Economic Human Rights Project
USA
A project of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise dedicated to promoting the idea that environmentally conscious policies "perpetuate poverty, misery, disease and early death in developing countries".
Profiles: Powerbase
Links to: Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise
Cameron J. English USA
Director of bio-sciences at the industry front group the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). Former managing editor at the Genetic Literacy Project (GLP), which works with Monsanto. Before the GLP, he was the editor of the now defunct Deniers for Hire website, an ACSH project. GLP podcast co-host with Kevin Folta. Author of a report, welcomed by Matt Ridley, for UK neoliberal "free-market" think tank the Adam Smith Institute that calls for the rapid adoption of GMOs in the UK.
Articles: Corporate Front Group, American Council on Science and Health, Smears List of Its Enemies as "Deniers for Hire"
Links to: American Council on Science and Health, Hank Campbell, Genetic Literacy Project, Jon Entine, Kevin Folta, Deniers For Hire, Alex Berezow, Elizabeth Whelan, Henry I. Miller, Dennis Avery, Gilbert Ross
Jon Entine
USA
Runs the Genetic Literacy Project, considered "a key partner in Monsanto's public relations efforts to protect and defend agrichemical products." Authored book defending Syngenta's pesticide atrazine, published by the American Council on Science and Health, an industry front group that received funding from Syngenta. Senior fellow of Pamela Ronald's Institute for Food and Agricultural Literacy (IFAL), which co-hosted the "Biotech Literacy Project boot camp" with Entine's Genetic Literacy Project and the Monsanto-backed group Academics Review. Heavily involved in the attacks on the research of Gilles-Éric Séralini. Visiting Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute. Editor of Let them Eat Precaution: How politics is undermining the genetic revolution in agriculture, published by the American Enterprise Institute, with contributions from Jay Byrne, Patrick Moore, C. S. Prakash, Gregory Conko, Robert Paarlberg, Andrew Natsios, among others.
Profiles: USRTK and SourceWatch and PolluterWatch
Articles: The Making of an Agribiz Apologist
Smelling a Corporate Rat, The Three Stooges of Science Denial
Flacking for GMOs: How the Biotech Industry Cultivates Positive Media - and Discourages Criticism
5 Astroturf Groups You Should Stop Sharing From
Links to: Genetic Literacy Project, Jay Byrne, American Council on Science and Health, American Enterprise Institute, Monsanto, Mary Mangan, Pamela Ronald, Kevin Folta, Keith Kloor
EPSO (European Plant Science Organisation)
European Union
Lobby organisation founded in 2000 "to represent the needs and interests of European plant science". It lobbies at the EU level for the deregulation of gene editing. A 2022 report found that 64% of the members of the EPSO working group on Agricultural Technologies have a vested interest in the commercialisation of GM plants, meaning they stand to benefit from it financially or in terms of career development, either personally or via their organisations. However, EPSO members have failed to declare their interests in the context of discussions about how GMOs should be regulated. EPSO is one of three EU-level science organisations lobbying for deregulation, the others being ALLEA and EU-SAGE.
Reports: Behind the Smokescreen: Vested interests of EU scientists lobbying for GMO deregulation
Articles: Many agbiotech scientists pushing for EU deregulation of GMOs have vested interests
Derailing EU rules on new GMOs
Bill Gates finances lobby for "new GMOs" in Europe
Links to: Sustainable Agriculture through Genome Editing (EU-SAGE), Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA), Huw D Jones
EuropaBio
Belgium
"The voice of the European biotech industry" whose "primary focus is representing biotechnology in the European Union". Head office in Brussels. Members have included major GM firms like Bayer, Syngenta, and Monsanto Europe, plus national and regional biotechnology associations, like the UK's Bioindustry Association. In 2011 leaked emails identified Mark Lynas as among those EuropaBio was seeking to recruit as GM 'ambassadors'.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: Official complaint made re inaccuracies in Transparency Register
CRISPR-Files expose lobbying tactics to deregulate new GMOs
Biotech group bids to recruit high-profile GM 'ambassadors'
Biotech PR initiative reaps a poor harvest
Links to: Bayer, Monsanto, Syngenta, Genius, Mark Lynas, Julian Little
European Federation of Biotechnology
European Union
Has corporate membership of around 100 companies with biotech interests.
Profiles: Powerbase
Links to: Klaus Ammann, Biotechnology Industry Organisation
European Science and Environment Forum
UK
A front group set up with money from Big Tobacco, connects to Roger Bate and Julian Morris.
Profiles: Powerbase
Links to: Roger Bate, Institute of Economic Affairs, Julian Morris
EU-SAGE (European Sustainable Agriculture through Genome Editing) European Union
Lobby organisation founded in 2020 and hosted at the VIB (Flemish Institute for Biotechnology, which has Bayer and BASF in its board), as was EPSO in its early years. According to a 2022 report, all three contact persons listed on the EU-SAGE website are VIB employees – Dirk Inzé, René Custers, and Oana Dima. The sole stated objective of EU-SAGE is a regulatory framework at EU level to facilitate gene editing in plants. The 2022 report found that 32% of EU-SAGE members have a vested interest in the commercialisation of GM plants, meaning they stand to benefit financially or in terms of career development, either personally or via their organisations. Both EU-SAGE and its individual members have acted as strong advocates for the deregulation of GM technologies, without declaring their vested interests in the context of these discussions. EU-SAGE is one of three EU-level science organisations lobbying for deregulation, the others being ALLEA and EPSO.
Report: Behind the Smokescreen: Vested interests of EU scientists lobbying for GMO deregulation
Articles: Many agbiotech scientists pushing for EU deregulation of GMOs have vested interests
Derailing EU rules on new GMOs
Bill Gates finances lobby for "new GMOs" in Europe
Links to: Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO), European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA), Dirk Inzé, René Custers, Oana Dima
Sarah Evanega USA
Sarah Evanega was the founding director (2014-2022) of the (Cornell) Alliance for Science (CAS), 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. Evanega has claimed that CAS is entirely independent of industry but dozens of emails, posted in the UCSF chemical industry documents library, show CAS and Evanega coordinating closely with the biotech industry and its front groups on its PR initiatives - more about this here. In January 2022, Evanega assumed a new position as Lead for Stakeholder Communications at crop gene editing firm, Pairwise, which is in a strategic alliance with Bayer under which, "Pairwise works in corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton and canola crops exclusively with Bayer". The CEO of Pairwise, Tom Adams, was previously a Vice President at Monsanto. Syngenta was also involved in the initial funding of the start up. Evanega was replaced at the Alliance for Science by Sheila Ochugboju.
Articles: Cornell Alliance for Science is a PR Campaign for the Agrichemical Industry
Links to: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, (Cornell) Alliance for Science, Mark Lynas, Mary Mangan, Jay Byrne, Owen Paterson, Alison Van Eenennaam, Pamela Ronald, Tony Shelton