266 THE CHINA STUDY
why my society did the things it did. The awards funded by Mead John-
son Nutritionals, Lederle Laboratories, BioServe Biotechnologies and
previously Procter and Gamble and the Dannon Institute-all food and
drug outfits-represented a strange marriage between industry and my
sOciety.8 Do you believe that these "friends" of the society are interested
in pursuing scientific investigation, no matter what the conclusions
maybe?CONSEQUENCES FOR THE PUBLIC
Ultimately, the lessons I learned in my career had little to do with
specific names or specific institutions. These lessons have more to do
with what goes on behind the scenes of any large institution. What
happens behind the scenes during national policy discussions, wheth-
er it happens in scientific societies, the government or in industry
boardrooms, is supremely important for our health as a nation. The
personal experiences I have talked about in this chapter-only a sam-
ple of such experiences-have consequences far greater than personal
aggravation and damage to my career. These experiences illustrate the
dark side of science, the side that harms not just individual research-
ers who get in the way, but all of society. It does this by systematically
attempting to conceal, defeat and destroy viewpoints that oppose the
status quo.
There are some people in very influential government and university
positions who operate under the guise of being scientific "experts,"
whose real jobs are to stifle open and honest scientific debate. Perhaps
they receive significant personal compensation for attending to the in-
terests of powerful food and drug companies, or perhaps they merely
have an honest personal bias toward a company-friendly viewpoint.
Personal bias is stronger than you may think. I know scientists with
family members who died from cancer and it angers them to entertain
the possibility that personal choices, like diet, could have played a role
in the death of their loved ones. Likewise, there are scientists for whom
the high-fat, high animal-based food diet they eat every day is simply
what they learned was healthy at a young age; they love the habit, and
they don't want to change.
The vast majority of scientists are honorable, intelligent and dedicated
to the search for the common good rather than personal gain. However,
there are a few scientists who are willing to sell their souls to the high-
est bidder. They may not be many in number, but their influence can be