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they feared results were public records, he said.
• "I think it's in the best interest of the companies that do business in Iowa, the general public, and the university," said attorney John Bickel, who represented BPI.
• BPI, based in Dakota Dunes, S.D., filed legal action to block the release of records in 2010 after they were requested by Marler Clark, a Seattle law firm that specializes in food safety. The New York Times later sought the documents.
• BPI calls its signature product lean finely textured beef. It is made using a process in which trimmings left after a cow is butchered are heated, lean meat is separated from fat and ammonia is applied to kill bacteria. The product, widely used in ground hamburger, faced a nationwide backlash last year after media reports depicted it as unsavory, causing retailers and schools to stop using it and BPI to close plants in Iowa, Texas and Kansas. The company has filed a $1.2 billion defamation lawsuit against ABC News and scientists who criticized the product.
• The research at issue was conducted by Iowa State microbiologist James Dickson, who was hired by BPI as a food safety consultant in 2002. Dickson defended the company during last year's uproar, saying his research has found that its ammonia process makes the product safer by killing bacteria that causes food-borne illness. Dickson's research has long been cited by the company and its supporters.
• The Iowa Attorney General's Office, which represented the university, argued that releasing the records would not be in the public interest because "they do not affect public policy and do not offer insight as to how government is doing its job." The release would deter companies and farmers from paying ISU for testing, its lawyer argued.
• The office has learned that the requesters no longer seek the records and doesn't expect an appeal, spokesman Geoff Greenwood said Wednesday.
• Attorney Bill Marler said he was skeptical of BPI's claims about Dickson's research and wanted to learn more when his firm sought the records in 2010, including emails between Dickson and BPI and documents such as reports and test results related to his consulting.
• Iowa State gathered 1,650 documents in response but declined to release them after BPI filed a petition for an injunction. BPI argued that the records were exempt from Iowa's public records law because they involved trade secrets, and that Dick (Continued on page 25)
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