USDA Muzzles Scientist Who Probes Neonic Pesticide, RNA Interference

"Until fairly recently, Jonathan Lundgren enjoyed a stellar career as a government scientist. An entomologist who studies how agrichemicals affect the  ecology of farm fields, he has published nearly 100 articles in peer-reviewed journal since starting at the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service laboratory in Brookings, South Dakota in 2005. By 2012, he had won the ARS's 'Outstanding Early Career Research Scientist' award, and directorship of his own lab.

But recently, things have changed. His work has 'triggered an official campaign of harassment, hindrance, and retaliation' from his superiors, Lundgren alleged in an official complaint filed with USDA scientific integrity authorities last year. Lundgren took his battle with his USDA superiors public in October, two months after the agency imposed a 14-day without-pay suspension on him. The charges—laid out in a Aug. 3 letter to Lundgren by John McMurtry, associate director of the ARS's Plains Area—centered on infractions regarding a trip to the East Coast to present research, and a failure to get proper clearance from his superiors before submitting a paper to a peer-reviewed journal.

Lundgren, who is currently not authorized to speak to the media, has released a detailed rebuttal of those charges in a document put together by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which is representing him in the dispute."

Tom Philpott reports for Mother Jones December 4, 2015.