Re: Follow-up: Thought Police

Elizabeth Bird (eabird@facstaff.wisc.edu)
Wed, 03 Jul 1996 16:39:33 -0500

The Consortium for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education has the
beginnings of a task force, chaired by Dennis Keeney, on reforming reward
structures, and we are collaborating with the Science and Environmental
Health Network to develop and issue (partly over SANET) a scoping survey
this summer, to be followed possibly by a larger survey down the road. We
have some funding prospects for a larger project, though nothing firm. As
I've been following this discussion, it has seemed to me we need perhaps to
expand the scope of what we were thinking, to address the question of
private industry influence. I hope I speak for the others involved when I
say we would love to have other partners working with us on this as well.
I'd like to know what others are thinking and planning, and where we might
divide labor or collaborate.

Elizabeth

At 12:37 PM 6/30/96 -0400, you wrote:
>I have received a number of phone calls and e-mail messages from individuals
>who wish this dialog will go on, and lead to an open discussion of the
>growing influence of private sector money and interests on public sector
>research priorities, and the ways scientists are allowed to use and report
>on data from experiments done with products, or relevant to products.
>.......
> Good ideas have been offered for next steps. A survey would be good
>-- who could do it, who will fund it? Maybe the Leopold Center, U.C. Davis
>sus ag program, Wallace Institute and others could "team up" to carry it
>out. Maybe a foundation like Kellogg or Northwest Area would fund it, along
>with a workshop to discuss the results. Other analytical efforts could be
>commissioned, and reported at the workshop, to get a handle on how big the
>problem is, where it is growing, what can be done about it. The workshop
>could be challenged to produce an agenda for the major professional
>societies to pick up the task of documenting/monitoring these issues, and
>doing something about them.
>Charles Benbrook 202-546-5089 (voice)
>Benbrook Consulting Services 202-546-5028 (fax)
>409 First Street S.E. benbrook@hillnet.com [e-mail]
>Washington, D.C. 20003
>
>
>

*****************************************
Elizabeth Ann R. Bird, Ph.D.
Organization and Development Director
Consortium for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education

c/o Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems
1450 Linden Drive, Room 146
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53706
608-265-6483
FAX 608-265-3020
eabird@facstaff.wisc.edu