Piet van der Meer
Netherlands
Consultant (Horizons). Prime mover in PRRI. Heavily, and highly controversially, involved in the development of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and as programme manager of the UNEP-GEF projects on Implementation of National Biosafety Frameworks. Married to a lobbyist for the Global Industry Coalition (a lobby group of biotech and seed corporations with a special focus on the Biosafety Protocol).
Profile: Powerbase
Articles: How Public are the Public Researchers of PRRI
Links to: PRRI
Alison Van Eenennaam
USA
Leading promoter of genetically engineered animals and crops, and the pesticides used with those crops. Strong advocate for deregulation. Former Monsanto employee, now at UC Davis but coordinates closely with agrichemical companies and their PR firms on messaging, lobbying and PR activities. Prominent in the film Food Evolution and in its promotion.
Profiles: USRTK, SourceWatch
Articles: Gene-edited cattle have a major screwup in their DNA
Gene-edited hornless cattle: Flaws in the genome overlooked
Claims of GM feed safety misleading – agricultural consultant
So-called "trillion meal study" of GMO safety is junk
Linked to: Jay Byrne, Monsanto, Cornell Alliance for Science, Food Evolution, Ketchum, Competitive Enterprise Institute
v-Fluence Interactive
USA
Internet PR company located, like Monsanto, in St Louis, whose controversial CEO and founder, Jay Byrne, was previously Monsanto's head of corporate communications. v-Fluence's original vice-president, Richard Levine, formerly worked for Monsanto's Internet PR firm Bivings. Monsanto has been among the clients of v-Fluence, as have CropLife (members include Monsanto), American Chemistry Council (members includes Monsanto), Syngenta, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), American Farm Bureau, Grocery Manufacturers Association and National Corn Growers Association (NCGA). 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. 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
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
European Parliament urged to call for immediate investigation into Poison PR
Videos: 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
Linked to: Jay Byrne, Bivings Group, Bonus Eventus, Monsanto, Bayer, USAID, Program for Biosafety Systems, White House Writers Group
Vrijheid om te Boeren Netherlands
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
Links to: Red Flag Consulting, FleishmanHillard, Lincoln Strategy Group, Agriculture et Liberté, Free to Farm, Liberta di coltivare, Raum für Landwirtschaft, Libertad para consultar, Rolnictwo Dobrej Praktyki