Food Frontiers is Gone

Well, good for all the sciblings who stood up and took a stance that forced this. Congratulations to scienceblogs for listening and responding.

I called it! I suggested that they would pull the plug before the first substantive post. It was obvious that this was never going to be anything but a PR disaster. I mean what were they thinking?

But having said that I'm kinda sorry to see them go. It would have been real entertainment.

The next question is what was Seed thinking?

Not sure if that was indeed the best possible decision. Since no article has been (or ever will be) posted, we will never know, if the blog was supposed to be an outlet for mindless PR drivel or if would have contained some actual science. I am not certain if the anti-big-cooperation-sentiment that seemed to come through on SB.com is the right way to go - industry-funded science is science as well and scientists working in industry should not be kept out of discussions just because of fear of PR, which - of that I am certain - most SB readers would be able to spot instantly anyway...

Thank goodness. Can we all now get back to buisness as usual?

Christian,

It was the best business decision for both Pepsi and Seed. It is still a shame. It would have been fun. Well, not for Pepsi or Seed...

A corporation is by its nature a control freak. That does not make them evil its just the nature of the beast. Look at Apple computer. Look at Microsoft. Look at the recent PR trouble Best Buy got into over an employee made cartoon that didn't even mention Best buy.

If the control freak controls the content and moderation of a blog then no dialog is possible. That's not a criticism of big business. That's just a fact of life. A corporation is not a person no matter what the court said. It has no morality. It has no ethics or conscience. It does not feel anything. That's
not a criticism of corporations anymore than it is a criticism of rocks.

Shell once sponsored a science blog but they had no editorial control over it. If a corporation wanted to sponsor open dialog that's the way to do it.

But why would they do it? How is it in their best interest?

The Shell blog (The Energy Grid) was shut down by design after a short run. It was reasonably good but the down side risk for Shell was unsupportable. Just think what it would be like now with what is happening in the Gulf.

Hi Greg. There's some weird linkage mix-up. The two "Food Frontiers is Gone" entries link to each other.

Huh. Truly an enigma wrapped in a riddle, that one.

As I look at this page there is one ad for an online degree mill, X-Box 360 and "electronic cigarettes", whatever the hell that is. Obviously Seed Media has no qualms about accepting corporate cash for advertising to pay for maintaining the website. Let Pepsico donate to a real lab and buy space in the margins of Sb. There is a lot of false flag "science" out there without having Seed play that game.

A corporation is not a person no matter what the court said. It has no morality. It has no ethics or conscience. It does not feel anything. That's
not a criticism of corporations anymore than it is a criticism of rocks.

If a corporation was a person it would be in therapy: http://tinyurl.com/272uap

"[PepsiCo] is committed to making a positive impact on global nutrition." -- Mehmood Khan, the PepsiCo mouthpiece.

The blog was a farce and a lie before the first word was on the page. I had no interest in seeing it further damage the credibility of Sb, and its prenatal demise was absolutely the best outcome.