Read the Emails in the Hilarious Monsanto/Mo Rocca/Condé Nast Meltdown

Last week, Gawker uncovered a hapless tie-up between genetically modified seed/pesticide giant Monsanto and Condé Nast Media-publisher of The New Yorker, Bon Appetit, GQ, Self, Details, and other magazines-to produce "an exciting video series" on...

August 7, 2014 | Source: Mother Jones | by Tom Philpott

For related articles and information, please visit OCA’s Geneticly Engineering page and our Millions Against Monsanto page.

Last week,
Gawkeruncovered a hapless tie-up between genetically modified seed/pesticide giant Monsanto and Condé Nast Media-publisher of
The New Yorker,
Bon Appetit,
GQ,
Self,
Details, and other magazines-to produce “an exciting video series” on the “topics of food, food chains and sustainability.”

Since then, I’ve learned that Condé Nast’s Strategic Partnerships division dangled cash before several high-profile food politics writers, in an unsuccessful attempt to convince them to participate. 

Marion Nestle, author of the classic book
Food Politics and a professor at New York University, told me she was offered $5,000 to participate for a single afternoon. Nestle almost accepted, because at first she didn’t know Monsanto was involved-the initial email she received only referred to the company in attachments that she didn’t open, she said.

“It wasn’t until we were at the end of the discussion about how much time I would allow (they wanted a full day) that they mentioned the honorarium,” she wrote in an email. “I was so shocked at the amount that I had sense enough to ask who was paying for it. Monsanto. End of discussion.”

James McWillams, author of
Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly and a pundit on food issues whose work appears in
The Atlantic and other publications, got offered even more, in a conversation with a Conde Nast rep on Aug. 6. “They were not evasive or misleading” about Monsanto’s involvement, he told me, “just not immediately forthcoming within a question or two it was clear that this was a PR project.”

He wouldn’t tell me on the record how much they dangled, but described it as “more money than I’ve ever been paid to talk” and “considerably north” of Nestle’s offer. He declined.

Apparently, the infamous gender gap in pay lives on, even in the market for corporate flackery. I would have thought that snagging Nestle, a longtime industry critic, would be worth much more than bagging McWilliams, who has written favorably about GMOs. Nestle, who is quoted frequently in major media articles on food topics, also arguably has a considerably higher public profile than does McWilliams.

Then there’s Anna Lappé, author of the book
Diet for a Hot Planet and prominent critic of the agrichemical industry. She forwarded me an August 4 email a representative of her Small Planet Foundation received from someone identified as “Senior Director, Strategic Alliances, the Condé Nast Media Group.” The email, printed below, invited Lappé to participate in an “exciting video series being promoted on our brand websites (i.e:
Self, Epicurious, Bon Appetit, GQ & Details) and living on a custom YouTube channel,” centered on “food, food chains and sustainability.” It didn’t mention Monsanto, but added that “[c]ompensation will be provided, along with travel two/from the shoot location.” It contained no mention of Monsanto, or specifics on the compensation offer.