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THE "SCIENCE" OF INDUSTRY 299
Conflicts of interest abound in this science of industry. The CLA re-
search was created with special interest money and has grown and been
sustained with special interest money. The National Dairy Council,20-- 22
Kraft Foods, Inc.,20 the Northeast Dairy Foods Research Center,20. 21
the Cattlemen's Beef Board^23 and the Cattlemen's Beef Association^23 are
groups that have frequently funded these studies.
Corporate influence in the academic research world can take many
forms, ranging from flagrant abuses of personal power to conflicts of
interest, all hidden from public view. This influence does not need to be
a crass payoff to researchers to fabricate data. That sort of behavior is
rare. The more Significant way for corporate interests to influence aca-
demic research is much more sophisticated and effective. As illustrated
by the CLA example, scientists investigate a detail out of context that
can be construed as a favorable message and industry exploits it for all
it's worth. Almost no one knows where the CLA hypothesis started and
who originally funded it.
Few people really question such research if it is published in the best
journals. Very few people, especially among the public, know which
studies are "benefiting" from direct corporate funding. Very few people
are able to sort out the technical details and recognize the missing in-
formation that would otherwise establish context. Almost everyone,
however, understands that headline in my local newspaper.
I could play this game, too. If I wanted to hurt the dairy industry and
be a little wild in my interpretation of study results, I could produce an-
other headline to say, "New birth control chemical discovered in cow's
milk." Recent research, for example, showed that CLA dramatically kills
chick embryos.13 Also, CLA increases the tissue level of saturated fats
that could (using our dramatic method of interpretation) exacerbate
heart disease risk. Of course, I have taken these two unrelated effects
grossly out of context in my example. I don't really know whether these
CLA effects actually translate into less fertility and more heart disease
for humans, but if I were playing the game the way industry enthusiasts
do, I wouldn't mind. It would make a great headline, and that can go a
long way.
I recently met with one of the members of The Airport Club, a scien-
tist who has been involved in the CLA effort, and he confessed that the
CLA effect will never be anything more than a drug effect. However, you
can bet that what is known in private will not be told in public.