SAGENE - see South African Committee on Genetic Experimentation 
South Africa
Lord David Sainsbury
UK
GM investor and science minister in Tony Blair's government 1998-2006, plus a key donor to Blair's Labour Party. Funder of the Sainsbury Laboratory, Gatsby Foundation, and the 2Blades Foundation, all of which promote GM crops.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Sainsbury Laboratory, Gatsby Foundation, David Baulcombe
Sainsbury Laboratory
UK
Plant genetics research institute on the site of the John Innes Centre (JIC), backed by Lord Sainsbury's Gatsby Foundation. Also collaborates with his 2Blades Foundation.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: David Baulcombe, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Gatsby Foundation, John Innes Centre, Jonathan Jones, Lord David Sainsbury, Mike Wilson, Derek Burke
Science 2.0
USA
Blog owned by Hank Campbell, the former President (2015-2018) of the Monsanto-funded American Council on Science and Health. David Zaruk is the Chairman of Campbell's Science 2.0 Corp nonprofit which, in the view of the journalist and NYU professor Charles Seife, is a link in a "shady network of for-profits and non-profits helping Monsanto." Science 2.0 has stirred controversy by posting racist, anti-semitic, eugenic propaganda.
Article: Hank Campbell's Maze of Monsanto-Loving Science Blogs
Science 2.0 refuses to remove Nazi eugenics blog posts
See also: Hank Campbell, American Council on Science and Health, David Zaruk, Alex Berezow, Henry I. Miller, Cameron English, Deniers For Hire
Science for Sustainable Agriculture UK
Pro-GMO "policy and communications platform" launched in 2022. The timing of its emergence suggests it is intended to take advantage of the opportunities to shape UK food and farming policies post-Brexit. Initial "start-up" funding from the Gatsby Foundation but later funding planned to include a variety of sources, including "commercial businesses". Its Advisory Group contains many long-established UK promoters of GM crops, such as Matt Ridley, Julian Sturdy MP, Graham Brookes, Paul Temple, Julian Little, Johnathan Napier and Lord Rooker. Coordinated by Daniel Pearsall, the director of Front Foot Communications, whose firm also provides the secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture (APPGSTA), the industry-backed parliamentary lobby for the introduction of GM crop cultivation to the UK and against restrictions on pesticides. Pearsall was previously the spokesman for the GM crop industry body SCIMAC.
See also: Daniel Pearsall, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture, SCIMAC, Gatsby Foundation, Matt Ridley, Graham Brookes
Science Media Centre (SMC)
UK
Offers journalists canned quotes from experts about breaking science stories. SMC experts have frequently downplayed the harms of GM crops and foods, pesticides, ultra-processed foods, etc. and their conflicts of interest have not always been disclosed. Part-funded by industry, its funders have included Monsanto, Bayer, BASF, DuPont, CropLife International, Nestlé and ExxonMobile. SMC Director, Fiona Fox, part of Living Marxism network (or LM group), like Tracey Brown, the director of Sense About Science.
Profiles: Powerbase, USRTK
Article: Smelling a Corporate Rat
UK’s Science Media Centre lambasted for pushing corporate science
Coincidence or Conspiracy?
See also: Fiona Fox, Living Marxism, LM group, Royal Institution, Susan Greenfield, Maurice Moloney, Sense About Science, Julian Little
Scientific Alliance
UK
Anti-environmental, pro-GM, pro-corporate lobby group launched by PR firm Foresight Communications and quarrying magnate Robert Durward.
Profiles: Powerbase
Article: Smelling a Corporate Rat
See also: Vivian Moses, Foresight Communications, Robert Durward, Colin Berry, Martin Livermore, Tony Trewavas, Mike Wilson, Philip Stott
Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI)
UK
Agricultural research centre that has formed research partnerships with Bayer, CropScience, Syngenta, and GlaxoSmithKline. Formed part of the consortium that carried out the government's GM farm-scale trials.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Bayer, BioIndustry Association, John Hillman, Syngenta, Mike Wilson
Scottish Enterprise
UK
Enterprise and investment agency sponsored by the Scottish government. Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant was on its advisory board, which has also included representatives of other biotech companies. Launched Your World magazine, a pro-GM publication that was distributed to Scottish schools.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Biotechnology Institute, Hugh Grant, Monsanto, Your World magazine
Sense About Science (SAS)
UK
Pro-GM and pro-industry lobby group part-funded by corporations. Founded by Dick Taverne. Its long-term director Tracey Brown and former assistant director Ellen Raphael are members of the controversial LM group, as have been members of its working parties like Fiona Fox and Tony Gilland. Another long-term member of the LM group, Michael Fitzpatrick, is on SAS's governing board of trustees, despite his being an AIDS denialist who disputes the harms of secondhand smoke. The domain name for the Sense About Science website was registered by Rob Lyons, the web master for Spiked. Tracey Brown and Ellen Raphael were also key players in another of the LM group's front groups, Global Futures. The phone number for Global Futures was originally the same as that for SAS. SAS's trustees and Advisory Council have included Colin Berry - a shareholder in Spiked, Vivian Moses of CropGen, Mike Wilson and Tony Trewavas of the Scientific Alliance, Brian Heap and Peter Lachmann of the Royal Society, Peter Marsh of Social Issues Research Centre, Phil Dale of the John Innes Centre, Roger Turner of SCIMAC, Mark Lynas, Matt Ridley, Chris Leaver, Derek Burke, and Janet Bainbridge. SAS has worked to promote GM crops with people from the John Innes Centre, the industry-funded lobby group CropGen, the BBSRC and the Royal Society.
Profiles: Powerbase
Article: Seeding Doubt: How Self-Appointed Guardians of "Sound Science" Tip the Scales Toward Industry
Two-faced science
Strange bedfellows
Invasion of the entryists
See also: Tracey Brown, Ellen Raphael, Dick Taverne, Spiked, Derek Burke, CropGen, Fiona Fox, Mark Lynas, Frank Furedi, Tony Gilland, Brian Heap, Peter Lachmann, Living Marxism, LM group, Vivian Moses, Martin Livermore, Colin Berry, Tony Trewavas, Michael Fitzpatrick, Matt Ridley, Vivian Moses, Colin Berry, Royal Society
Sense About Science USA USA
Sense About Science opened a US office (SAS USA) in 2014 under the direction of Trevor Butterworth, who has a long history of spinning science for corporate interests and was previously an editor of STATS, a branch of the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA), which has the tobacco industry among its funders. SAS USA connects through STATS and CMPA to Jon Entine and the Genetic Literacy Project. Tracey Brown, the founding director of Sense About Science (UK) is on SAS USA's board, as was her former assistant director, Ellen Raphael, both of whom are also part of the LM group.
Profiles: SourceWatch and USRTK
Article: Seeding Doubt: How Self-Appointed Guardians of "Sound Science" Tip the Scales Toward Industry
The Three Stooges of Science Denial: The Genetic Literacy Project, Sense About Science, and STATS
See also: Sense About Science, Tracey Brown, Ellen Raphael, Jon Entine, Genetic Literacy Project,
Shantu Shantharam
India
Former Syngenta man and key player in industry-linked Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education (FBAE).
Article: An unreliable witness
See also: C Kameswara Rao, Ron Herring
Robert (Bob) Shapiro
USA
Became Monsanto’s President in 1993 and CEO in 1995. Shapiro launched the company's Roundup Ready crops. Subsequently served on the board of Elizabeth Holmes' company Theranos.
Articles: “Definitive historical account” of Monsanto provides motherlode of valuable material
Linked to: Robb Fraley, Hugh Grant
Shetkari Sanghatna
India
A farmer union founded by Sharad Joshi that has worked with the biotech industry to promote GM crops.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: India's intelligence agencies investigate corporate backers of group distributing illegal seeds
GM in India: Faking it on the astroturf
See also: Sharad Joshi, Kisan Coordination Committee, Farmers for Freedom (India), Federation of Farmers Associations, Chengal Reddy
Michael Shellenberger USA
Former PR professional, co-founder of the Breakthrough Institute with Ted Nordhaus, and candidate for Governor of California in 2018 and 2022. Techno-fix lobbyist who promotes fracking, nuclear power and GMOs to power and feed the world, CAFOs and geoengineering to fix the climate, and urbanization to save the land. One of the authors of An Ecomodernist Manifesto. Shellenberger left the Breakthrough Institute in 2015
Article: The New Denial is Delay at the Breakthrough Institute
See also: Breakthrough Institute, Ted Nordhaus, Mark Lynas, Owen Paterson, Matt Ridley, Julie Kelly, Tamar Haspel
Norrey Simmons
New Zealand
Co-founder of the PR firm Communications Trumps (now part of Four Winds Communications), which helped GM firm Novartis and the New Zealand government cover up GM contamination of corn (maize).
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Communications Trumps, Four Winds Communications, GenePool, Life Sciences Network
Richard Sithole
South Africa
Farmer who was flown around the world by Monsanto's PR firm to lobby for GM crops for Africa.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: AfricaBio, T.J. Buthelezi, Monsanto
Al Skogen
USA
Chair of front group Growers for Biotechnology.
Article: Grooming wheat growers for Monsanto
Andura Smetacek
UK
Fake citizen used to post attacks on GM critics to C.S. Prakash's AgBioView listserv. Attacks subsequently traced to Monsanto's PR firm Bivings and to Monsanto itself.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: The Fake Persuaders, Corporate Phantoms, The Covert Biotech War, Immoral Maize
See also: AgBioView, AgBioWorld, Bivings Group, Mary Murphy, Channapatna S. Prakash
Joe Smith
Australia
Former national Gene Technology Regulator, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority, and current President of the International Society for Biosafety Research, has been appointed chair of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council of Australia (ABCA), which CropLife, the National Farmers Federation (NFF) and AusBiotech founded a decade ago to promote the agricultural biotech and chemical industries.
Article: Australia's revolving door: Former GMO regulator gets job with GMO industry lobby group
Stuart Smyth
Canada
The Industry Funded Research Chair in Agri-Food Innovation ("investing partners" include Bayer, CropLife and Syngenta) at the University of Saskatchewan. In blogs, media appearances and social media posts promotes and defends, sometimes aggressively, GM crops and pesticides, and attacks organic food and farming, even claiming, "Organic food can't be trusted anywhere, it is the food most likely to kill those who eat it." Member of PRRI. On the editorial board of GM Crops & Food.
Profiles: USRTK
See also: Syngenta, Henry I. Miller, Cami Ryan, GM Crops & Food.
Social Issues Research Centre (SIRC)
UK
Food, drinks, and telecom industry-funded group that worked with the Royal Institution to train journalists how to report controversial scientific issues. Involved in setting up the Science Media Centre. Peter Marsh of SIRC was a trustee of Sense About Science. Sponsored a Spiked conference.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: An end to health scares?
Coincidence or Conspiracy?
See also: Susan Greenfield, Royal Institution, Science Media Centre, Sense About Science
South African Committee on Genetic Experimentation (SAGENE) South Africa
South Africa's first regulatory body relevant to GMOs, established under the apartheid regime. The industry-backed AfricaBio lobby played a key role in its establishment. SAGENE facilitated the commercialisation of the first GM crops on the continent of Africa. SAGENE members have included leading members of AfricaBio, such as Muffy Koch and SAGENE's former chair, Jennifer Thomson.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: AfricaBio, Muffy Koch, Jennifer Thomson
Southern Africa Regional Biosafety
South Africa
A USAID-funded programme that promotes in-country biosafety capacity building, i.e. smoothes the entry of GM crops.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: AfricaBio, Muffy Koch, USAID
Spiked UK
Internet magazine founded 2001. Emerged from the publication Living Marxism, which rebranded as LM in 1999 before closing in 2000 after losing a case for libel brought by ITN. Promotes climate scepticism and like other LM group platforms and publications, it promotes a pro-corporate, pro-technology line on such controversial issues as genetic engineering, cloning, geoengineering, nuclear power, etc. Spiked has featured a number of pro-GM articles by, for instance, Vivian Moses of CropGen and Thomas Deichmann, the person at the centre of the ITN/LM libel case. It has also published articles attacking organic food by Dennis Avery and Alex Avery of the Hudson Institute. Other contributors have included Fiona Fox, Tracey Brown, CS Prakash, Greg Conko, Bill Durodie, Michael Fitzpatrick, Tony Gilland, John Gillott, Ellen Raphael, Munira Mirza and Juliet Tizzard. Colin Berry is a shareholder. Spiked ran a series of seminars at the London HQ of the PR firm Hill & Knowlton, and a London conference Panic attack: Interrogating our obsession with risk, at the Royal Institution, sponsored among others by Tech Central Station, Social Issues Research Centre, International Policy Network and Hill & Knowlton.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: Koch, Spiked, and Mark Lynas: Uncomfortable bedfellows?
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
Who's pulling Boris Johnson's strings on GMOs?
See also: Fiona Fox, Institute of Ideas, Science Media Centre, Living Marxism, LM group, Colin Berry, Royal Institution, Hill & Knowlton
Philip Stott
UK
Retired industry-friendly academic who ran the website Pro-BIOTECH and an anti-environmentalist blog. Promotes GM crops and climate change skepticism. Former advisor to the Scientific Alliance.
Profiles: Powerbase and DeSmog and SourceWatch
Articles: Pants on Fire award
See also: Scientific Alliance, Roger Bate, European Science and Environment Forum, Institute of Economic Affairs, Julian Morris, Spiked
StopLabelingLies
USA
Website, run by lobbyist Steve 'The Junkman Milloy', that criticises anyone who draws attention to the risks of industrial products and activities as trading in 'food scares'. StopLabelingLies replaced a similar website called NoMoreScares.com.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Cato Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Steven Milloy, The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition
Sustainable Development Network
UK
Pro-corporate lobby group that appears to have been generated by Julian Morris and/or Roger Bate. Organised a pro-GM march at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Roger Bate, European Science and Environment Forum, Institute of Economic Affairs, International Policy Network, Julian Morris, Kendra Okonski
M.S. Swaminathan
India
Considered the godfather of the Green Revolution in India, Swaminathan heads his own M.S.Research Foundation, which does research into organic as well as GM agriculture. Swaminathan provided an acceptable face for GM crops in the Third World. However, he grew disillusioned with them and in 2018 he co-authored an editorial in Current Science questioning their sustainability, safety, and regulation. Swaminathan argued that GM cotton has failed to help Indian farmers increase yields and incomes, and reduce pesticide use. He also questioned the safety of GM brinjal (eggplant) and GM mustard, the proposed introduction of which in India has been the source of huge controversy.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: "Father of Green Revolution in India" slams GM crops as unsustainable and unsafe
See also: Norman Borlaug
Syngenta
Switzerland
The largest agribusiness company in the world and a powerful player in the introduction of GM crops. It was formed after the merger of Astra AB and Zeneca created AstraZeneca, which with Novartis then spun off its seeds and crop protection businesses into the Syngenta joint venture. It's now part of ChemChina. 40% of Syngenta's pesticide sales, and half its best selling products, come from "highly hazardous" pesticides, putting them at the core of its business model
Profiles: EU lobby profile, LobbyFacts, Sourcewatch, Powerbase, Corporate Watch
Report: Highly hazardous profits: How Syngenta makes billions by selling toxic pesticides
Articles: Syngenta and the war and hunger profiteers
Syngenta facing dozens of lawsuits over GMO seed
Secret files suggest chemical giant feared weedkiller's link to Parkinson’s disease
See also: Zeneca, Agricultural Biotechnology Council, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, Jim Dunwell, Ed Dart, Nigel Poole, Peter Doyle, John Innes Centre, Alan Raybould, ILSI, David Baulcombe
Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture
Switzerland
Its declared goal is contributing to sustainable food security for small-scale farmers, but directors of GM giant Syngenta dominate its board of directors.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Andrew Bennet, Syngenta