Phil Dale
UK
Was emeritus fellow at the John Innes Centre. From 1993 to 1999 was member of the UK Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE) and during 1998 he became a member of the UK Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP) and became its Deputy Chair in 2002. Part of PharmaPlanta and first President of PRRI.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: John Innes Centre, PRRI, ACRE
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
USA
Established with a $70-million pledge from Monsanto, which also donated the Center's 40-acre tract of land, near Monsanto's own site in its home town of St. Louis, valued at $11.4 million. Other funders include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Profiles: Powerbase
Article: GM Cassava "Our Only Hope"
Linked to: Roger Beachy, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Robert Paarlberg, Lawrence Kent
Ed Dart UK
The original Chairman of Plant Bioscience Ltd, which runs the GM IPR spin offs for the John Innes Centre and the Sainsbury Laboratory. Has been at the forefront of efforts to commercialise GM crops in the UK. A former R&D Director of Zeneca Seeds, where he oversaw the introduction of the UK's first GM product, Zeneca's GM tomato paste. He was also part of the biotech company Adprotech, which Peter Lachmann helped to found. He was a Council member of the BBSRC and was part of the Royal Society working group on GM foods.
Profiles: LobbyWatch
Linked to: John Innes Centre, Zeneca, Syngenta, Jim Dunwell, Peter Doyle, Nigel Poole, Peter Lachmann, Brian Heap, Royal Society, BBSRC
Swapan K Datta
India
Focus on genetic engineering of Indica rice. Involved in the Golden Rice project at the International Rice Research Institute before returning to India. Caused controversy when deputy director general of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) by offering multinational corporations free access to India's massive seed gene bank in exchange for a share of the profits. Was accused while a member of India's GM crop regulator (GEAC) of bending the rules in order to get clearance for trials of GM rice to be conducted by his wife. Co-signatory, together with Roger Beachy, David Baulcombe, 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." On the editorial board of GM Crops & Food.
Articles: Editorial in Science promotes Golden Rice myths
India's gene banks offered to MNCs
Scientist bends rules for wife's GM trial
Linked to: Gerard Barry, International Rice Research Institute, GM Crops & Food
Willy De Greef
Belgium
Consultant. Former global head of regulatory affairs for Syngenta. Former Secretary General of EuropaBio: "The voice of the European biotech industry". Former leading member of PRRI.
Articles: How Public are the Public Researchers of PRRI
Fake Blood on the Maize
Links to: PRRI, EuropaBio, Syngenta
Thomas R. DeGregori
USA
Economist specializing in the role of technology in food production. Keen supporter of C. S. Prakash's AgBioWorld campaign. Advisor to, and former board member of, American Council on Science and Health.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: C S Prakash, AgBioView, AgBioWorld, American Council on Science and Health
Thomas Deichmann
Germany
Controversial GM promoter and war crimes denier. Founder and Editor in Chief of the bi-monthly German magazine NovoArgumente. Part of the LM group. Co-authored a book on biotechnology. Has contributed on GM-related issues to the LM group platforms: Novo, Spiked and the Institute of Ideas. It was Deichmann's effective whitewashing of the Trnopolje concentration camp, where Bosnian Muslims were beaten, tortured, raped and killed, that got Spiked's predecessor LM sued out of existence.
Profiles: LobbyWatch and Powerbase
Linked to: LM group, Living Marxism, Spiked
Deniers For Hire USA
Now defunct website that claimed "to expose and neutralize anti-science activist threats to humanity" and which featured profiles of journalists, academics and watchdog groups that have flagged up concerns about polluting products and industries. Its index labelled industry-critical academics, such as Naomi Oreskes and Marion Nestle, as "Cranks and Gangsters", as well as dismissing investigative journalists like Danny Hakim and Eric Lipton of the New York Times as "Bad Journalists". It was a project of the industry front group the American Council on Science and Health and was edited by Cameron English, who went on to work for the Genetic Literacy Project.
Profile: SourceWatch
Article: Corporate Front Group, American Council on Science and Health, Smears List of Its Enemies as "Deniers for Hire"
The Three Stooges of Science Denial
Links to: American Council on Science and Health, Cameron English, Genetic Literacy Project, Jon Entine, Kevin Folta, Alex Berezow, Elizabeth Whelan, Henry I. Miller, Dennis Avery, Gordon Ross
Alan Dewar
UK
Director of Dewar Crop Protection Ltd. Former head of entomology at Broom's Barn, a division of Rothamsted Research. Has done research for clients that include BASF, Bayer, Dupont, Monsanto and Syngenta; facilitated Monsanto press tours of his research pre-publication.
Profiles: Powerbase
Article: Test Experts Paid by GM Firm
Linked to: Rothamsted Research, CropGen
Peter Doyle
UK
Former chair of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and a director of Syngenta, and before that an executive director of Zeneca.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Syngenta, Ed Dart, Jim Dunwell, Nigel Poole
Paul Driessen
USA
Anti-environmental lobbyist with CDFE, advisor to Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Author of Eco-Imperialism.
Article: The Uncle Tom Award
Linked to: Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, Monsanto, Hugh Grant
Des D'Souza
UK
Former head of PR for Aventis CropScience (now owned by Bayer).
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: Aventis, Bayer
Jim Dunwell UK
Chair of the UK's Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE). Has been an ACRE member since 2006, having been an ex-officio member since 2003. Became Deputy Chair in 2016 and Chair in 2020. He was a founder member of CropGen, a lobby group funded by the biotech industry "to make the case for GM crops and foods". Former employee of GM firm Zeneca Seeds, which went on to become part of Syngenta, and of the John Innes Centre. He holds several GMO-related patents, including some held with Zeneca and Syngenta. He receives a pension from Syngenta. He has long lobbied for deregulation.
Articles: 100% of members of UK government's GMO advisory body ACRE have potential or actual conflicts of interest
Scientists' hidden links to the GM food giants
Linked to: Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE), John Innes Centre, Zeneca, Syngenta, CropGen, Alan Raybould, Ben Raymond, Peter Lund, Peter Doyle, Ed Dart, Nigel Poole
DuPont
USA
Was world's second largest seed company and a major biotech firm. Its seed division is now part of Corteva.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: Martin Livermore
Martin Durkin
UK
Maker of highly controversial documentaries, linked to LM group.
Profiles: Powerbase
Linked to: Living Marxism, LM group