BISMARCK- Dakota Resource Council yesterday asked for Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem’s help in gaining public access to NDSU Research Foundation (NDSURF) documents related to its contracts with biotech giant Monsanto.
“We believe North Dakotans deserve to know what type of research is being done at their land grant university,” said Dean Hulse, Fargo, DRC Chair.
NDSU was a partner with Monsanto in the development of Roundup Ready hard red spring wheat until Monsanto bowed to market pressures and suspended research in May 2004.
DRC submitted its request to NDSURF for the Monsanto documents on May 5. Dale Zetocha, Executive Director of the NDSU Research Foundation, responded May 10, claiming NDSURF is not a public entity and therefore exempt from North Dakota’s Open Records Law.
In its letter to Stenehjem, however, DRC points out that NDSURF’s mission is to support NDSU, and that its governance, finances, communications and research are all linked inseparably to NDSU.
“We are not interested in proprietary information,” Hulse concluded. “We simply want to know what type of commitments our public university is making to a private company on behalf of taxpayers. Is the NDSURF operating in the best interest of farmers and consumers or being unduly influenced by private, special interests?”
Enclosure: DRC letter to Attorney General Stenehjem, dated June 7, 2005.