NOTE: Good to see PCU's condemnation of the media manipulation designed to downplay governmental support and funding for an unpopular and potentially dangerous technology while the claim is repeatedly made that the public is gradually finding the growing and consumption of GM crops more acceptable. PCU suggest this tactic owes a lot to Dr Goebbels: "If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth."
For more background on the John Innes Centre:
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/John_Innes_Centre
More on the current GM push in the UK:
http://bit.ly/LUGO3d
On the corporate take over of UK public science
http://www.spinwatch.org/-articles-by-category-mainmenu-8/46-gm-industry/5505-science-one-whining-greenies-nil
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Media 19: Why is John Innes Centre 'winning' GBP6m for GM research headline news but not Government's GBP45m?
Political Cleanup, July 15 2012
http://political-cleanup.org/?p=5555
A month after the event, the BBC has announced Gates Foundation funding for John Innes' GM research but fails to mention that this is minute compared with the British government's contribution:
"A team of British plant scientists has won a $10m (GBP6.4m) grant from the Gates Foundation to develop GM cereal crops. It is one of the largest single investments into GM in the UK and will be used to cultivate corn, wheat and rice that need little or no fertiliser. It comes at a time when bio-tech researchers are trying to allay public fears over genetic modification. The work at the John Innes Centre in Norwich is hoped to benefit African farmers who cannot afford fertiliser."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18845282
News? With no reference to genetic modification, this funding was first tactfully announced a month ago on the Gates Foundation website:
"Purpose: to test the feasibility of developing cereal crops capable of fixing nitrogen as an environmentally-sustainable approach for small farmers in sub-Saharan Africa to increase maize yields Date: June 2012"
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/grants-2012/pages/john-innes-centre-opp1028264.aspx
To date it is not mentioned in the online news section of the John Innes Centre, which describes itself as 'an independent, international centre of excellence in plant science and microbiology'.
[JIC's press release here: http://news.jic.ac.uk/2012/07/cereals-self-fertilise/ ]
Why does John Innes describe itself as 'independent'?
Its website clearly says that more than 50% of its income is from UK government sources, with the majority for 'strategic funding' from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BBSRC.] It is now the Norwich base of the Sainsbury Laboratory.
Its total income was not found online, but in May this year the Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts, announced substantial funding for the UK's bioscience research base: John Innes Centre (JIC), Norwich GBP42M
http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/policy/2012/120524-pr-minister-announces-250m-investment.aspx
BBSRC background
BBSRC's website informs us that it is one of 7 Research Councils that work together as Research Councils UK (RCUK) funded by the Government's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). Its budget for 2011-12 is around GBP445M, and it supports around 1600 scientists and 2000 research students in universities and institutes across the UK.
http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/organisation/organisation-index.aspx
Taking lessons from Goebbels?
PCU deplores media manipulation, designed to downplay the governmental support and funding for a technology while it repeatedly claimed that the public is gradually finding the growing and consumption of GM crops more acceptable.
*For those new to the subject we recommend the GMO Myths and Truths report
Published by Earth Open Source, a not-for-profit organization, it was researched and written by Dr Michael Antoniou, reader in molecular genetics and head, Gene Expression and Therapy Group, King's College London School of Medicine, London, UK, Dr John Fagan, founder and chief scientific officer of one of the world's first GMO testing and certification companies who earlier conducted cancer research at the US National Institutes of Health and Claire Robinson, MPhil, who has a background in investigative reporting and the communication of topics relating to public health, science and policy, and the environment.
Their summarised points are listed on a page on this website.
http://political-cleanup.org/?page_id=5552