Hank Campbell
USA
Former President (2015-2018) of the Monsanto-funded American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). Campbell took over the leadership of ACSH from acting president Gilbert Ross, a convicted felon who was jailed for multiple accounts of fraud. Owner of the Science 2.0 blog where he has stirred controversy by posting racist, anti-semitic, eugenic propaganda. Campbell's Science 2.0 Corp nonprofit, chaired by David Zaruk, is a link in a "shady network of for-profits and non-profits helping Monsanto", according to the journalist and NYU professor Charles Seife. Campbell co-authored a book with Alex Berezow on the "anti-scientific left".
Article: Hank Campbell’s Maze of Monsanto-Loving Science Blogs
Science 2.0 refuses to remove Nazi eugenics blog posts
Linked to: American Council on Science and Health, David Zaruk, Alex Berezow, Science 2.0, Henry I. Miller, Cameron English, Deniers For Hire
Mark Cantley
UK
Former adviser to European Commission, then part of the biotech-industry funded lobby for GM crops CropGen.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: Scientific Alliance
Janet Carpenter
USA
Researcher on GM crop benefits for CropLife International. Previously with industry lobby National Center for Food and Agriculture Policy.
See also: Leonard Gianessi
Sir David Carter
UK
Sense About Science's man at the British Medical Association (BMA).
Artcles: How the BMA report was fixed
Linked to: Sense About Science
Cato Institute
USA
Libertarian think tank, home to Steve Milloy and Ronald Bailey.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: Ronald A. Bailey, Steven J. Milloy
Center for Consumer Freedom USA
Monsanto-backed lobby run by Rick Berman's PR firm.
Profiles: SourceWatch
Articles: 5 Astroturf Groups You Should Stop Sharing From
Linked to: Rick Berman, Berman & Co
Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise
USA
Industry-funded lobby group at the centre of anti-environmental movement.
Profiles: Powerbase
Article: The Uncle Tom Award
Linked to: Ron Arnold, Wise Use Movement, Paul Driessen
Center for Food and Agricultural Research
USA
Front website for Monsanto attacks on its critics.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: Corporate Phantoms
Immoral Maize
Linked to: Bivings Group, Jay Byrne
Centre for Research on Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development
India
Research body headed by the geneticist and "father" of India's "Green Revolution", M. S. Swaminathan.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: M. S. Swaminathan
Judy Chambers
USA
Former Director of International Government Affairs at Monsanto and Senior Biotechnology Advisor to USAID, who went on to work for IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute) from where directs USAID's Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS), which between 2013 and 2019 paid over $400,000 to the PR firm v-Fluence for services that included "enhanced monitoring" of critics of GMOs and pesticides. Jay Byrne's controversial Bonus Eventus project was established as part of this, as a means of sharing derogatory profiles of over 3,000 organisations and individuals. Chambers' posts as an advisor to USAID and a director at Monsanto overlapped with Jay Byrne's time working for USAID and Monsanto.
US government paid PR firm to track and vilify critics of GMOs and pesticides
Briefing on USAID: Making the World Hungry for GM crops
Linked to: US Agency for International Development (USAID), Agricultural Biotechnology Support Program (ABSP), Monsanto, CABIO, Joel Cohen, Jay Byrne, v-Fluence, Bonus Eventus USA
Co-founder and director with David Tribe of the industry front group Academics Review, which was set up with the help of L Val Giddings, Monsanto executives and the company's former director of communications Jay Byrne. Derogatory profiles of pesticide industry targets from Academics Review were later incorporated into Jay Byrne's Bonus Eventus project. On the board of advisors of the American Council on Science and Health, another industry front group.
Profiles: SourceWatch and Powerbase
Article: Academics Review: The Making of a Monsanto Front Group
Why Didn’t An Illinois Professor Have To Disclose GMO Funding?
Following an Email Trail: How a Public University Professor Collaborated on a Corporate PR Campaign
These Emails Show Monsanto Leaning on Professors to Fight the GMO PR War
Food Industry Enlisted Academics in G.M.O. Lobbying War, Emails Show
Smelling a Corporate Rat
Linked to: David Tribe, L. Val Giddings, Jay Byrne, Henry I. Miller, C.S. Prakash, AgBioWorld, Academics Review, Keith Kloor, Bonus Eventus
Paul Christou USA
Generated the first commercial GM crop sold by Monsanto and holds inventor status on GMO technology patents, for most of which Monsanto owns the property rights. Former head of the John Innes Centre's Molecular Biotechnology Unit. Recipient of two Gates Foundation grants. Heavily involved in attacks on the research of Ignacio Chapela and Gilles-Éric Séralini.
Article: Tumorous rats, GM contamination, and hidden conflicts of interest
Linked to: Monsanto, John Innes Centre, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Joel Cohen
USA
Former director of USAID's Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS). Prior to PBS, he worked for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), as Senior Biotechnology Specialist, where he collaborated with Monsanto and Florence Wambugu on the GM sweet potato project. Before joining USAID, he worked for Dekalb Plant Genetics. Now with IFPRI.
Profiles: Cohen's own biography
Briefing on USAID: Making the World Hungry for GM crops
Linked to: US Agency for International Development (USAID), Agricultural Biotechnology Support Program (ABSP), Judy Chambers
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
Australia
Australia's heavily industry-aligned public scientific research body.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: Maurice Moloney
Communications Trumps
New Zealand
PR firm that's worked for biotech companies.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: Life Sciences Network, Norrey Simmons
Competitive Enterprise Institute
USA
Libertarian think tank. Funders have included Monsanto, Pfizer and Dow Chemicals. Gregory Conko is a CEI Senior Fellow and was its Director of Food Safety Policy. Via Conko, CEI played a leading role in CS Prakash's AgBioWorld campaign. CEI says it also played "a key role in the creation" of Prakash's petition for "agbiotech" as part of its wider campaign against "death by regulation" - a campaign that also takes in attacking restrictions on smoking. Philip Morris is another of CEI's sponsors. CEI's 'Adjunct Scholars' include Henry Miller. Fran Smith of Consumer Alert. Fran Smith is also on CEI's Board of Directors. She is also the wife of CEI's President and Founder. Another CEI 'Adjunct' is Roger Bate of the International Policy Network - a group whose Washington address is the same as that of the CEI. Kendra Okonski of IPN also used to work for CEI.
Profiles: Powerbase and SourceWatch
Linked to: Gregory Conko, Ronald Bailey, CS Prakash, AgBioWorld, Roger Bate, Alison Van Eenennaam, Monsanto
Congress of Racial Equality
USA
Monsanto backed former civil rights group that now lobbies for industry.
Profiles: Powerbase
Article: The Uncle Tom Award
Linked to: Niger Innis, Paul Driessen, Monsanto, Hugh Grant
Gregory Conko
USA
Senior Fellow of the Monsanto-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and was its Director of Food Safety Policy. Co-founder of CS Prakash's AgBioWorld. CEI describe Conko as "the Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors of the AgBioWorld Foundation, [which] he co-founded with Tuskegee University plant genetics professor CS Prakash". Co-authored the book The Frankenfood Myth with Henry I Miller. Toured Australia to promote GM crops on behalf of the US State Dept. Advisor to the American Council on Science and Health.
Profiles: Powerbase and SourceWatch
Articles: AgBioView co-founder takes money from Monsanto
Linked to: AgBioWorld, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Henry I Miller, CS Prakash, American Council on Science and Health
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
USA
Global network of agricultural research centres promoting a corporate pro-GM agenda. Syngenta Foundation on board of directors. Funders include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, International Rice Research Institute, Syngenta Foundation
Consumer Alert USA
Was a front group lobbying against industry regulation, run by Fran Smith, wife of founder and former chairman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute where she now works. Michael Fumento was a Fellow and wrote many of its policy documents.
Profiles: Powerbase and SourceWatch
Linked to: Henry I. Miller, Elizabeth Whelan, Michael Fumento
Consumer Choice Center USA
The US-based Consumer Choice Center is a keen defender of GMO foods and glyphosate. The Koch-affiliated CCC claims to represent consumers while lobbying against green regulations, as well as the regulation of tobacco products. CCC also lobbies in Europe.
Profiles: Desmog, TobaccoTactics
Articles: US Oil-Linked Pressure Group Attacks EU Green Policies, Breaks Lobbying Rules
New Lobby Group Tied to Brexit Climate Science Deniers and Koch Industries Pushes for Deregulation in Europe
Big Tobacco and right-wing US billionaires funding anti-regulation hardliners in the EU
Copa-Cogeca
European Union
Agribusiness lobby - hybrid of EU farmers’ unions and companies - actively pushing for deregulation of old and new GMOs and against restrictions on agrochemical use. Claims to represent all farmers, but in reality they do not defend the rights of small and medium farmers, pushing the interests of just the biggest farms. In Romania, for example, Copa-Cogeca represents just 0.1% of the total number of farms.
Articles: Europe's Potemkin Lobby
CAP vs Farm to Fork
Industrial farm lobbies’ coordinated attack on Farm to Fork targets
Linked to: Biogemma, Limagrain, Pierre Pagesse, Croplife Europe
(Cornell) Alliance for Science USA
The Cornell Alliance for Science is a PR campaign, and journalist training programme, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that works to increase acceptance of GM foods around the world. Its primary focus is to train fellows in many countries, especially in Africa, to promote and defend GM crops and agrichemicals in their home countries. Its founding director, Sarah Evanega, has claimed the Alliance is entirely independent of industry but dozens of emails, posted in the UCSF chemical industry documents library, show the Alliance and Evanega coordinating closely with the agrichemical industry and its front groups on PR initiatives - more about this here.
Profiles: USRTK
Articles: Why is Cornell University hosting a GMO propaganda campaign?
Gates Foundation doubles down on misinformation campaign at Cornell as African leaders call for agroecology
How the Cornell Alliance for Science Spreads Disinformation on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Report: Messengers of Gates’ Agenda: A Case Study of the Cornell Alliance for Science Global Leadership Fellows Program
Linked to: Mark Lynas, Mary Mangan, Jay Byrne, Owen Paterson, Sarah Evanega, Patricia Nanteza, Alison Van Eenennaam, Pamela Ronald, Tony Shelton, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Council for Biotechnology Information
USA
Industry PR body that ran from 2000-2020. Members included biotech companies and their trade bodies. Conduit for industry funding for groups like Academics Review and Global Farmer Network, and project's like Ketchum's GMO Answers. Distinguished Advisor: Jennifer Thomson.
Articles: Key pesticide industry PR group CBI closes; GMO Answers moves to CropLife
See also: Bayer, Biotechnology Industry Organization, Monsanto, CropLife America, CropLife International, GMO Answers, Academics Review, Global Farmer Network, Jennifer Thomson.
Michael Craven
UK
New Labour insider and founding partner of GM industry's PR firm of choice, Lexington Communications.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: Lexington Communications, Agricultural Biotechnology Council, CropGen
CropGen
UK
Biotech industry-funded lobby group aiming to "make a case for GM crops" worldwide. Was chaired by Vivian Moses (died 2017) and run by PR firm Lexington Communications.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: Jonathon Harrington, Lexington Communications, Peter Lutman, Vivian Moses, Bill Macfarlane Smith, Jim Dunwell, Nigel Halford, Guy Poppy
CropLife America USA
National lobby for farm chemical and biotech companies.
Profiles: SourceWatch
Articles: IARC Scientists Defend Glyphosate Cancer Link; Surprised by Industry Assault
Serious scrutiny needed as EPA seeks input on cancer ties to Monsanto herbicide
Linked to: CropLife International, CropLife Europe
CropLife Europe European Union
EU lobby for farm chemical and biotech companies, formerly known as the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA).
Articles: Pesticides lobby tries to dodge civil society criticism
CAP vs Farm to Fork
Industrial farm lobbies’ coordinated attack on Farm to Fork targets
Derailing EU rules on new GMOs
Linked to: CropLife International, CropLife America, BASF, Bayer, Dow, DuPont, Monsanto, Syngenta
CropLife International
Belgium
A global federation "representing the plant science industry" and led by the big biotech companies.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: CropLife America, CropLife Europe, BASF, Bayer, Dow, DuPont, Monsanto, Syngenta