Session Presentation - Tim Schwab

Session Presentation - Tim Schwab

By 2010, private donations provided nearly a quarter of the funding for agricultural research at land-grant universities.  Some academic departments take half of their research funding from the private sector, while some individual professors are entirely dependent on corporate money.
 

This private funding steers land-grant research toward the goals of industry. It also discourages independent research that might be critical of the industrial model of agriculture and diverts public research capacity away from important issues such as rural economies, environmental quality and the public health implications of agriculture.
 

Private-sector funding not only corrupts the public research mission of land-grant universities, but also distorts the science that is supposed to help farmers improve their practices and livelihoods. Industry-funded academic research routinely produces favorable results for industry sponsors. Because policy-makers and regulators frequently voice their need for good science in decision-making, industry-funded academic research influences the rules that govern their business operations.