Peter Lachmann
UK
Former vice president and biological secretary of the Royal Society and former president of the UK's Academy of Medical Sciences. Deeply involved in the attacks on Arpad Pusztai.
Profiles: Powerbase
Book chapter: The 'Star Chamber' (Chapter 6 of Don't Worry, It's Safe to Eat, by Andy Rowell)
Articles: Pro-GM Food Scientist 'Threatened Editor'
Strange Bedfellows,
See also: Royal Society, Ed Dart, Brian Heap, Robert May, Sense About Science
Chris Lamb
UK
Former director of the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK. Co-founded the plant biotech firm Akkadix.
Profiles: Powerbase
Article: Two-faced science
See also: John Innes Centre
Lyndon LaRouche
USA
Lyndon LaRouche, the American former-Marxist cult leader, was one of the first people to use the term "terrorist" in relation to environmentalists.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise
Chris Leaver
UK
Former head of the department of plant sciences at Oxford University and consultant for Syngenta. One of the most privileged voices on GM crops in the UK. Trustee of Sense About Science.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Royal Society, Syngenta
Lexington Communications
UK
PR and lobbying firm that has counted major biotech firms and groups among its clients.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Mike Craven
Liberta di cultivare
Italy
One of the fake farmer groups defending glyphosate set up by PR agencies working for Monsanto
Articles: Fake "Farmer Willi" part of an international fake parade
How lobbyists for Monsanto led a 'grassroots farmers' movement against an EU glyphosate ban
Faux groupes d'agriculteurs de Monsanto: les coulisses d'une manipulation
See also: Red Flag Consulting, FleishmanHillard, Lincoln Strategy Group, Agriculture et Liberté, Free to Farm, Raum für Landwirtschaft, Libertad para consultar, Rolnictwo Dobrej Praktyki, Vrijheid om te Boeren
Libertad para consultar
Spain
One of the fake farmer groups defending glyphosate set up by PR agencies working for Monsanto
Articles: Fake "Farmer Willi" part of an international fake parade
How lobbyists for Monsanto led a 'grassroots farmers' movement against an EU glyphosate ban
Faux groupes d'agriculteurs de Monsanto: les coulisses d'une manipulation
See also: Red Flag Consulting, FleishmanHillard, Lincoln Strategy Group, Agriculture et Liberté, Free to Farm, Liberta di coltivare, Raum für Landwirtschaft, Rolnictwo Dobrej Praktyki, Vrijheid om te Boeren
Liberty Institute
India
Anti-regulation think tank founded by Barun Mitra, who lobbied for GM crops in India. It is part of right-wing coalitions like the International Consumers for Civil Society (ICCS) and the International Policy Network (IPN).
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: AgBioWorld, International Policy Network, Barun Mitra
Conrad Lichtenstein
UK
Professor of molecular biology at Queen Mary College, University of London, genetic engineer, and member of industry-funded lobby CropGen.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: CropGen
Life Sciences Network
New Zealand
PR group that lobbies for GM food and crops.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Communications Trumps, GenePool, Norrey Simmons
Limagrain
France
Farmers' cooperative which has grown into the largest plant breeding and seed company in the European Union and which is in the top five worldwide (the seed firm Vilmorin & Cie is part of the Limagrain group). Has long invested heavily in GM-related research.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: Limagrain, a "cooperative" that has always bet on GMOs
See also: Biogemma, Pierre Pagesse
Lincoln Strategy Group USA
American consulting firm that ran a pro-glyphosate campaign in Europe in tandem with Red Flag Consulting that involved setting up fake grassroots farmer groups in "the eight most important EU countries." The firm was also accused in Le Monde of having breached French data privacy laws, along with other Monsanto PR agencies such as FleishmanHillard, Red Flag Consulting and FTI Consulting, during the EU glyphosate renewal campaign.
Articles: How lobbyists for Monsanto led a 'grassroots farmers' movement against an EU glyphosate ban
Fake "Farmer Willi" part of an international fake parade
PR company accused of using 'tobacco lobbyist tactics' to promote weedkiller linked to cancer
Faux groupes d'agriculteurs de Monsanto: les coulisses d'une manipulation
See also: FleishmanHillard, Red Flag Consulting, Agriculture et Liberté, Free to Farm, Liberta di coltivare, Raum für Landwirtschaft, Libertad para consultar, Rolnictwo Dobrej Praktyki, Vrijheid om te Boeren
Michael Lipton
UK
Former development economist at the Poverty Research Unit, University of Sussex and a strong supporter of GM and GM "Golden Rice". Helped author the 1999 Nuffield Council report on GM crops.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Nuffield Council, Gerard Barry, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, Golden Rice Network, International Rice Research Institute, Ingo Potrykus
Julian Little UK
Former PR man for Bayer Crop Science. Former chair of the UK biotechnology industry lobby group, the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC) and of the EuropaBio Communications Committee in Brussels. Advisory Board member of lobby group Science for Sustainable Agriculture. Quoted as an "expert commentator" by the Science Media Centre without always making it clear he worked for Bayer at the time or that the ABC was an industry lobby group.
Articles: Complacency about GM risky, say academics
See also: Bayer, Agricultural Biotechnology Council, EuropaBio, Science for Sustainable Agriculture, John Innes Centre, Science Media Centre
Martin Livermore
UK
Director of the Scientific Alliance and former PR man for DuPont. Runs his own consultancy, Ascham Associates, and claims to have "extensive networks in the food chain, public sector, NGO and think tank communities". Climate change denier.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: Sowing seeds of doubt: DuPont attempts to influence anti-GM food campaigners
Synthetic independence: spinning it softly
See also: Ascham Associates, Scientific Alliance, Sense About Science, International Policy Network, DuPont
Living Marxism
UK
Formerly the magazine of the Revolutionary Communist Party. It morphed into a publication called LM, which took a pro-corporate, pro-technology line on such controversial issues as genetic engineering, cloning, geoengineering, nuclear power etc. LM, after being sued out of existence, was in turn superseded by Spiked.
Profiles: Powerbase and LobbyWatch
Articles: Invasion of the Entryists: How did a cultish political network become the public face of the scientific establishment?
Interview with George Monbiot about the LM network
Coincidence or Conspiracy?
See also: Claire Fox, Fiona Fox, Science Media Centre, Spiked, Tracey Brown, Ellen Raphael
LM group
UK
Loosely constituted political grouping sharing an anti-environmentalist, pro-corporate ideology. Its members have infiltrated the UK science establishment at the highest levels.
Profiles: Powerbase
Resources: LM Watch, LM Watching
Articles: Invasion of the Entryists
Inside LM
Interview with George Monbiot about the LM network
Who's pulling Boris Johnson's strings on GMOs?
Coincidence or Conspiracy?
See also: Tracey Brown, Martin Durkin, Claire Fox, Fiona Fox, Science Media Centre, Munira Mirza, Ellen Raphael, Spiked
Peter Lund UK
Member of the UK's Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE). Lund was involved in attempts to develop GM plants containing antifreeze proteins. Has current career interests in biotechnology applications for various industries, including the pharmaceutical industry.
Articles: 100% of members of UK government's GMO advisory body ACRE have potential or actual conflicts of interest
See also: Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE), Jim Dunwell, Ben Raymond, Alan Raybould
Peter Lutman
UK
Head of the weed ecology research group at Rothamsted Research, which carried out the UK government's farmscale trials on GM crops. Lutman also works for the industry lobby group CropGen.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: CropGen, Rothamsted Research
Mark Lynas UK
Environmental writer who starting in 2010 began to turn himself into a professional GMO promoter via articles, books and talks, and eventually his paid work for the (Cornell) Alliance for Science - a PR campaign funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to increase GM crop acceptance, especially in Africa. Cofounder and Senior Strategist of WePlanet (formerly known as RePlanet), the ecomodernist campaign group for GMOs, nuclear power and synthetic food. Featured in the film Food Evolution. Curating with Robert Paarlberg a special collection for the journal GM Crops & Food on the topic GMO Narratives and Misinformation, despite himself facing multiple accusations of spreading misinformation.
Profile: USRTK
Book review: The Dubious Virtue of Apostasy: How a former activist saw the GMO light and is being amply rewarded for it
Background briefing: Leading environmentalists set record straight about Mark Lynas
Articles: The Repentant Environmentalist Part 1, The Repentant Environmentalist Part 2, Lynas backs down and apologises to the Soil Association
Biotech ambassadors in Africa, Mark Lynas slammed for exploiting African farmers' images to promote GMOs
Science, Dogma and Mark Lynas, Why Mark Lynas Changed His Mind
Lynas, Lies, and Marketing
Is the Alliance for Science's lead researcher on misinformation a pathological liar?
Peer-reviewed critique published of Mark Lynas's article in which he accused GMO critics of spreading "misinformation"
Lynas brands himself a climate activist, but works behind the scenes with the agrochemical industry
Koch, Spiked, and Mark Lynas: Uncomfortable bedfellows?
Report: African farmers accuse Mark Lynas of unethical and misleading use of their images
See also: Jay Byrne, Cornell Alliance for Science, RePlanet, Patricia Nanteza, Hidde Boersma, Owen Paterson, Sarah Evanega, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Stewart Brand, Patrick Moore, Breakthrough Institute, Food Evolution, GM Crops & Food, Keith Kloor