2 'tributes' to Brit 'whacktivists' from Prakash's AgBioView list.
In the first he's snipped off the last line of our Comical Praki blurb - the one which linked to his pants of the year award, and hence *why* he might be seen as a brazen disinformer - but there you go!

The second is from Andrew Apel, the Prakash stalwart who called on the U.S. to bomb Zambia with its GM grain when Zambia refused to accept it.

1.Comical Praki takes a joke
2.Crazy dang Brits
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1. Today in AgBioView: June 9, 2003
Uncle Sam's Very Own GM Information Minister
http://www.ngin.org.uk/comical_ali_animated.gif

Meet Uncle Sam's very own GM Information Minister - code name: Comical Praki. Black propaganda, covert operations, Words of Mass Deception... Comical Praki's the man!
(From Prakash: Very funny!

Now that the activists are beginning to show some sense of humor (although dark), can we expect them to further grow up to be more balanced and realistic, and put out animated gifs of say their beloved Vandana morphing into Marie Antoinnette, Mae-Wan Ho into Lysenko and even perhaps their prince charming peddling snake oil?

Nevertheless, It was good to see these Brit activists taking some time off from their usual pastime of spewing of vehement vitriole but indulge in a creative comic albeit twisted pursuit.)
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2. UK's Public Debate.... Crazy dang Brits
- Andrew Apel, <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>t
Today in AgBioView: June 8, 2003

Crazy dang Brits. They've had a "public debate" over GM for years now, so  intense that it's paralyzed government policy and led to countless attacks on field trials. After all of that, the government says that it's finally time, after all these years, to begin a "public debate." What's a  whacktivist do with that? Well, since it's a government operation, you debate against the debate. Say it's underfunded, poorly advertised, the public doesn't know there's a debate going on, etc. But it's also a whacktivist PR opportunity to scare the public.

But this also leaves the whacktivists with both ends covered. On one hand, the government-sponsored "public debate" gives them a new vehicle for the anti-GM campaign. On the other hand, if the government effort shows that the public just wants cheap, safe food, then the whacktivists can say, "it was underfunded and poorly advertised, making the results inaccurate."  

The British government should have at least taken a clue from the New Zealand Royal Commission. After its unprecedented efforts, the whacktivists in NZ are still running amok. The Brits are throwing money at a pointless program that's being subverted by the whacktivists.
Biotech corporations can't do anything about this because they're too busy fighting amongst themselves and hiding trade secrets to pay attention to consumers--which is a market they don't sell to, and don't understand anyhow. They just sell to farmers, and that's all they want to do. And all they've done for the food industry is create problems, and the food industry is slowly crushing them.

Corporations contain within them massive inertia. Once a corporation has chosen a direction, only an emergency of epic proportions can make it change tack. (Oddly reminiscent of one of Newton's Laws.) It doesn't have to be that way--the whacktivists are multinational business groups, but they're always prepared, always have a trick up the sleeve, can turn policy on a dime, and consistently return more income on investment. The corporations may be more guilty of idiocy than the whacktivists.
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THE UNEDITED VERSION
Meet Uncle Sam's very own GM Information Minister - code name: Comical Praki: http://www.ngin.org.uk/comical_ali_animated.gif  Black propaganda, covert operations, Words of Mass Deception... Comical Praki's the man!  For more on Comical Praki, see THE PANTS ON FIRE HOT SHOT: http://ngin.tripod.com/pantsoftheyearaward.htm
hmmm... knew we should have given this guy a pants award!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/stevebell/0,7371,969404,00.html