Ronald Bailey
USA
Science correspondent at the libertarian Reason magazine.
Profiles: Powerbase
Links to: Cato Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Hudson Institute, Reason, Wise Use
Janet Bainbridge
UK
Former chair Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP). Former Trustee of Sense About Science. Sat on Food Standards Agency's General Advisory Committee on Science.
Profiles: Powerbase
Links to: Food Standards Agency, Sense About Science
Peter Barfoot
UK
Agricultural economist and co-director with Graham Brookes of PG Economics, which brings out regular reports commissioned by the biotech industry claiming extraordinary successes with GM crops.
Profiles: Powerbase
Article: GMOs cut greenhouse gas emissions, says new report
Links to: Graham Brookes, ISAAA, AgBioForum
Gerard Barry
Ireland
Worked for Monsanto for 20 years and credited with having found the gene for glyphosate tolerance that made Monsanto's Roundup Ready crops possible. Coordinator of the Golden Rice Network at the International Rice Research Institute. Advisor to the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF).
Profiles: Powerbase
Links to: International Rice Research Institute, Ingo Potrykus, Monsanto
Roger Bate
UK
Free market lobbyist who promotes an industry agenda from multiple platforms, including aggressively promoting GM and attacking organics.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: How the Battle Over a Pesticide Led to Scientific Skepticism
Links to: Julian Morris, Dennis Avery, European Science and Environment Forum, Institute of Economic Affairs, American Enterprise Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, International Policy Network
Patrick Bateson
UK
Former Biological Secretary and Vice President of Royal Society, involved in attacks on Dr. Arpad Pusztai.
Profiles: Powerbase
Links to: Royal Society
David Baulcombe
UK
Emeritus Professor of Botany, Cambridge University and avid supporter of GM crops. Former head of Sainsbury Laboratory at the John Innes Centre. Former Chair of the Management Board of Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge. Fellow of the Royal Society and Royal Society Council member. Trustee Board Member Rothamsted Research. Former Research Council Member BBSRC. Syngenta among his research funders. Co-signatory, together with Roger Beachy, Swapan Datta, Nina Fedoroff, and Gurdev S Khush, of a highly misleading editorial that falsely claimed Golden Rice "has been ready for farmers to use since the turn of the 21st century."
Profiles: Powerbase
Article: False Reports and the Smears of Men
Links to: John Innes Centre, Sainsbury Laboratory, Royal Society, Rothamsted Research, BBSRC, Syngenta
Bayer
Germany
One of the biggest pharmaceutical and agricultural companies in the world. Already the world's second biggest agrochemical company even before its 2018 take-over of Monsanto, which was the world's biggest seed company, the owner of over 80% of all GM seeds planted globally, and a leader in the global herbicide market. Bayer/Monsanto's main GM product remains crops resistant to glyphosate - the active ingredient in the company's herbicide Roundup.
History: GMWatch
Resources: GMWatch
Articles: Bayer: Corporate Crimes
Bayer's Toxic Trails: Market power, monopolies, and global lobbying
Links to: Monsanto
Roger Beachy
USA
First director of USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Founding president of the Monsanto-backed Danforth Plant Science Center.
Profiles: Powerbase
Links to: Monsanto, Chris Lamb, Danforth Plant Science Center
Beckett Brown International, Inc. (BBI) USA
Private security firm hired by PR agencies like Ketchum and Nichols Dezenhall (now known as Dezenhall Resources) to spy on groups working to expose GMO safety concerns. Clients included Dow Chemical and Monsanto. Firm's name subsequently changed to S2i.
Articles: Black Ops, Green Groups
The dirty history of corporate spying
Greenpeace finds itself in cross hairs
Video: Greenpeace Spygate lawsuit breaks on CNBC
Links to: Ketchum, Nichols Dezenhall
Bell Pottinger Good Relations
UK
PR firm that's worked for Monsanto.
Profiles: Powerbase
Links to: David Hill, Monsanto
Andrew Bennet
UK
Formerly the Executive Director of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture. Retired from this position in 2008 to join the Syngenta Foundation Board.
Links to: Syngenta, Syngenta Foundation
Alex Berezow USA
Former Vice President of Scientific Communications at the industry front group the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) and contributor to the Genetic Literacy Project, which works with Monsanto. He's also the founding editor of Real Clear Science and is on the USA Today editorial board of contributors but USA Today does not disclose Berezow’s ACSH affiliation or ACSH's corporate funding despite repeated complaints. Berezow co-authored with Hank Campbell the book, Science Left Behind: Feel Good Fallacies and the Rise of the Anti Science Left.
Articles: Alex Berezow Hates Science, Is a Menace to Public Health
Council on Strategic Risks Cuts Ties With Alex Berezow
Links to: Elizabeth Whelan, Henry I Miller, Dennis Avery, Gilbert Ross, Hank Campbell, Cameron English, Jon Entine
Rick Berman
USA
Berman has been called the "king of corporate front groups and propaganda" and his PR firm Berman & Co has aggressively targeted GM and food industry critics, among others.
Profiles: Powerbase and SourceWatch
Articles: Why Tricky Ricky's carping about GE fish campaign
'Win Ugly or Lose Pretty': Industry Talk Secretly Taped
5 Astroturf Groups You Should Stop Sharing From
Links to: Center for Consumer Freedom, ActivistCash
Sir Colin Berry UK
Emeritus professor of pathology, and former Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides, who has consulted for Monsanto, BASF, Bayer and DuPont. He is both a contributor to and shareholder in Spiked. Advisor to Sense About Science, the Scientific Alliance, the American Council on Science and Health, among others.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: Phony experts with veiled conflicts of interest polluting debates on endocrine disruptors, glyphosate, GMOs
Smelling a Corporate Rat
Links to: International Policy Network, Science Media Centre, Spiked, Scientific Alliance, Monsanto, Sense About Science
Biofortified (Biology Fortified Inc) USA
A non-profit for pro-GMO activists listed by Monsanto as one of its "industry partners". Its directors have included Kevin Folta, Pamela Ronald, David Tribe and its co-founders Karl Haro von Mogel and Anastasia Bodnar. According to one critic, "The group's name gives away its PR-centric mission: to disguise a technology used chiefly to promote greater pesticide use as one that instead produces non-existent crops 'biofortified' with vitamins and minerals to alleviate malnutrition."
Profiles: USRTK and Sourcewatch
Articles: Once aligned to fight for Monsanto, GMO activists now battle among themselves
How "the Biofortified boys" defended the pesticide industry's secrets in Hawaii
New row erupts over Folta's failure to disclose lucrative Bayer consultancy
Why Is the Co-Founder of a Monsanto "Industry Partner" Advising the USDA Secretary?
Links to: Anastasia Bodnar, Karl Haro von Mogel, Kevin Folta, Pamela Ronald, David Tribe, Mary Mangan, Cami Ryan, Drew Kershen, Calestous Juma, Steve Savage, Kavin Senapathy
Biogemma
France
The biotech research arm of Limagrain.
Profiles: Powerbase
Links to: Pierre Pagesse
BioScience Communications Ltd
New Zealand
Former PR company with links to Life Sciences Network, which lobbies for GM foods.
Profiles: Powerbase
Links to: BioScience News and Advocate, Communications Trumps, Life Sciences Network
BioScience News and Advocate
New Zealand
Pro-GM website with links to the PR company Life Sciences Network.
Profiles: Powerbase
Links to: BioScience Communications Ltd, Communications Trumps, Life Sciences Network
Bio-Scope
Germany 
Switzerland
Pro-GM website co-edited by Klaus Ammann and supported by EuropaBio.
Profiles: Powerbase
Links to: Klaus Ammann, EuropaBio
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
UK
Major public funding body, closely aligned with the biotech industry.
Profiles: Powerbase
Links to: Peter Doyle, Syngenta, David Baulcombe
Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO)
USA
The biotech industry's major trade association, formerly known as the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
Profiles: Powerbase
Links to: L. Val Giddings, Patrick Moore
Biotechnology Institute
UK
Funded by Monsanto and Novartis. Produced pro-GM leaflet for schools.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: Fury at Pro-GM School Magazines
Links to: Scottish Enterprise
Biotechnology Outreach Society of Zambia
Zambia
"Spearheading biotech outreach in Zambia". Headed by Luke Mumba.
Profiles: Powerbase
Links to: Luke Mumba
Bivings Group
USA
Controversial PR firm that worked for Monsanto on internet PR.
Profiles: Powerbase
Article: The Fake Persuaders, Corporate Phantoms, Immoral Maize
Links to: Jay Byrne, Mary Murphy, C. S. Prakash, Andura Smetacek, Center for Food and Agricultural Research
Jack Bobo USA
Longtime US State Department and industry lobbyist for GMOs. Played a key role in pressing governments around the world to adopt pro-GMO policies and laws and/or oppose safeguards and the labelling of GM food. Currently, Director of the Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Previously, Director of the Food Systems Institute at the University of Nottingham.
Articles: American biotech lobbyist drives GMO deregulation discussions in UK, EU
Video: Transgenic Wars
Anastasia Bodnar USA
Co-founder and a former director of Biofortified and an advisor on biotechnology to Secretary Tom Vilsack of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Subscriber to Bonus Eventus. One time member of the Kevin Folta fan club.
Articles: Why Is the Co-Founder of a Monsanto "Industry Partner" Advising the USDA Secretary?
Once Aligned to Fight for Monsanto, GMO Activists Now Battle Among Themselves
Links to: Biofortified, Karl Haro von Mogel, Kevin Folta, Pamela Ronald, David Tribe, Mary Mangan, Kavin Senapathy
Hidde Boersma 
Netherlands
Dutch publicist, microbiologist, and co-founder, with Mark Lynas, of ecomodernist campaign group WePlanet (formerly RePlanet), which has been accused of having "all the hallmarks of a sophisticated astroturf organisation" in its attempt to rebrand ecomodernism as more of a grassroots citizens' movement than a lavishly funded industry-aligned campaign promoting GMOs, nuclear power and synthetic food. Boersma has produced a film promoting GM crops, is planning another promoting GM mosquitoes, and has been trying to crowdfund yet another defending glyphosate. Boersma also helped author the book Ecomodernisme (2017), the publicity for which claims: "There are no limits to growth... Solar panels and wind turbines are a costly mistake, nuclear energy is the future. Organic farming will not feed the world, intensive farming will." Was the coordinator for WePlanet of the so-called "Laureate's letter" in support of the deregulation of new GMOs in the European Union.
Articles: George Monbiot's ally RePlanet accused of smelling "like astroturf"
George Monbiot teams up with Mark Lynas and the ecomodernists to Reboot Food
"Laureates' letter" misled signatories about GMO regulation in Europe, has industry's fingerprints all over it
Links to: RePlanet, Mark Lynas, Patricia Nanteza, RePlanet Africa
Bonus Eventus USA
Private social network for sharing 3,000 plus derogatory profiles of "critics" of pesticides and GMOs, as well as other agrochemical industry propaganda. It has 1,000 or so invite-only members, including policy makers and regulators from around the world. Developed by the PR firm v-Fluence, located, like Monsanto, in St Louis, and founded by Jay Byrne. Monsanto's controversial former director of public affairs and chief internet strategist. Funded between 2013 and 2019 by USAID with over $400,000 of US taxpayer dollars, paid to v-Fluence via the Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS). Another PR firm, the White House Writers Group, also seems to have been involved in running Bonus Eventus at an early stage.
Articles: US government paid PR firm to track and vilify critics of GMOs and pesticides
"Defend or be Damned": How a US company uses government funds to suppress pesticide opposition around the world
RSF condemns the agrochemical industry's shameful practice of profiling and slandering environmental journalists
European Parliament urged to call for immediate investigation into Poison PR
Video: How a US company uses government funds to suppress pesticide opposition
A PR firm got your tax dollars to track and dox pesticide critics
The secret network keeping harmful pesticides on the market
Links: Jay Byrne, v-Fluence, USAID, White House Writers Group
Norman Borlaug (1914-2009)
USA
Green Revolution scientist and keen supporter of pesticides, including DDT, and the "Gene Revolution". The only agricultural scientist to have received a Nobel Peace Prize, Borlaug is credited with saving millions from mass starvation. But recent historical research is forcing a complete rethink on the Green Revolution, suggesting the number of lives Borlaug actually saved may have been zero. In Founders Circle of American Council on Science and Health.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: Historians rethink the Green Revolution
New histories of the Indian Green Revolution
Links to: American Council on Science and Health, C S Prakash
Rebecca Bowden
UK
Involved in the Royal Society attacks on Dr Arpad Pusztai.
Profiles: Powerbase
Article: Pro-GM food scientist 'threatened editor'
Links to: Royal Society, Lord David Sainsbury
Stewart Brand USA
The once editor of The Whole Earth Catalog is a strong champion of nuclear power, GM crops, synthetic biology, cloning and geoengineering. A signatory of An Ecomodernist Manifesto. Mark Lynas acknowledges Brand as a major influence. In recent years Brand has become particularly associated with the rebranding of Jurassic Park-type cloning as "de-extinction" (bringing back the woolly mammoth, etc.), which has been called "a transparently phony concept" that "in general won't work as typically advertised".
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: The Repentant Environmentalist: Part 3
When will Stewart Brand admit he was wrong?
Dear Stewart Brand: If we can't trust your claims on DDT, why should we trust you on anything else?
Should We Be Trying to Bring Extinct Species Back to Life?
The Zen Playboy
On Floating Upstream
Links to: Mark Lynas, Breakthrough Institute, Ted Nordhaus, Michael Shellenberger, Ryan Phelan, Patrick Moore, George Church
Breakthrough Institute USA
Think tank co-founded by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, who helped co-author An Ecomodernist Manifesto. They have been described as "lobbyists for techno-fixes who engage in endless battles with environmentalists." Shellenberger left Breakthrough in 2015. The Breakthrough Institute's "Food and Agriculture Analyst" Emma Kovac aims to enhance "understanding and appreciation of the environmental benefits of agricultural biotechnology." Kovac's boss at Breakthrough, Ted Nordhaus, has appeared on tax forms as a board member of the Science Literacy Project - the parent organisation of the Bayer-funded Genetic Literacy Project, where Kovac previously worked. Authored a report with Mark Lynas and the Alliance for Science on the potential economic losses to the European economy of non-adoption of new GMOs (NGTs).
Article: The New Denial is Delay at the Breakthrough Institute
Links to: Ted Nordhaus, Michael Shellenberger, Emma Kovac, Mark Lynas, Owen Paterson, Matt Ridley, Pamela Ronald, Julie Kelly, Tamar Haspel, Keith Kloor
Graham Brookes
UK
Agricultural economist and co-director with Peter Barfoot of PG Economics, which brings out regular reports commissioned by the biotech industry claiming extraordinary successes with GM crops. Advisory Board member of lobby group Science for Sustainable Agriculture. Reviewer for Academics Review's organic attack report. On the editorial board of GM Crops & Food.
Profiles: Powerbase
Article: GMOs Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Links to: Peter Barfoot, ISAAA, AgBioForum, Academics Review, GM Crops & Food
Tracey Brown UK
Director of Sense About Science since shortly after its formation in 2002. Part of the LM Group as was her original Assistant Director at Sense About Science, Ellen Raphael. Both also previously worked for the PR firm Regester Larkin. Brown earlier sought to collaborate with the tobacco industry. Contributor to Spiked. Board member Sense About Science USA.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: Seeding Doubt: How Self-Appointed Guardians of "Sound Science" Tip the Scales Toward Industry
'Science one, whining greenies nil'
Smelling a corporate rat
Links to: Sense About Science, Dick Taverne, Ellen Raphael, LM group, Science Media Centre, Spiked, Sense About Science USA
Derek Burke
UK
Leading pro-GM campaigner. Chair of UK regulatory committee on GM foods (Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes - ACNFP) for almost a decade (1988-97), during which time the first GM foods were approved for the UK. In the 1980s he worked for a biotech company (Allelix Inc of Toronto) and until 1998 was a director of Genome Research Ltd. Helped author the 1999 Nuffield Council report on GM crops and the 2003 follow up.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: The GM Godfather
More Burke-Gibson duplicity
Leading pro-GM campaigner's many misrepresentations
Links to: Nuffield Council, ACNFP, John Innes Centre
T.J. Buthelezi
South Africa
Farmer who has travelled the world promoting GM crops for Monsanto.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: Raj Patel on T J Buthelezi and Monsanto's Bt cotton project in South Africa
The Uncle Tom Award
A Disaster in Search of Success
Buthelezi Comes Clean on Bt Cotton
Report: GM Crops and Sustainable Poverty Alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa (particularly pp.53-55)
Links to: AfricaBio, Monsanto
Trevor Butterworth USA
Director of Sense About Science USA, launched in 2014 and modelled on its sister UK group Sense About Science. Butterworth has a long history of spinning science for corporate interests. A 2009 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article identified him as a "chemical industry public relations writer". Previously an editor of STATS, a branch of the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA), which has the tobacco industry among its funders. Connects through STATS and CMPA to Jon Entine and the Genetic Literacy Project. Has worked with the (Cornell) Alliance for Science to teach students how to communicate about GMOs.
Profiles: SourceWatch and USRTK
Article: Seeding Doubt: How Self-Appointed Guardians of "Sound Science" Tip the Scales Toward Industry
The Three Stooges of Science Denial: The Genetic Literacy Project, Sense About Science, and STATS
Links to: Sense About Science, Tracey Brown, (Cornell) Alliance for Science, Jon Entine, Genetic Literacy Project, Ellen Raphael
Jay Byrne
USA
Monsanto's controversial former director of public affairs and chief internet strategist. President and CEO of the PR firm v-Fluence, which is located, like Monsanto, in St Louis. Heavily involved in the attacks on the research of Ignacio Chapela and Gilles-Éric Séralini. Organized press event with Nobel Laureates to attack Greenpeace over GMOs. Helped set up Academics Review as a Monsanto front group. PR advisor (2014-Present) to the (Cornell) Alliance for Science. A co-author of Let them Eat Precaution: How politics is undermining the genetic revolution in agriculture, edited by Jon Entine and published by the American Enterprise Institute. Jay Byrne and v-Fluence are co-defendants in a case brought by a family of farmers, some of whom have Parkinson’s disease, against the chemical giant Syngenta. They accuse Byrne and v-Fluence of helping Syngenta suppress information about the risks of paraquat and "neutralize" the company's critics. In 2024, it emerged that USAID had channelled over $400,000 to v-Fluence, via the Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS), for services including "enhanced monitoring" of critics of "modern agriculture approaches" (i.e. GMOs and pesticides). As part of "enhanced monitoring", v-Fluence established the private social network Bonus Eventus as a means of sharing its 3,000 plus derogatory profiles of "critics", as well as other agrochemical industry propaganda developed by v-Fluence, with the 1,000 or so invite-only members of the network, which among others included policy makers and regulators from around the world. The modification logs for the profiles indicate that a significant proportion of the information was entered by Jay Byrne. It also emerged that v-Fluence, together with another PR group - the White House Writers Group, had been paid by the US Department of Agriculture to torpedo the EU's plan to reduce pesticide use.
Profiles: Powerbase and USRTK and SourceWatch
Articles: Immoral Maize, The Covert Biotech War, Smelling a Corporate Rat
How the #Nobels4GMOs campaign is rife with biotech industry ties
Barred from Nobel laureate press conference
107 Nobel Laureate Attack on Greenpeace Traced Back to Biotech PR Operators
Monsanto Fingerprints Found All Over Attack On Organic Food
US government paid PR firm to track and vilify critics of GMOs and pesticides
"Defend or be Damned": How a US company uses government funds to suppress pesticide opposition around the world
RSF condemns the agrochemical industry's shameful practice of profiling and slandering environmental journalists
European Parliament urged to call for immediate investigation into Poison PR
Video: How a US company uses government funds to suppress pesticide opposition
A PR firm got your tax dollars to track and dox pesticide critics
The secret network keeping harmful pesticides on the market
Links to: v-Fluence, AgBioView, AgBioWorld, Bivings Group, Center for Food and Agricultural Research, Mary Mangan, Mary Murphy, CS Prakash, Andura Smetacek, Jon Entine, American Enterprise Institute, Mark Lynas, (Cornell) Alliance for Science, L Val Giddings, Bonus Eventus, Academics Review, Bruce Chassy, Eric Sachs, Sarah Evanega, Keith Kloor, White House Writers Group