The 2005 Corporate Responsibility Index, published by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, ranks British American Tobacco (BAT) as amongst the six worst performers out of the twenty-seven companies included. The index is based on corporate self-assessments reviewed by Ernst & Young accountants. The index table features a bold tick of approval for BAT, which the key explains means it scored "less than 75%," the lowest category. In a letter to the editor, University of Sydney public health professor Simon Chapman asked, "Why so coy in giving the actual score?" After calculating that BAT Australia is responsible for 8,550 avoidable deaths, Chapman scored the company at zero. He also requested "that those organising the CRI index don't debase the corporate responsibility movement in future by allowing tobacco companies to enter."

U.S. agribusiness giant Monsanto recently announced it was raising its earnings expectations. "Monsanto's genetically engineered seed sales are booming - a 20 per cent increase last quarter - and the company expects the growth to continue as it expands outside the U.S.," AP reported. One reason may be Monsanto's extensive use of PR. GM Watch's Jonathan Matthews looks at the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a U.S.-based civil rights group with ties to Monsanto that has become an outspoken advocate of GE foods. Matthews reports on CORE's claims that the global environmental movement's opposition to biotech is "lethal eco-imperialism" and "devastates families and communities and kills millions every year." At CORE's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. dinner this year, Karl Rove was honored with a "Public Service Award." Monsanto's CEO Hugh Grant chaired the dinner with Option One Mortgage's president and CEO Bob Dubrish.