Mike Gale
UK
Biotechnologist who was a fellow of the Royal Society and former acting director of John Innes Centre (JIC). Served on the UK's Advisory Committee on Genetic Modification. Gale told his local paper that a GM moratorium would be a serious financial blow to the JIC. "It would be very, very serious for us." The article continues, "A ban would choke off many grants which the John Innes Centre receives from industry to research genetic modification techniques." Helped author the 1999 Nuffield Council report on GM crops and the 2003 follow up.
Profiles: Powerbase
Article: Two-faced science
Linked to: John Innes Centre, Royal Society, Nuffield Council
Mike Gasson
UK
Former chair of the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP), member of the UK government's GM Science Review (2003), and a member of EFSA's GMO panel. Former head of food safety science at the Institute of Food Research (IFR), a BBSRC-funded institute which in 2017 became part of Quadram Institute Bioscience. Consultant to Danisco Venture - a venture capital company that invests in biotech firms.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: Europe's conflicted out advisors
Linked to: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Derek Burke
Gatsby Charitable Foundation
UK
Grant-making trust with strong links to the biotech industry, set up by the former UK science minister Lord David Sainsbury.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: John Innes Centre, David Sainsbury, Science for Sustainable Agriculture
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)
USA
Private foundation, launched in 2000 and based in Seattle. Direction of BMGF's agricultural division set at early stage by hiring Monsanto's former Vice President Rob Horsch, and Lawrence Kent of the Monsanto-funded Donald Danforth Plant Science Center to hold the purse strings. BMGF spent about $6 billion in 17 years aimed at helping smallholder farmers in the Global South, mainly in Africa. But majority of grant money earmarked for Africa has gone to institutions in the US and Europe. Of the money that has made it to Africa, 80% has gone to three main groups: the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), which promotes industrial agriculture in Africa; the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), which seeks to expand the use of GMO crops in Africa; and institutes belonging to the global network of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which has long promoted industrial agriculture in the Global South. BMGF has also helped fund the CGIAR's International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, which is developing genetically engineered golden rice, and the Cornell Alliance for Science - a PR campaign to increase GM crop acceptance, especially in Africa, in which Mark Lynas is prominent and which is advised by Jay Byrne, former director of corporate communications at Monsanto.
Video: Rich Appetites: Money (American billionaires are bankrolling corporate control of African agriculture under the guise of "philanthropy")
Resources guide: Critiques of Gates Foundation agricultural interventions in Africa
Book: The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire
Articles: Gates 'failing green revolution in Africa'
Bill Gates Should Stop Telling Africans What Kind of Agriculture Africans Need
How the Gates Foundation is driving the food system, in the wrong direction
Gates Foundation agriculture project in Africa flunks review
The New Colonialist Food Economy
Links to: AGRA, AATF, CGIAR, IRRI, Cornell Alliance for Science, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Rob Horsch, Lawrence Kent, Sarah Evanega, Mark Lynas, Patricia Nanteza, Robert Paarlberg
GenePool
New Zealand
Former PR outfit that claimed to be an independent educational trust while being funded by Monsanto, among others.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: Communications Trumps, Life Sciences Network, Norrey Simmons
Genetic Interest Group
UK
Alliance of organisations with a membership of over 120 charities which supports people affected by genetic disorders. Lobbied heavily (and successfully) for patents on life. Its Policy Officer at the time, John Gillott, is part of the LM group. Funded by GlaxoSmithKline, among others.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: Invasion of the Entryists
Linked to: LM group
Genetic Literacy Project (GLP) USA
Key partner in industry PR efforts to promote GMOs, defend pesticides, and attack their critics - sometimes with unethical practices. Named in a court filing as funded by Monsanto and known to be generously funded by Bayer. GLP's founding director Jon Entine is a long-time defender of chemical industry interests with close connections to former Monsanto PR boss Jay Byrne. Pamela Ronald, Ted Nordhaus, Geoffrey Kabat and Drew Kershen have appeared on tax forms as board members of the Science Literacy Project - the GLP's parent organisation. Ronald and Nordhaus are both affiliated with the Breakthrough Institute, whose Food and Agriculture Analyst, Emma Kovac, used to work for the GLP. Geoffrey Kabat is affiliated with the industry front group the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), whose Director of Bio-Sciences, Cameron English, was previously managing editor at the GLP. Cameron English also presents a podcast for the GLP with Kevin Folta. The GLP and its executive director Jon Entine have both been accused of engaging in racist pseudoscience.
Profiles: USRTK and SourceWatch
Article: Monsanto's Smear Merchant is Now Bayer's Bully
The Three Stooges of Science Denial
The Making of an Agribiz Apologist
Once Aligned to Fight for Monsanto, GMO Activists Now Battle Among Themselves
Pro-GMO group accused of unethical practices
5 Astroturf Groups You Should Stop Sharing From
Linked to: Jon Entine, Jay Byrne, Pamela Ronald, Monsanto, Geoffrey Kabat, STATS, Science Literacy Project, Sense About Science USA, Cameron English, Kevin Folta, Mary Mangan, Stephan Neidenbach, Emma Kovac, Ted Nordhaus, Breakthrough Institute, American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), Drew Kershen, Keith Kloor
Genius
Germany
Company behind the websites GMO Compass and GMO Safety. Numbers among its clients: the American Soybean Association, BASF, Bayer, EuropaBio and Syngenta.
Articles: Complaint about Online Poll, Commission Funding Biotech PR Effort
Linked to: GMO Compass
Leonard Gianessi
USA
Program director and senior research associate at the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, a pro-GM industry group.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy
L. Val Giddings
USA
Former vice president for food and agriculture of the Biotechnology Industry Organisation (later called the Biotechnology Innovation Organisation), which represents the big GM firms. Now runs the consulting firm Prometheus Agricultural Biotech, and is a senior fellow at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). With Jay Byrne and Eric Sachs, a PR operative for Monsanto, helped set up the corporate front group Academics Review, launched with undisclosed industry money by two "independent professors" Bruce Chassy and David Tribe.
Profiles: USRTK and Powerbase
Articles: The Fake Parade
How the #Nobels4GMOs campaign is rife with biotech industry ties
Monsanto Fingerprints Found All Over Attack On Organic Food
Linked to: Biotechnology Industry Organisation, Jay Byrne, C.S. Prakash, AgBioWorld, Academics Review, Bruce Chassy, Eric Sachs, David Tribe
James Glassman
USA
Journalist who hosts a pro-free market corporate-funded website, originally called Tech Central Station (since renamed TCS Daily). Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: American Enterprise Institute, Tech Central Station
Global Farmer Network (previously Truth about Trade and Technology) USA
US-based pressure group founded in 2000 and formerly known as Truth about Trade and Technology, which lobbies for open markets for US agribusiness and GMOs. Originally centered on Iowa, it now uses farmers from around the world to help promote its agenda and for that reason it rebranded as the Global Farmer Network in 2016. Its Advisory Council includes former Monsanto Vice President Rob Horsch and CS Prakash of AgBioWorld. Its leadership includes Bill Horan, a founder member of Truth about Trade and Technology and UK farmer and GM enthusiast, Paul Temple.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: Fake 'Farmer Willi' part of an international fake parade
The truth about Truth about Trade
See also: American Farm Bureau Federation, Iowa Farm Bureau, Dean Kleckner
GM Crops & Food UK/USA
Avidly pro-GM journal established in 2010 and originally called GM Crops. Editors-in-chief are CS Prakash of AgBioWorld fame and Naglaa A Abdallah, who studied under Roger Beachy, has close connections with ISAAA and USAID, and is a member of PRRI. Its editorial board has included such well-known GM promoters as Graham Brookes, Swapan K Datta, Huw D Jones, Henry I Miller, Alan Raybould, Stuart Smyth and Jeff Stein, as well as several industry scientists working for the GM giants such as Syngenta and Pioneer Hi-Bred International, now part of Corteva. It is building an Article Collection on GMO Narratives and Misinformation with guest advisors Mark Lynas and Robert Paarlberg, and published an article by Lynas that was itself accused in a peer reviewed critique of being misinformation.
Articles: Peer-reviewed critique: Mark Lynas's article accusing GMO critics of spreading "misinformation" is itself misinformation
Linked to: CS Prakash, AgBioWorld, Mark Lynas, Robert Paarlberg, Graham Brookes, Swapan K Datta, Huw D Jones, Henry I Miller, Alan Raybould, Stuart Smyth, Jeff Stein, Syngenta, ISAAA, USAID, PRRI
GMO Compass
European Union
Website established with EU-funding, claiming neutrality on GM, but avidly pro-GM. Run by a German company (Genius) which numbers amongst its clients: the American Soybean Association, BASF, Bayer, EuropaBio and Syngenta.
Articles: Complaint about Online Poll, Commission Funding Biotech PR Effort
Linked to: Klaus Ammann, European Federation of Biotechnology
Golden Genomics
South Africa
Biotech consultancy launched by Muffy Koch, one of the key pro-GM lobbyists operating out of South Africa. Koch has also been involved in government regulation of GM crops in South Africa.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: 'Conflict of interest' in GMO advisory panel
Linked to: Muffy Koch, SAGENE, Jennifer Thomson
Golden Rice Network
Philippines
Project of the International Rice Research Institute to develop and promote GM Golden Rice for the developing world.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: Gerard Barry, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, International Rice Research Institute, Ingo Potrykus
Richard E Goodman USA
Former Monsanto employee, also worked with ILSI, parachuted into the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT) after it published a paper by Prof Gilles-Eric Séralini. Goodman also collaborated with Monsanto to defeat GMO labelling efforts.
Articles: The Goodman Affair: Monsanto Targets the Heart of Science
Retraction by corruption: the 2012 Séralini paper
La discrète influence de Monsanto
Richard Goodman: Labeling Law a Win for Industry-Academic Partnerships
Linked to: Wallace A Hayes, Monsanto
Alan Gottlieb
USA
Founder of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, which has been at the heart of the backlash against the green movement.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, Wise Use Movement
Hugh Grant UK/USA
Monsanto's final Chairman and CEO (2003-2018), who received an exit payment of about $32 million when Bayer bought Monsanto. Grant was in charge of Monsanto's Asian-Pacific division at the time bribes were paid to more than 140 Indonesian government officials. Former advisor to Scottish Enterprise.
Articles: "Definitive historical account" of Monsanto provides motherlode of valuable material
Controversial Monsanto Chief Exec Hugh Grant in Glasgow
The Uncle Tom Award
Support for Scotland adviser in bribes row
Linked to: Monsanto, Robb Fraley, Robert Shapiro, Rob Horsch, Scottish Enterprise
Susan Greenfield
UK
Former director of the Royal Institution. While director, was at the centre of efforts to control how controversial scientific issues, like GM and cloning, are presented to the public, and provided the Science Media Centre with its original home. Co-founded the biotech company Neuro-bio Ltd, where she is CEO.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: An end to health scares?
Coincidence or Conspiracy?
Linked to: Royal Institution, Science Media Centre, Social Issues Research Centre, LM group
Growers for Biotechnology
USA
Industry front group.
Articles: GM seed bill sidelined following private dinner with Monsanto
Grooming wheat growers for Monsanto
Linked to: Al Skogen
Vincent Guyot
France
French farmer whose much publicised open letter strongly defending glyphosate turned out to have been initiated and ghostwritten by PR operatives working for Monsanto. Guyot is part of the astroturf farmers group Agriculture et Liberté. The PR agencies behind this group and his open letter are Red Flag Consulting, FleishmanHillard and Lincoln Strategy.
Articles: Fake "Farmer Willi" part of an international fake parade
Cette tribune signée par un agriculteur pro-glyphosate a-t-elle été "ghost-writée" par Monsanto?
Linked to: Agriculture et Liberté, Red Flag Consulting, FleishmanHillard, Lincoln Strategy, Raum für Landwirtschaft, Free to Farm, Liberta di coltivare, Libertad para consultar, Rolnictwo Dobrej Praktyki, Vrijheid om te Boeren