{"id":159539,"date":"2015-06-18T08:25:18","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T08:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=159539"},"modified":"2015-06-18T08:25:18","modified_gmt":"2015-06-18T08:25:18","slug":"biotech-spinmasters-propose-name-changes-counteract-awful-pr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/biotech-spinmasters-propose-name-changes-counteract-awful-pr\/","title":{"rendered":"Biotech Spinmasters Propose Name Changes to Counteract Awful PR"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following in the footsteps of Monsanto\u2019s proposed name change, today the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) announced that it is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20150617006276\/en\/Biotechnology-Industry-Organization-Biotechnology-Innovation-Organization#.VYG_cRNViko\" target=\"_blank\">renaming itself the Biotechnology Innovation Organization<\/a>. BIO is the principal trade association for the biotechnology industry.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.syngenta.com\/global\/corporate\/SiteCollectionDocuments\/pdf\/media-releases\/en\/monsanto-letters-2015.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Documents released by Syngenta<\/a> on June 8 include a\u00a0letter from Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant to Syngenta, suggesting as a part of a Monsanto-Syngenta corporate merger that, \u201cWe would also propose a new name for the combined company to reflect its unique global nature.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<p>\u201cThese name changes are a sign of PR despair,\u201d said Gary Ruskin, co-director of the consumer group U.S. Right to Know. \u201cMonsanto\u2019s name is radioactive, and the Biotechnology Industry Organization\u2019s name isn\u2019t much better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMonsanto and the some parts of the biotech industry face consumer distrust and a political backlash,\u201d Ruskin said. \u201cThat backlash is for environmental and health reasons, and it is foolish to think that name changes will bail out their bad PR.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.harrisinteractive.com\/vault\/2015%20RQ%20Media%20Release%20Report_020415.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">2014 Harris Poll<\/a> gauging the reputations of major corporations, Monsanto\u2019s \u201creputation quotient\u201d ranked 58 out of 60 companies. In other words, it was the third most hated company measured.<\/p>\n<p>BIO has been a key industry advocate for genetically engineered foods, and against mandatory labeling of them. According to a 2013 New York Times poll, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/07\/28\/science\/strong-support-for-labeling-modified-foods.html\" target=\"_blank\">93% of Americans support labeling<\/a> of genetically engineered food.<\/p>\n<div class=\"newswire-end\">###<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"field-wrapper-override-org\" class=\"field-wrapper content-container clearfix\">\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-desc field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field__items\">\n<div class=\"field__item even\">\n<p>U.S. Right to Know is a new nonprofit food organization that investigates and reports on what food companies don\u2019t want us to know. In January, U.S. Right to Know released a report, titled <a href=\"http:\/\/usrtk.org\/seedybusiness.pdf\">Seedy Business<\/a>, on the agrichemical and food industries\u2019 PR campaign to defend GMOs. For more information about U.S. Right to Know, please see our website at<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usrtk.org\/\">usrtk.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following in the footsteps of Monsanto\u2019s proposed name change, today the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) announced that it is renaming itself the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. BIO is the principal trade association for the biotechnology industry. Documents released by Syngenta on June 8 include a\u00a0letter from Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant to Syngenta, suggesting as a part [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-159539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}