Called the University Research Corridor, or URC, the collection of research projects at the three schools and the parallel projects and business supported by the initiative brought in an estimated $15.2 billion to the Michigan economy, according to university sources. The article touts the federal grants given to researchers involved in the URC and the national attention paid to the research projects at the Michigan schools.

According to those involved in the URC, the major focus of the initiative focus on the nuclear sciences and the creation of genetically modified organisms — or GMOs — specifically, genetically modified plants and crops.

Those quoted in the article believe such initiatives could help feed the growing human population in the decades to come as well as treat and cure illness in the states and beyond. However, such assertions are heavily contested.

The research projects incorporated in the URC represent some of the most controversial research practices in the West. Many students undoubtedly walked away from The State News’ uncritical coverage of these initiatives without fully comprehending the totality of the promotion of genetic engineering of our food and of nuclear energy and nuclear medicine.

MSU has a long history of collaboration with the government and various private interests for nefarious purposes similar to that of the URC. In the 1950s and ‘60s, collaboration between the Department of State and MSU — initially as a means to train South Vietnamese in Western government functions, such as policing — was later exposed as a broader CIA front that not only sought to bolster the South Vietnamese government but branched out to more odious endeavors, including militaristic practices aimed at advancing covert imperialist policies in East Asia.

Similar claims about the promotion of imperialist aims under the cloak of academia and academic freedom were made after the invasion of the Iraq when then-MSU President Peter McPhearson took a leave of absence from the university to establish banking systems there.

Then, as well as now, the uncritical nature with which questions are asked of the university — be it by The State News or others — allows various departments and administrators to say one thing and do another. In this instance, the university purports to better feed future generations while undermining those endeavors through genetic engineering projects being undertaken at MSU.

This most recent coverage of the URC chronicles various experiments being conducted on plants. These types of projects have been ongoing in developed countries for decades, with multinational corporations like Monsanto partnering with the government to place these foods and seeds in foreign aid programs. But for many, the jury still is out on the safety and environmental sustainability of such genetically modified seeds and crops.

Citing the potential dangers of GMOs, dozens of countries — including Ireland, Egypt, Japan, China and Zimbabwe — have either banned or severely restricted the importation or cultivation of genetically modified crops.

In 2010, as part of an aid package, Monsanto attempted to “donate” hundreds of tons of genetically modified seeds to Haitian farmers devastated by the earthquake earlier that year. The Haitians responded by burning the seeds, with one Haitian official telling the company that bringing GMOs to Haiti constituted “a very strong attack on small agriculture, on farmers, on biodiversity, on Creole seeds… and on what is left our environment in Haiti.”

The initiatives undertaken within the URC constitutes what philosopher Vandana Shiva identifies as a process of reductionist fragmentation within Western science, which devalues plants, animals and ecological cycles in favor of a disconnected and androcentric worldview.

Even though the URC might bring money to our state and our community, we have to ask ourselves about the unintended costs associated with such projects. These collaborations constitute a misuse of money that would be better spent on life-affirming initiatives rather than projects that further dangerous and unsustainable industrial agricultural practices.

Mitch Goldsmith is a State News guest columnist and social relations and policy, women’s and gender studies senior. Reach him at goldsm400@msu.edu.