Kavin Senapathy

Why Forbes Deleted Some Kavin Senapathy Articles

Kavin Senapathy has written many articles promoting GMOs, defending pesticides and attacking critics of the agrichemical industry, mostly for Forbes. Senapathy’s LinkedIn profile describes her as a “debunker of unscientific myths” and lists her profession as a contributor to Forbes. She has not disclosed her funding sources.

August 31, 2017 | Source: US Right to Know | by Stacy Malkan

Kavin Senapathy has written many articles promoting GMOs, defending pesticides and attacking critics of the agrichemical industry, mostly for Forbes. Senapathy’s LinkedIn profile describes her as a “debunker of unscientific myths” and lists her profession as a contributor to Forbes. She has not disclosed her funding sources.

In 2017, Forbes deleted at least six articles by Senapathy and Henry I. Miller, a Hoover Institution fellow, following revelations that Monsanto ghostwrote an article Miller published under his own name in Forbes.

Senapathy has also written for Slate, Gawker, Skepchick and Genetic Literacy Project, an agrichemical industry front group that works closely with Monsanto. She is co-founder of March Against Modification Myths, a group that promotes GMOs and stages protests against biotechnology critics.

Collaboration with Henry I. Miller 

Senapathy began sharing a byline with Henry Miller in 2015 on a series of articles defending GMOs published in Forbes. Forbes deleted the co-bylined articles in the wake an August 2017 New York Times report:

“Documents show that Henry I. Miller … asked Monsanto to draft an article for him that largely mirrored one that appeared under his name on Forbes’s website in 2015 … Forbes removed the story from its website on Wednesday and said that it ended its relationship with Mr. Miller amid the revelations.”

Retraction Watch further reported: Forbes “has pulled down all of Miller’s articles on its site, because he violated the terms of his contract” which calls for authors “to disclose any potential conflicts of interest and only publish content that is their own original writing.”

The emails between Miller and a Monsanto executive show how corporations work with writers such as Miller to promote industry talking points while keeping their collaborations secret. In this case, a Monsanto executive asked Miller to write a column defending glyphosate and provided him with a “still quite rough draft” as “a good start for your magic.” The draft appeared a few days later, largely unchanged, under Miller’s name in this Forbes column.