In 2014, headlines lit up with bad news about declines in bee health. Research found the decline was, in part, due to the use of neonicotinoid pesticides.

Then Bayer Crop Science – the leading seller of neonicotinoids – opened the Bayer Bee Care Center in North Carolina to great fanfare.

They staffed it with scientists. School children did tours. The former governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory, proclaimed a “Honey Bee Day” and praised Bayer for its “remarkable achievements” caring for bees.

But documents we found reveal another purpose for the Bee Care Team: Bayer, along with the public relations firm Porter Novelli, was a finalist for two national PR awards in 2015 – naming the Bee Care Team as an exemplary form of crisis management public relations.

Read more in Rebecca Raney’s report for U.S. Right to Know, Is it science, or crisis PR? The strange case of the Bayer Bee Care Team [ Ссылка ]

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