It has emerged that the Public Research and Regulation Initiative (PRRI) – a lobby group which has been highly active at MOP3 lobbying for exactly the same agenda as the biotech industry – is being funded by the biotech industry and US agribiz.
PRRI claims that while industry and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been well represented during the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, it represents a non-aligned third group - 'the public research sector involved in developing biotechnological applications' - that should be given a bigger voice. To make sure this sector has a bigger say on the Protocol at MOP3 it has taken over 40 delegates to Brazil to lobby for its positions.
PRRI has always been cagey about how it was funded, talking up funding by governments and non-governmental organisations. But now its funders have been disclosed on its website, revealing that its getting money from Croplife International - the biotech industry's global federation.
It has also been getting money from the US Grains Council, which represents the interersts of US producers and exporters of GM crops.
And tucked away under non-governmental organisations is funding from the Syngenta Foundation. 3 of the 5 seats on the Syngenta Foundation's board are occupied by directors of Syngenta, the world's largest biotech corporation, and Syngenta's Chairman is the Foundation's President!
http://pubresreg.org/Members/Kim/foundation
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=316