NOTE: To understand how the SMC functions as an outrider for corporate interests see Smelling A Corporate Rat
http://www.spinwatch.org/-articles-by-category-mainmenu-8/46-gm-industry/5546
For more on the SMC
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Science_Media_Centre
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Science Media Centre burns 100,000 GBP of public money per year
The Science Media Centre (SMC) is a PR outfit that claims to provide "accurate and evidence-based information about science and engineering through the media, particularly on controversial and headline news stories when most confusion and misinformation occurs".
In reality the SMC can be relied upon to give only one side of "controversial" stories: the side that defends the safety and desirability of GM crops, human genetic technologies, aspartame, the "gender-bender" plastics chemical bisphenol A, pesticides, and just about any risky or controversial product that the SMC's funder corporations and their allies in government want the public to accept.
In effect, the SMC plays the role of defending those technologies against the inconvenient findings of independent science.
Dr Brian John of GM-Free Cymru asked his MP to find out how much public funding per year goes to the SMC.
Here's his MP's response:
"Government funding for the sciences is distributed independently by the seven UK Research Councils. This means that the total Government funding varies across the various councils. However, RCUK, which acts as a partnership for the councils, have been able to provide the total level of funding provided to the Science Media Centre for 2012/13. This amounts to around GBP107,000.
"Although they have as yet been unable to provide figures for previous years, given the Centre's cap on donations, I would expect the figures to be of similar amounts."
This GBP107,000 is just the tip of the iceberg. The SMC also burns up public money from several universities and even the Food Standards Agency.
Corporate funders include GM/agrochemical companies Syngenta, Bayer, and BASF, as well as pharmaceutical companies with biotech interests. Past funders include Monsanto, Dow, and ExxonMobil.