies are shifting their investments from industrial chemicals into agri-business, pharmaceuticals, and food, public opposition to so-called 'Frankenfoods' is growing. In this context, the authors refer to an impeccable source: Robert Shapiro, the former CEO of Monsanto, who is quoted as saying that 'there have been [many] precedents when humanity has at best muddled through the application of a new technology in ways that are frightening, nuclear technology being the most obvious example'.

While Trust Us, We're Experts! May not contain much factual information new to readers of The Ecologist, it performs a valuable service by making a wider public aware of the corporate use of smoke and mirrors to confuse both the media and we consumers. The book is a wake-up call to the world, and a must-read for anyone concerned about the future of our fragile planet. To paraphrase economist J K Galbraith -- an early critic of profligate consumerism -- 'If you laid all the 'expert' end to end, it wouldn't be a bad idea.'

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